July 17 - Rogues Gallery

Wednesday, July 17 - the Puppies will be 7 weeks old tomorrow

I'm posting a picture of each puppy with the name we've given it and its' weight today. All the names are coffee or hot beverage themed in keeping with our family tradition of dog names (Mom is Cocoa and Dad is Chai). I apologize for the quality of a couple of these pics. These current weights are not as exact because my food scale only weighs up to 3.5 kgs so most of them were weighed on the electronic bathroom scale which weighs in 1/10 of a pound increments. (I've included weight in pounds too for old people like me who still don't have a great sense of how much a kg actually weights):

THE ROGUES GALLERY

Hightest - Male
4.81 Kgs (10.6 pounds)

                                                                                                                                   

Guillermo - Male
3.63 Kgs (8 pounds)
* a Guillermo is a Spanish drink consisting of two shots of espresso with a twist of lime

                                                                                                                              

Latte - Female
4.81 Kgs (10.6 pounds)

                                                                                                                                                 

Frappe - Female

3.27 Kgs (7.2 pounds)

                                                                                                                                                   

Cafe au Lait - Female

3.18 Kgs (7.0 pounds)

                                                                                                                                                        

Pingo* - Male

2.9 Kgs (6.4 pounds)

* A pingo is a strong Italian Latte made with 1 shot of espresso and 2 shots of steamed milk

                                                                                                                                                          

Kona - Female

2.63 Kgs (5.8 pounds)

                                                                                                                                                           

Coffee - Female

2.38 Kgs (5.25 pounds)

                                                                                                                                                          

Demitasse* - Female

1.73 Kgs (3.75 pounds)

* I am not for sale because I am very small so I'm going to stay with Mom and Dad.

Thursday July 11 - 6 weeks old

Thursday July 11 - 6 weeks old

They're six weeks old today -- seems hard to believe.

Here are some current pictures.

Don't you just love a queen size bed.

I don't know what this is, but it's sure fun to chew on.

What an eclectic collection of ornaments.

Quick, while Mom and Dad aren't looking

let's help ourselves to the good stuff!

 

 

Bigger every day

Saturday July 6 -- Bigger every day

Some new pics to share. As you can see they continue to grow; their little individual personalities are becoming more and more obvious too.

The pack feeds!



I love the hammock under this table; very comfortable.

Say UNCLE!

 

BFF. This puppy loves a warm lap.

 

Several of the puppies like to hide under this chair; I nearly had a panic attack the first time I counted and was short a couple of puppies -- it took me a while to find them.

 

 



Canada Day -- Still growing strong

CANADA DAY -- Still growing strong

It's Canada day -- the puppies were one month old yesterday. They continue to grow and become more active, curious and outgoing. We're feeding them twice a day now; a mixture of puppy formula, goat milk and crushed dry puppy food. They love it and it seems to be having the desired effect; Cocoa is nursing less (her nipples are pretty red and sore with little cuts from their claws so I'm glad they are leaving her alone a bit more).

Some pics are below.

The gang is all here.

Two of nine.

The remaining seven.

I'm ready for that tummy rub you promised me.

I love the little soul patch and patch of weight on her chest.

Where did everybody go?

I smell food -- do you smell food?

This dog food tastes funny!

And the latest table of weights. I've included a hot beverage name for each of them. If you don't know what a pingo or a guillermo are just ask.

	A working name		30-May	1-Jul	increase from birth
1	Demitasse	F: very dark	225	1180	424%
3	Decaf	F: lighter brown	255	1400	449%
2	Kona	F: lighter brown	260	1560	500%
4	Café au Lait	F: medium brown	268	1910	613%
8	Pingo	M: Medium brown	271	1660	513%
9	Frappe	F: Dark brown with white spot on chin	271	1920	608%
6			272
7	Latte	F: lighter brown	285	2075	628%
10	Guillermo	M: Dark brown	290	1914	560%
5	Hightest	M: Dark brown	300	2220	640%

June 26, Wednesday -- Fertilizer and Flexibility

As you can see from these pics the fertilizer we used on our lawn this year was wicked good stuff. There's funny brown mushrooms everywhere! They're soaking up the rays like crazy and growing like weeds! Today was their first journey into the great beyond and I think they enjoyed it; they are certainly sleeping soundly now back in their puppy enclosure.

Cocoa inspecting the brood

  

Soaking up some rays

A good cuddle in the grass works wonders

Chai was a little surprised by the size of the brood once it was all spread out.

Napping or exploring; it's all good!

Cocoa is proving why she's such a good Mom too! She's very flexible; you can see here that she's discovered that nursing standing up offers optimum access to everything important.

I've got my eye on you Mom; don't you dare move.

June 24, Monday -- The next step

Over the weekend we tried introducing some solid food to all the puppies by mixing crushed dry puppy food with goat milk; to say the results were a hit would be a dramatic understatement. We fed it to them again today and will, for the next few days, give them solids like this once a day while we figure out how we're going to make water available in a way that won't be constantly spilled. If you've any ideas please post a comment! Because they all continue to nurse several times a day we have a few days to get it figured out.

As you can see from this video they are certainly more mobile than they have been; bigger too! I thought it was funny that as soon as I went to start taping the puppies Mom and Dad had to get into the scene.

June 21, Friday -- Emergency and Emergence

I couldn't go to work today because downtown is shutoff from the flood that began last night; they are saying this may be the worst flood in Calgary's history. Gordon couldn't get to the crossroads market either; it had to be closed because of the flooding in Inglewood and on many of the roads that people access it via.

While I was at home I was delighted to discover that the puppies are opening their eyes; some more than others but we were beginning to panic. Apparently there was no need.

As you can see in this picture the puppies are beginning to look around (see the one in the back) and also clean one another a big (front puppy licking middle puppy). They are also becoming a bit more independent and forming smaller groups with one another at times instead of all being together. However, as you can see here, they still like to be together when they sleep.

this picture is a little dark because it's evening and we are trying to avoid using the flash when we're dealing with 9 sets of newly opened, sensitive, eyes :-)

June 18, Tuesday -- Room to grow and to piddle

The puppies have been trying to stand and walk around a lot the last couple of days; not seeing doesn't seem to be hindering them. They are also starting to break away from the others and wander for a minute or two on their on. The book on dog breeding I read says this is a very good sign; we should be able to try a little solid food with them in a day or two because they are beginning to express some individuality and independence. I noticed yesterday, when I was transferring them to the smaller box to replace their bedding, that one of the smaller pups had two little open eye slits which is very encouraging because they are certainly taking longer than average to open their eyes.

In light of all the moving around they are starting Gordon decided to move the puppies back downstairs into a 4' x 4' puppy play pen we had bought; originally thinking we'd use it outside when the puppies were big enough. Turns out it fits into the space between the corner and the kitchen table perfectly. It has a gate that we haven't even bothered to put on yet because there is a 4" rail underneath that space which is big enough to keep the puppies inside the pen. The back half Gordon set up with a washable rug, covered with a towel; the front half he put down newspaper. The puppies are instinctively starting to go to the bathroom on their own now; they move away from the area they are sleeping in to do this. I think the play pen is going to work out perfectly for them in the kitchen for the next little while.

You can see in this picture that one of the puppies has moved away to take a potty break; you can also see we're going to be going through a lot of news paper.

This will give you an idea how much they are growing; the nearer puppies are all either standing or sitting in this picture instead of lying down. The darker one at the back is the little female runt; she's very sweet and despite being surrounded by bigger dogs she continues to grow.

I'll be interested to see how Cocoa takes to having the puppies no longer in our bedroom; you'll remember from an earlier posting that the first few nights she was absolutely frantic until we realized it was because she wanted the puppies closer to us so she could jump up on the bed for the odd powernap. I hope she's okay with this change now that she doesn't feel the instinctive drive to be with them almost constantly. Tonight might be another sleepless night; we'll see how it goes.

June 16, Sunday -- More energy and personality

The puppies are now showing more energy; they actually stand up and walk around their bed some. When mom tries to climb in I'd describe the action as strongly resembling a swarm of piranhas but with legs, hair and no water -- not much of a resemblance after all :-) While they all sleep a lot there seem to be a couple now that cry more for attention and a couple of nights ago, at 3 am, one of the puppies barked for the first time. It was the cutest little woof I've ever heard but it was definitely a bark; it didn't sound at all like their normal puppy cries.

While changing their bed today I weighed each puppy and took a picture of it; I did miss one picture and I've no idea how I'll get that rectified but you can see them below with their individual weights recorded for today. There is quit a variation in how dark brown they are. You'll notice that one of them even tried to climb out of the Tupperware container I use for weighing them; very cute.

I'll post the pictures form the smallest to the largest; and I made note of their gender too.


Female - 660 grams; birth weight 225 grams (+193%)

Female -- 720 grams; birth weight 255 grams (+182%)

Female -- 759 grams; birth weight 260 grams (+192%)

 

Female -- 920 grams; birth weight 268 grams (+243%)

 

 

Male -- 945 grams; birth weight 271 grams (+249%)

 

Forgot to take this puppies picture but you can see

it here in this shot; it's the little one with the white "soul patch" on its chin :-)

 

Female -- 982 grams; birth weight 261 grams (+262%)

 

 

Female -- 989 grams; birth weight 285 grams (+247%)

 

 

Male -- 1022 grams; birth weight 290 grams (+252%)

 

Male -- 1160 grams; birth weight 300 grams (+287%)

 

 



 

As you can see there is variation in colouring; the three males, however, are all relatively dark compared to the others.

 

 

This picture shows all nine puppies in the box we use for "transferring;" we put the puppies into this box while we take them out of the whelping bed and after we have weighed them so we can keep track of which ones have been weighed and which haven't. The first one you put in this box will cry and cry and cry and then as soon as there is another puppy they curl up together and sleep; as you add extra ones they wander around until they are comfortably grouped with the others and promptly go to sleep.

 

As you can see they are filling this box up pretty completely now -- next time we're at Costco we'll have to find one that's a little bigger and has higher sides (you may have noticed that a couple of the puppies decided they wanted out of this Tupperware container while they were being weighed; we had to turn the whelping box around so the lower side was against the wall as a precaution to be sure none of them accidentally climbed out of the box).



June 14, Friday -- Finding a rhythm

We are finding a rhythm in the whole process now. The puppies continue to eat and grow; we've decided once a day we'll get Cocoa to lie down on our bed and we'll lift the smallest three puppies up to get a little extra food in their own private feeding. I lie down beside Cocoa and pet her while they're nursing and she seems to enjoy it; the puppies eat like crazy too so I'm sure it's good for them.

Today's pictures are one of mom lying down in the kitchen enjoying a little break and all the puppies in their whelping bed; I'll try and include the picture from the day they were born for contrast.

Mom having a little break

The litter on May 30; happy birthday. This picture does not show the whole whelping box; I zoomed in some to get a better image.

The litter on June 14; 15 days old. This picture shows the whole whelping bed and you can see they are taking a lot more room. In fact they are starting to move around more freely and it's getting harder for mom to climb into the box to be with them because as soon as she steps on foot almost all of them become more animated searching for her to nurse.

June 13, Thursday -- Milestones and memories

The puppies are two weeks old today and it's my 54 birthday. We went to Tony Roma's for supper with our friends Don, Sherry and their daughter Tasha. It was a nice meal and visit and when we got home we weighed the puppies and changed the towel in their bed; one of the puppies has opened one eye. FINALLY! Now I can stop worrying because I bet by the time I get home from work tonight almost all their eyes will be open.

I've been thinking about Cocoa and Chai while they were both puppies and I'm going to add a couple of puppy pictures of them below. I'll post my new weight chart for our puppies too; it shows their birth weight, current weight and the percentage they have increased their body weight in these first two weeks. I couldn't believe it; the largest puppy was 1 gram shy of a kilogram (300 grams at birth). My goal this weekend is going to be determining gender for each and adding it to this chart plus giving them working names like "Pingo" -- a Spanish coffee drink that consists of 1 part espresso and 2 parts steamed milk or "Guillermo" -- an Italian coffee drink that consists of 2 shots of espresso with a twist of lime; hopefully I can find 9 names for caffeinated beverages so we can continue our tradition.

This is a picture of Cocoa looking at the new addition to the family; it was taken only one day after we got Chai home (September 21, 2012). He was almost black when he was a puppy.

This picture is of Cocoa before she was a year old but after she's had a haircut and it has grown in some. She really looks almost identical to what Chai looked like before his last haircut. We always thought it was funny that Cocoa, when she was young, would never eat unless she was lying down like she is here. 

		30-May	13-Jun	increase
1	red right	225	595	164%
3	purple right	255	630	147%
2	purple left	260	670	158%
4	blue right	268	780	191%
8	blue left	271	805	197%
9	green right	271	845	212%
6		272
7	black right	285	880	209%
10	green left	290	912	214%
5	red left	300	999	233%