The Hungry Heifer

It was a big weekend here. The whelping box is gone (hope its clean enough for you Faith), and it has been replaced by the Exercise Pen, hereafter known as the "X-pen". And the pups have started solid food. All of this change was precipitated by a visit from Helping Paws on Friday. They brought the X-pen, and decided to try them on solid food to see if they were ready. As you can see from the following pictures, they were ready, and their feeding bowl has been christened "The Hungry Heifer"Team Cheers is still working out the exact amount to feed the puppies, so that means lots of leftovers for me. And even though its just mush, it still tastes pretty good to me. But then again, those who know me well know that I have seldom encountered any food that I don't like!

And we have our first official retraction too. In the last post I thought they were becoming dogs. I would like to retract that statement. Given their behavior when solid food is placed in front of them, I can only conclude that that I have given birth to a litter of exceptionally furry (and cute) piglets.

More porcine behavior...................

Above is an aerial view (blimp courtesy Kent Feeds Inc) of their very first feeding. Rebecca, who is the largest of the pups, literally climbed into the pan and slid around the whole pan on her belly, lapping up food and pushing the other pups out of the way as she went. It was quickly concluded that two pans were needed to feed this bunch.

And as the staff at Team Cheers continues to getter better with the camera, expect more video. Here's a few clips from this weekend:

Kelly attacks one of the toys. I think she was protecting the rest of the litter from the menace of the big purple bird.

This clip shows me right after I hopped in to clean up after them (A mother's work is NEVER done). I really thought it was safe to jump in because the pigs were all passed out. But as soon as they heard or smelled me, they arose from their stupor and accompanied me on my rounds. PLEASE NOTE-We used stunt puppies for this shot-do not try it at home.

Pigs in the trough Warning-not for the faint of heart :)

They grow so fast!

It seems like just last week (in fact I think it was!) that the puppies eyes weren't open and they couldn't stand up. And though they've gone through several stages, they've always looked like puppies, or at least something withe potential to grow into dogs.

And they have definitely begun to fulfill that potential. They have progressed from eat/sleep/GROW to actual puppy behaviour. They bark. They can walk without too much stumbling. They've begun to play with each other and sometimes even wrestle. Some of them have begun to seek out places under the "pig rail" to sleep. And some of them even sniff and circle before, well, this is a G-rated blog, but you know what I'm talking about.

2 1/2 Weeks and Growing

Portaits

Happy Valentine's Day!

Its been a while since I blogged about me. Congrats to Faith again-Her team/owners/staff have no idea how much fun (and laundry) they are in for. But so far its been well worth it. In fact, it gets rather routine at times, as evidenced by the above picture. Yes, that's me at the tail end of a yawn. I climb in the box, give them baths, them let them nurse. After that I am outta there as I am slowly returning to my normal dog duties. For those of you that know my habits really well, you will be glad to know that I have 'relocated' :) some of Team Cheers' gloves and shoes and I have also resumed walking one member of my staff. I have to take it slow with him as I've not had much of a chance to take him out lately. And yes, I've resumed my usual role of maid. Whenever Team Cheers sits down to a meal, I am there to make sure that no food hits the floor. The things I do for these people!

Anyway, you are probably not here to hear about me, but about the pups. They are still in their Eat/Sleep/GROW mode. They are now able to get up on all four legs and stumble a step or two. And some eyes are starting to open. Diane was the first to show a gleam in her eye. And I'm pretty sure that gleam was directed towards Sam. (I must credit that line to someone from Helping Paws.)

As you can see in the pictures below, their nursing behavior has become much more 'disorderly', to put it nicely. Even though they can't see me very well or hear me if I come in the box, they can smell me, and now that they can actually move with their legs and not on their bellies, my entrance is starting to have a 'jailbreak' quality to it. As you can see, they crawl all over me once I get situated.
I think they have realized that if they come at me from multiple directions, I can't get them all bathed as they come in. I think I saw a bunch of wolves exhibit the same pack behavior on a deer the other night on Animal Planet. Come to think of it, I guess the pups are feeding on me too...........

Below are the die-hards. The other five patrons have left their bar stools at Cheers and stumbled off somewhere to sleep it off.

This is where I blog. I thought you might like to see it. I have given Team Cheers the assignment of taking individual portraits of all the pups. Hopefully they will have them ready when I am ready to blog again.

Breaking News

(Editor's Note-This post has been written by Team Cheers for reasons which will soon become apparent)

This afternoon Cheers received a phone call. As soon as she hung up the phone, she raced to the computer and started blogging. When we checked the computer we were surprised to see that there were no new posts on her blog. Subsequent investigation revealed that the phone call was most likely from Faith, and the last website that Cheers visited was www.faithhp.com We suggest that you look there if you are still curious about her behavior.

Giving the people what they want

Before we forget, we have added a disclaimer in the profile. Please check it out.

Also , to those that have asked, we are not veterinarians and are not qualified to dispense whelping advice.

Anyway, there seems to be a growing demand for more updates to the blog. Quite frankly, the puppies are not doing much that is 'bloggable' as they simply eat, sleep and grow. Hence the lack of updates. One might say that we are enjoying the calm before the storm. (Eyes and ears and legs will soon be working)Team Cheers maintains that the pups are bigger when the get home at night than they were that same morning. And they are getting more mobile every day. Some are almost able to stand up on their front legs for a few seconds. They have also started doing this thing where they try to get up on their front legs while their back legs are also moving. The end result is that they wobble around in a little circle until they get frustrated and end up exactly where they started. Team Cheers has been placed on full alert to try to capture this on video. FYI, in case you care, most tend to spin to the left. Tails also wag with more frequency, tongues seem to be flattening out and the noises sound more like barks every day.

So, without further ado, here are more puppy pictures. We hope that you can see as much growth as we do.

Below is a typical puppy pile.
Here you see me taking inventory after the bedding had been changed. I am happy to report that all pups are present and accounted for!

This puppy is actually sleeping in this position. That's right; on his back and on top of other puppies. That also means that he is in prime position for a bath, so I administered one. He didn't like it much.

As you can see, he rolled away and onto the ground in his attempts to evade me, but never fear, I prevailed!

Here's another shot of his pre-bath pose. I think he was actually daring me to bathe him.

Up close and personal.

Another shot of me taking inventory. Team Cheers has never lost one, but I always like to take my own personal count.

Here's another shot of a typical day at Cheers. Nursing, napping, and growing.

And after everyone has their fill, its time for a group nap. My favorite part of the day!