Like clockwork on day ten of their lives, little eyes started popping open. By the end of day eleven, the baby pool whelping box was a sea of unfocused little eyes. They are also up on unsteady legs and a few of the more adventurous are doing laps around the pool and peering over the edge.
Yesterday we had our first attempt at eating real food. I filled a baking pan with a mixture of water, canned puppy food and puppy formula and introduced the puppies one by one to the joys of eating. The first one peed in the pan. Several of the puppies, however, thought it was the greatest thing they had ever experienced and ate quite lot. We'll keep working on it. With so many puppies and such a little momma, we have to get them off of her and into a food dish as soon as possible.
Momma Hope is doing wonderfully. She zooms around the yard a bit in the mornings and plays with some of the other dogs, udders flaping in the breeze. She is eating well and continuing to take fabulous care of her little ones, protesting quite adamantly when I remove even one from her circle of care (aka plastic baby pool).
She doesn't like to leave the babies even to eat, so we have learned that the best way to keep her eating and drinking enough is to put her food and water bowls on an elevated stand next to the pool so she can just crane her neck over to eat without actually exiting the pool. She has us trained.
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