Friday, October 15, 2010

Two weeks down, six to go



The pups are two weeks old. One of them is huge. One of them is small. And the rest are in between. Several are climbing right out of the whelping box. Some are barking, and one is even snapping and growling at me when I try to stop him sucking on his brothers or to put him back in the box after he has crawled out. He is going to be a handful, that one.

Lucy is no longer the good mother - she does NOT want to be with the pups any more, even when they are crying for her. When I force her to stay in the xpen with the babies, she stands up in the whelping box as the babies attach themselves to her - and then tries to follow me out, dragging the babies across the wooden edge of the box - Yikes!



Lucy standing up as pups clamour to be fed

Checking back on her later, I have often found her curled up by the x-pen door, on the newspaper, rather than lying in the box with the babes. The pups seem to get enough milk in the morning, but by late afternoon they are almost panicky with hunger - crying and wandering about and sucking on one another endlessly. So I use a combination of trying to coax Lucy in to feed them, bottle feeding them, and this evening offered little dishes of the puppy formula to the three most troublesome (ie who wouldn't leave their brothers alone). They immediately lapped it up like they'd been doing it all their short lives. In another week or so, I will be able to add puppy mash (pablum type solids)into the mix, I think.

Attempts to switch Lucy back to kibble have failed - six hours after getting 1/8 cup presoaked kibble mixed in with her oatmeal, she was back to having the liquid poops. So we continue to homecook for her. I will try again, one kibble at a time.

Lucy has decided she wants to reclaim her youth. In the backyard today, she tried to get Sadie to play - body slamming poor Sadie right off her feet. Fortunately, Sadie is patient and engaged in a game of kissy face, chase, and fight-ya-fer-the-frisbee. Charley doesn't know what to make of the new Leapin' Lucy, and thinks I should return her to the shelter.

I took some awesome puppy videos for the blog today - and discovered there is no way to transfer them from my camera to my computer. When I bought the camera, no one told me you have to have the latest in technology to view the videos on anything other than the camera. With my old camera, the videos just downloaded with the still images. So even though I bought the camera just three months after the computer, my computer is obsolete for all intents and purposes. If you want to see the videos, you will have to come visit me. Be prepared to feed puppies and clean up puppy poops, to do puppy laundry and to cook puppy food.

Meanwhile, here are a few still images I captured of the puppies today:

Puppy nose

Puppy eyes

Tellin' mom a secret

Looking for food

Cutey puppy 1

Cutey puppy 2

Cutey puppy 3

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the pictures with their eyes open.
Won't your camera upload to Utube.?
Sounds like life is gettin busier and babies are getting bosy.
I'd be happy to come over this week and give you a hand. I'll send an email and we can set something up.
Gail

Black Jack's Carol said...

Oh Jean, you really have your work cut out for you for the next six weeks! It's not funny when Momma dog decides she has had enough. The puppies are adorable and I loved your pictures. Thanks so much for the updater. (Writing from work - Saturday music club at school. I am fine and will get back to blogging soon. I miss it, and appreciated your comment.)

Lori B said...

Jean
Do you have a card reader or a USB cord for your video downloads? It should work through the USB cord that comes with your camera. Good luck!

Jean said...

It's not the camera or the transfer device that is the problem - it is the computer. I cannot get the video from the camera to the computer, no matter whether I use the cord, the plug in, the usb port or whatever. It just stays on the camera. Doesn't matter what program I use either - windows or the sony one. I don't even get an error message - it's like the video doesn't exist.

According to what I'm reading on the internet, I have to have one of those new-fangled H-something TVs to download (upload?) it to, then record it on DVD, then transfer it to an Mpeg (??) file. It's something to do with high definition recording (even though I switched it to whatever that VGA (???) setting is which is supposed to work in cases like mine.
I hate, hate, hate technology. This never happened with my last camera - why do camera manufacturers assume everyone can afford to buy every stoopid little device, new tv, new computer, new software, etc. etc. every few months? GRRRRRRRR.
I think I'll go cuddle some puppies now.............

Janice Gillett said...

Well Lucy not doing her job sure puts another angel on life eh Jean. Its not like she doesn't have breaks!! Do you take her for walks away from her responsibility for a while to see if she will get back to business with her pups?

Jean said...

Hi Janice - Lucy gets lots of time out where she hangs out with me in the yard or living room, while the pups are left in their box in the mudroom. I'm not taking her for walks right now as I don't want to risk her picking up something (ie doggy viruses or whatever) and bringing it back to the pups while they are this young and not immunized. But she gets lots of time out, yes.
I gotta admit, even I get the willies when there are ten noisy wiggling, sucking puppies waddling all over the box trying to eat anything and everything and have to take time out.
...... ten baby piggies in the barn were so much easier and less stressful! (and, of course, Soda was SUCH a good mama!).