Day 39: Brave Pups

 

Since our first snow, the puppies have been very cautious of the snow.  When I try to usher them outside, they hang back and ball up together!  I don't think they like the snow because it is cold on their still-small paws!  But, a few puppies gather some courage and test out the snow.  You'll see what happens when they find out snow is ok to play in (think 7 Columbus' of the backyard)!!

Look at this: The puppy pile is almost as big as me!  They don't need me to keep them warm anymore--they act like puzzle pieces and put themselves together!

Day 36: Happy Howlidays Everyone!

The puppies wanted to greet you with a walk-out today, but they got a little too excited to come wish you Happy Howlidays!

 

As you're all playing with what Santa brought you, here's a quick clip of how my puppies play!

Little Spartacus has become Daddy's Mini-Me.  He likes to follow Mosley around and drinks water when Mosley drinks water.  Here he's all cuddled up for an afternoon nap, just like his daddy!

Day 30: Introducing...

 ...Crixus! (male, red & white, blue hounds-tooth ribbon).  He likes to be picked and cuddled!

... Cyder! (female, red & white, purple ribbon).  She likes to play tug-of-war with her sister, Caramel.

 ... Taz! (male, black & white, blue diamond ribbon).  He's our eater: first in line and last to leave!

 ... Caramel! (female, red & white, pink ribbon).  She's the other tug-of-war player.

 ... #2 Man! (male, red & white, pawprint ribbon).  He's got a dominant personality and is one of the ringleaders.

... Marley! (male, black & white, yellow diamond ribbon)!  He's our singer (see Day 28's post)!

... Spartacus! (male, grey & white, Camo ribbon).  He's 
 Little Mr. Independent.

Day 28: Who You Lookin' At?!

 

Meet one of my black puppies - his name is Marley!  You can tell him apart from the other black puppy because the white line that goes up his head is much skinnier.  We also like to call Marley the "singer" because he likes to exercise his vocal chords the most!

 Mama's Girls!  I only have two girls in the crazy bunch and they're the cutest red-furs I've ever seen!  The humans have named the one on the left Caramel.  They call the one on the right Cyder.  These two are pretty bashful, but sometimes those are the most cuddly ones!

Day 27: Feeding Time

Finally!  I've weened these puppies!  Now, the humans have to deal with feeding them! Hahaha!

 They started by trying to feed the puppies out of two bowls.  They crush up puppy kibbles and mix it with water and the pups seem to really enjoy it!  The problem with feeding them out of two bowls was that some (especially Little Mr. Independent, who's been renamed Spartacus [partially for his large size]) like to hog to food (see video)!

The next failing solution was to give each puppy their own bowl.

Here's why one bowl per puppy failed!  This video shows the way the puppies seem like to eat!  This may be the magic number of bowls!  The humans will have a lot less dishes to do at least! (If anyone has any advice I can pass on to the humans, that'd be great!)

As is now routine, after the puppies are full, they have to let the whole world know!  There's always a lovely howling concert from one of them after dinner!

Now that they eat dinner inside, these pups think they're Columbus!  The humans so smartly keep the puppies in the kitchen because they would otherwise explore themselves into getting lost!  Three times a day we go through this feeding routine with the Seven Dwarfs, I mean, Explorers.

Day 25: First Snow!

We had our first Missouri snow a few days ago and the puppies have been begging to play in it.  I haven't let them go because I didn't want them to get sick or too cold.  But they finally convinced me to let one of them test it out.

 This is Crixus, a male puppy, and he romped in the snow for less than a minute with Mosley's human.  Crixus liked the snow but he started shivering!  Mosley's human brought Crixus back inside, where I quickly licked the cold snow off him and warmed him up.

This is what it looks like now when I nurse the puppies!!  Their big, wiggling bodies almost completely cover me!  When can they start eating puppy food?!

Day 20: Wake-up Call!

I had the puppies asleep and cuddled together for a morning nap, but a human visitor came by.  She woke them up, and as you can see they aren't great morning pups - slow movers and pretty quiet.

After a while, she had them all wound up.  Here they're wrestling (check out the black ones in the back and the red ones in the front).

They've also discovered how to use their "teeth" - right now, they just have gums.  I fear for the day their teeth come in and they start biting.  Right now, one of their favorite activities is to naw on each other's noses as two are doing in this video.

After about 15 minutes, they were tuckered out and ready to head back for more napping.  They got settled, but this black one was slow and missed the line-up.  He squeezed his way into the middle of the puppy pile and started practicing his howling and tail-wagging (a new talent they're all learning)!!

The puppies are starting to get more curious about what's around them.  They're trying to walk further in the puppy hut and aren't stumbling as much!  They are also becoming more interested in their human visitors.  A few pups just like to be picked up and then they make cooing noises.  I'm such a proud mama and they're growing so fast!

They don't know it, but we have a colorful addition for them coming soon!  Check back to see what they're getting!

Day 17: PUPPIES FIRST STEPS!!!!

THE PUPPIES ARE WALKING!!!!  They walk about two steps and then tip over, but geez, if we didn't have the puppy hut to keep them together, they'd be all over the yard!  My job as a watchful mama's about to get a lot harder!  This video has their first forays into walking.

They get a bit more adventurous when I'm in the hut with them.  But I just can't get over how fun they are to watch!

The puppies have also learned how to do little barks, and I even heard a growl!  No one can go outside to see the puppies now without Mosley wanting to come along (when they were just sleepers, he'd check on them occasionally, but this is every. single. time!)

We caught one of the puppies learning to howl last night too!  Sorry if the video is dark, but we had to catch this red, male puppy on tape (this puppy's been nicknamed Zealous because he's kinda sassy, but sassy is "too girly" of a name for this male pup!)!!

Day 15: Shot shot shot shot shot shot shot, All the Puppies!

 All the puppies got their shots today!  Here's the process with one of the red puppies!

Step 1: Cuddly closely.

 Step 2: As puppy tries to wiggle away, put the shot in its mouth.

 Step 3: Make sure the puppy licks up the whole shot while keeping it from getting away.

Step 4: Hold puppy as it cries about how bad the shot tastes.

Day 14: Eyes are opening!

Of course, Little Mr. Independent always needs to have the spotlight - his eyes opened first today!  If you look closely, you can see his blue eyes looking out at you!  As of 10pm tonight, four of the puppies had their eyes open.  Well, open is exaggerating - they were squinting at the bright light of the world.  The others might have their eyes open, but they're all busy being snuggle bunnies and sleeping all day.  As soon as they have their eyes open more, I'll post photos.  I'm hoping they all have blue eyes because my eyes are blue! (Don't tell anyone, but so are Mosley's... I just want to have some trait passed on to them!)

 The puppies have no personal space when they sleep!  In this picture, you'll notice the black puppy is wearing a red tail-hat!

There was a sweet moment tonight when the puppies had some visitors.  Mosley became all protective - especially with this little girl - and had to make sure the girl in the red coat was treating his puppy right.  He kept a watchful eye over the pups and licked them to make sure they were okay.

The puppy pile gets bigger and chubbier every day!

Day 11: Public Feeding

I've heard that new moms often worry about feeding their pups (or babies) in public.  I haven't had to deal with that yet, but I'm practicing my discretion in case I ever find myself in that situation. (Yep-That's Little Mr. Independent out of the puppy pile again, cuddling against my paw!)

Of course, once I'm done feeding my pups, they start to spread out for a nap.  A few like to sleep on their backs and I've even watched a few run in their sleep!  I can't wait until they start running for real!

PS-If you look closely in these photos and the last post's videos/photos, you'll see that the hair on their noses is growing in!  There won't be any more pink noses in a bit!!

Day 10: Up Close & Personal

My pups are ten days old and they're starting to get fiesty with each other!  This video has their attempt at rough-housing blind and with no teeth - it'll be great entertainment when they can see each other, hopefully later this week! (My human's making the background noise in both of these videos because he was playing with me during filming - obviously he doesn't know what "Quiet on set" means!)

Here the puppies are jostling for the best sleeping position.  They're still doing the army-crawl thing (when do they start to walk?!).

When they were all settled in for a long winter's nap, this is what they looked like!  My puppies are getting cuter by the day!

Day 8: Sock Blankies

 My puppies are growing up and learning to sleep on their own!  To comfort them, I've been "borrowing" my human's socks to serve as their blankets to cuddle with!  They don't smell the best, but they're all that's available to me that's puppy-sized!  I had 10 socks this morning because some of the puppies wanted one for each front paw, but my human found and took them.  Hopefully he's washing them and will give them back!

I got to play ball with my human in the yard because it was a bit warmer today!  It felt great to stretch my legs outside the puppy hut!

Day 7: Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  We're tuckered out from our feast - we hope you are too!

Love,
Skye, Mosley, and the Seven Dwarfs (I mean, the puppies)

Day 5: Dad the Babysitter

 

Today I went to visit my vet to have a mommy wellness check-up and I got a clean bill of health!  While I was gone, Dad was the babysitter!  Mosley's human (aka owner) decided to bring the puppies into his room from the puppy hut.

I had all the puppies fed and snuggled into the laundry basket, asleep.  They weren't making any noises and Dad was all prepared to watch them, as evidenced by the video.

 

Mosley's human even provided me with photographic evidence that he was a good dad and checked to make sure the puppies were still breathing and asleep.

There was even evidence that they're super cute when they sleep! (This puppy has a spot on its belly!!)  BUT...

...when I came home, this is what I found!!  Mosley decided he would give the puppies a treat for being so good for him, and you know what? - the treats had sugar in them!  My babies were  mosh pitting and wrestling when I got home!

Let's just say Mosley's in the doghouse for now!

Day 4: Little Mr. Independent

I've started to stretch my legs a little bit more and I thought all my puppies were napping so I was safe to sneak away for a few minutes!  I was going to read my newest parenting book but instead Mosley convinced me to run around the yard and play with him and the neighbor's dogs for a bit.  (Is he trying to get me to lose this puppy weight?!)  Anyways, I came back and found this:: Little Mr. Independent decided to go for a stroll away from the puppy pile!! I'm gonna have to keep my eye on this gray puppy!

Here's the puppy pile that Little Mr. Independent snuck away from!  I replaced him immediately back on top (I love the dark stripe down his back!) of the pile so he could snuggle up!

Day 3: NOSES!

PICTURE OF THE DAY:  Look at my sweet little one who just wants to be the little spoon!  One day, it'll be a big dog and go off on it's own, sniff... Oh, let's get back to my observations of the day and let the tears come later.

All my puppies have short, stubby noses that don't have any hair on them!  As they get older, their noses will grow into good, strong, furry noses, just like Mosley on the right (what a handsome man!).  And the markings on their faces will get bigger and might even change colors!

I get up for one minute to take a quick walk and bathroom break and what do you know? My puppies cry for me until I return!  Watch them stay in the same place as I left them (I bet that won't last for long once their eyes open) and make cute noises.

My puppies are getting so chubby and I think it's absolutely adorable!

Day 2: I've never seen hungrier puppies!

PICTURE OF THE DAY: Look how well my puppies line up to eat!  So orderly - except for the one that's backwards (can you see it?)!

This is a look inside my "puppy hut" too: the side are lined with carpet to help insulate from the cold and there's wood chips on the ground to keep the cold cement off of us.  I've got a couple of blankets I use as a boundary around my favorite corner and a big fluffy dog bed that I don't really know what to do with yet.

Here's a bonus picture! I've noticed that a lot (almost all) of my puppies have white-tipped tails.  This is like their daddy again - seriously, did I pass any of my genes on to these puppies?  You can see a white-tipped tiny tail in this picture, just off-center to the right.

I feel how much lighter I am today without all these puppies in me! What a relief - I was having a hard time moving anywhere without being somewhat clumsy!  I'm not too concerned about losing the puppy weight, but I'll let you know if that changes!

Day 1: They've arrived!

Dear World,

I'd like to introduce you to my new seven puppies! I went into labor last night at about 10:00pm and finished around 3:30am.  I was really tired after that and so was my owner (although he didn't do much, so I don't know why he's complaining!).  I think I did a pretty good job as a first time mom taking care of them as they came.

Turns out I have four red and white puppies (just like their daddy!), two black and white ones, and one gray one.  I wonder what happened to having any white ones, like me?  Hmmmm.... 

My puppies eyes are still closed.  And look at their cute pink noses!  And they're barely bigger than my paw!

My owner's girlfriend picked up this puppy to take a picture of how small it was, and I did not like that one bit! I knew as soon as the pup was gone and frantically started looking for it.  I was relieved to see she had my baby, but I still wanted it back! (All my puppies are still 'its' because I haven't had the time or energy to figure out which are girls and boys! - Mom fail on my end!) But she's got a good point, the paw isn't even as big as her first digit on her finger!!!

This is what I call my "Protective Mother" look.  I took no birthing classes, like those crazy humans do.  I just knew how to do it and now I'm following my instincts to keep my puppies warm!

Listen to my puppies jostle for positions to get some of my milk!

Anyways, enough with the blogging.  I'm tired so I'm gonna go nap and keep my puppies warm and fed!

Still Expecting...

 

This is my husband, Mosley, and me (my name is Skye).  We often like to snuggle like this, under our owners' feet in the kitchen.  We're very excited because we're expecting puppies soon!  (I chose to use this picture first because I still look flatteringly skinny!)  I'm the white Siberian Husky (purebred and certified by APRI) and Mosley is the red and white Siberian Husky (purebred and certified by APRI).

Here's what I look like now.... Super pregnant.  Man, I'm just ready to have these puppies.  Last night, I paced up and down the room and whined so I think they're coming soon.  My owner and Mosley's owner have built me a "puppy hut" that's partially enclosed yet also has an open area.  I hope it will help keep me warm in this Missouri winter while I birth, nurse, and raise my puppies!