The Life of a Puppy: Eat, Sleep, Get Fat

The weight gain continues! Although everyone gained well, this morning’s leader is Rosebud, who pulled ahead of Madison. Rosebud now weighs 28.1 ounces, which is a gain of four ounces in 24 hours!

Lolo continues to gain, packing on 2.2 ounces in a 24 hour period. Lolo actually gained a greater percentage of her current body weight than Rosebud! So while Rosebud is leading in absolute number of ounces, Lolo is the one who is gaining the fastest – Go Lolo!

We continued the four on, four off rotation all night. Galen sat up with them until 2 a.m. so I could sleep and then I took over at 2, although I have to say that I have gotten good at dozing in the chair next to the whelping box so I slept a little between rotations and noises.

Today they will spend more time as a whole group with Halo (as opposed to four at a time). They are starting to scoot around and I think that is really important for their development to be able to do that. While hanging out in the warm basket when not eating helps them get plump, they need some exercise so lots of free time today.

Right now all eight are with Halo. Four are lazily nursing and four are asleep in various places, including Rosebud who has her face in Halo’s white neck fur. They like to use each other as pillows so Sula is draped over another puppy who is nursing. Dawson has decided he is hungry again and is trying to steal a place at the milk bar from another puppy.

They make little noises a lot but it is easy to tell whether they are just trying out their voices, mad at another puppy’s intention to steal their prime nursing spot, or in distress, which is usually because they have scooted off alone in the box and do not know how to get back. Occasionally they practice growling in their sleep, which is very cute.

Tomorrow the vet comes to our house to check everyone out again and also to remove the rear dewclaws on the three puppies who have them; we do not remove front dewclaws. Today's agenda is more of the usual – sleep, eat, and gain weight. Wouldn’t it be nice to be a puppy for a few days?!