Progress report: Lots of progress, Whew, it’s about time.

The puppies are slowing the writing down, admittedly, partly because of the work involved with raising a litter, but also partly because they are intrinsically cute and distracting. But! They are also progressing by leaps and bounds, so that’s excellent. Every single puppy is now eating real food out of a dish. Not the kind of food I actually want them to eat, not a long-term food, but it’s food and it’s good for them and getting them to this point was such a struggle that I don’t care about anything beyond that.

They’re eating Royal Canin Starter, by the way. All of them. One hundred percent of puppies surveyed insist that soaked kibble will not do, whether or not you add chicken baby food. I now have five jars of chicken baby food that I guess I will find a use for someday, but evidently this is not that day. They are actually interested in dry kibble, but even broken up, they can’t eat that yet. Their jaw strength is inadequate, I guess, as they certainly have teeth. Sharp teeth.

Anyway: last night for the very first time I did not have to get up at 1:00 AM to make Morgan nurse them, so she and I are both relieved about that. Especially me.

I have also introduced the puppies to the outdoor world!

Tri Boy, Dora in the background. Tri Girl Two, Tri Girl One in the backgroundB/T boy, pouncing at meRuby girl, pretending to be pensive, but actually about to join in the pouncing.

Going outside means three trips down the steps for me, not to mention three trips back up. Four or five times a day, as I am now actively engaged in the very earliest stages of housetraining; eg, taking them out at strategic moments so that they will develop a preference for doing their business outside. Which they do prefer. Puppies always prefer that if they are allowed to develop their instinct to be clean.

Anyway, they most certainly can’t be out unsupervised. Way too many dangers out there, including hawks. I actually know of a local incident where a hawk picked up a Yorkie and carried it up into a tree before dropping it. The dog survived, but was badly injured — I got this story from my vet, who treated the dog, so I know it really happened. These puppies are all around three pounds — 2 lbs 13.75 oz to 3 lbs 3.5 oz as of this morning — which is smaller than most Yorkies and in fact smaller than a lot of rabbits.

Luckily, I have a reliable babysitter:

That is Naamah, who will not leave puppies alone outside. That’s Tri Girl One climbing on her and … um … I think … yes, Tri Girl Two in the foreground. Anyway, I have an x-pen, so I carry the puppies down and put them in the x-pen with Naamah until they’re all down in the yard. Then I open the x-pen and let them wander about, with Naamah as a major playmate and the other dogs ambling about.

All the puppies are brave about exploring and all of them toddle right to a person and climb in their lap. If I were going to hazard a guess, I’d say Tri Girl One is going to be Little Miss Independent, while Tri Boy is likely to be a lap dog and very affectionate. B/T Boy is spunky. Tri Girl Two and Ruby Girl might turn out to be calm and sweet, but on the other hand, maybe not that calm! All of them will benefit from having more visitors this week and then gently going places next week.

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