Wanted: More Visitors!

I suspect the puppies think life is boring now that all the visitors have left! Megan and Marti left last night, after a quick stop on the way to the Missoula airport at the (almost) world famous Big Dipper ice cream store. Megan and her twin sister, Molly, spent some time at "Camp Montana" in June and in addition to showing dogs, we also visited the edible hot spots in Missoula. Megan wanted to re-visit the Big Dipper for Mexican Chocolate ice cream so we did and Megan arrived at the airport happy and with chocolate all over her face!

I love the opportunity to see ordinary things through the eyes of another person, and especially a child. Therefore, what fun it was to see the puppies through new eyes this past weekend. Thanks to Armand, Cali, Kate, Marti and Megan for making the long trip to Montana to visit us. The puppies benefited from meeting new people, and I had a wonderful time watching the puppies and visitors interact. The puppies have now met 12 people so only 88 to go!

Puppies are now playing with more vigor and noise. This morning two were growling as they played, and rolling over with each other. We all laughed at Rosebud's efforts to spin in the past couple of days, and Kinsey greets people by barking and getting all excited. Sula is the champion tail wagger of the group, and Ledger is starting to emerge as quite the good looking boy. Madison continues to whine about everything!

The puppies are four weeks today and you might be wondering when they start to eat food other than milk. Early weaning in humans is associated with some not so great things, and so I have never been in a rush to start feeding puppies other food. I will offer them water starting today and that should be interesting and messy, but they will not be introduced to "real" food until they are close to six weeks old.

Nursing this much means that Halo needs a lot of food. Unfortunately, if she eats too much kibble she has diarrhea, and even though I was feeding a variety of foods, including dehydrated, homemade and two kinds of kibble, she was having issues last week. I cut back on kibble and started feeding her more cooked meat with different fruits, rice, and dairy products and she is much better. The main part of her diet is now cooked meat. For example, this morning at 6 she had a cup or so of two kinds of kibble with dehydrated food and some cottage cheese mixed in. At 7:30 she had a big bowl of rice and ground beef with a banana, and her lunch is over a pound of cooked chicken. She is eating 5 - 6 times a day but so far is maintaining her weight, and the puppies are gaining well.

We weighed puppies yesterday and Rosebud is the clear winner -- she weighs over 90 ounces now! Lolo continues to gain at a good rate but is definitely small and cute. Darby has joined Lolo in the Nursing Protection Program because her weight gain was behind the other puppies; she gained but not at the same rate as the others.

It is amazing how the puppies change in just four weeks. In one picture you can see that they now can groom themselves! I know it is a personal photo but I thought it was a cute one. The one puppy sitting with a paw up is Kinsey, and the single puppy looking at the camera is Ledger. I am not sure who the sleeping puppy is but it was a sweet picture so I included it, and finally we have Megan with the puppy that won her heart -- Rosebud. Megan would be happy with any of the puppies but she and Rosebud seem to have a special connection.

Thanks so much for your comments -- it is fun to hear from you. And thanks for visiting us today!