Here they are: 7 weeks old, already! Almost time for them to go home! Our vet is coming tomorrow to do health certificates and first shots, then they will be all set to go next Monday. I have to go make supper, so unfortunately this post will have to be extremely short, but here are the updated pictures. And, once again, my favorite shot of the day was of Jackson. They are all super cute and sweet! Oh, and I can't help but share part of a picture and letter given to me on Wednesday by a little boy from church. His family was there when we evacuated from the hurricane and he loved the puppies. They are hoping to get one eventually, and this picture is the first step. :)
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Six Week-old Puppy: Ball of fur, energy, wet tongue, and needle-sharp teeth which bounces at one's legs, pulls one's hair, licks one's face, and adds a great deal of joy to one's life. Generally characterized by great enthusiasm for life in general, and chickens, milk, and puppy chow in particular. Yes, the puppies are at this stage of their lives - everyone's favorite. They are playful and friendly, but not so big yet that their playful chewing is distinctly uncomfortable. Taking these pictures was a bit of an adventure; it seemed that the puppy I was trying to photograph was always either on top of me or too far away for a good picture, and all the others (especially Sox!) were climbing all over me while I tried to get decent photos. I really wanted to get some good pictures of Jackson, but he was climbing in my lap almost the whole time, so that made things difficult. When he finally was obliging and in the perfect position to be photographed, I got down to his level and started taking pictures, but one of the puppies licked the camera lens, so the first pictures were blurry and I had to clean it. Amazingly, he stayed put, so I started snapping photos again, but Sox got hold of the camera strap around my neck and began tugging, jerking the camera. When I made her stop that, she climbed on my back and began biting my hair! Little stinker... she was determined to get attention by fair means or foul. I did get the pictures of Jackson though. :) All the puppies are friendly and affectionate. JJ is the shyest and will sometimes sit at a little distance and observe the person and other puppies before coming over to say hello. But he is very sweet and once he makes friends, he is very affectionate. Often he will just come and lie down on my feet, or try to wash my face, if I'm holding him. He reminds me a lot of Cleone in his temperament. Lancelot is the fattest, fluffiest, happy-go-luckiest puppy of the bunch. He is likes to lick and is demonstrating a tendency to chew on shoes. ) Clyde is the most calm puppy of the bunch. He still likes to sleep a lot, which is quite unusual for a Border collie, and has a tendency to get stuck under the doghouse and howl under there until he can squeeze out and come see me when I go out to the pen. He reminds me the most of Duncan in both looks and temperament and is content just to sit in my lap and watch (or try to lick) my face. I think he is beginning to learn his name (mainly because he's heard it so much when I'm encouraging him to get out from under the doghouse...) Sox is "a piece of work," as my grandpa would say. She is hilarious. She loves attention and has plenty of determination (which she definitely gets from her papa.) She is a licker, but not too bad. She also likes to pull hair, as referenced above, and climb and bounce all over people. Oh - and she likes to be the boss in the puppy pen, and will ruthlessly put her smaller brothers in their place - below her. She is responding to her name, too. Tommy is gentle and thoughtful, like Clyde and JJ, but not as sleepy as Clyde and less shy than JJ. He likes to play and wrestle with the rest, and loves to have his belly scratched. Then last, but far from least, is Jackson. Looking at his face gives a pretty good idea of his bouncy, playful, joyful nature. He is affectionate and sweet, and is learning his name (at least, I think he is.) If I had to pick a favorite puppy, it might just be Jackson. This may partly be due to the extra time I spent when he was little, giving him electrolytes to make sure he didn't get dehydrated from the loose stools, and feeding him a bottle to help him gain weight. (BTW, Tommy got a bottle too.) Everybody notices him, and usually his is the only name that some of my little friends remember. I was babysitting for a family from our church last night and their 6(?) year-old son asked me, "How is Jackson doing?" I think the fact that he has so much white on him really sets him apart and makes it easier to remember him.
All these puppies are really special and I am thoroughly enjoying each and every one. I will miss them when they go, but will also be glad for them to start their new lives. They will be ready to go home in just 2 weeks, so please be thinking about when you can pick them up (if you haven't already) and let me know the tentative dates so I can work the timing out with you. They can be picked up any time from October 9th on. Sundays don't work for us, but most other days should be fine. (Except Saturday, October 14 - can be worked out if necessary in early morning or late evening, but the day will be full for us.) Here are some more pictures of the pups. Click the photo to enlarge. Hello, again! I hope everyone made it through Hurricane Irma okay. We were very blessed and are immensely thankful that we had almost no damage. (A couple trees down; that's it.) We had a fun time camping out in our church with several other families, since at one point the storm was supposed to be very strong and go right over us. The puppies were extremely popular, especially among the children, and several mothers began remembering that they were planning to get dogs at some point in the next few years. :) Who can resist a puppy? The only downside was that it took me several hours to clean the bathrooms were the dogs stayed because they are not housebroken. That was not a fun job, but I'm thankful to have been able to bring them. For those of you who are interested in reading about how we weathered the storm, you can find the story on my personal blog, here. Now... the puppies! They are all doing well. Lance is the biggest and Jackson is still the smallest, but he's catching up to his siblings. They are beginning to eat solid food (soaked in their raw milk/ kefir formula) and are becoming very playful. I need to get some chew toys out in the pen for them... We are letting them into the main run now so they have more room to get exercise, and I will try to get a small plastic pool in there for them to play in. Now, this time I won't caption the photos. See if you can identify each puppy by the markings. :) (Hint: the hardest ones are Sox and JJ because they have identical facial markings, and the back of their necks doesn't always show.) (Answers at bottom of this blog post.) Answers: 1: Lancelot 2: Tommy 3: Jackson 4: Sox 5: Clyde 6: JJ How did you do? Sorry, folks, I don't have much time to write this week as we are getting our house and property as secure as we can before hurricane Irma hits. At this point they are predicting that the eye will go right over us, so we will be camping out in our church with the Border collies and the other church families who live in mobile homes.
All the puppies are doing great, and loving the formula that I am feeding them in their dish. Next week I plan to begin soaking puppy chow and adding it to the formula, so it won't be long before they are eating "big dog food." :) Lance might be the biggest and is definitely the fluffiest. He and Sox are the first to greet us when we go out to the pen and always have huge smiles on their adorable little faces. Jackson loves to smile too and has a very friendly, happy temperament. JJ, Tommy and Clyde are friendly too, but more thoughtful and laid back. They are all developing well. Click on the pictures to enlarge. Enjoy! As I'm sure everyone knows, a massive hurricane appears to be heading right up Florida, with potential power to flatten buildings, knock out power, and rip up trees. For those who are wondering what will happen to the dogs here, I thought I would post a quick note.
At this point some of my family plans to evacuate, if the storm does indeed come our way (which it will if it follows the projected path). Daddy, Bo (my almost 17 y/o brother) and I will probably stay here unless it is a category 3 or stronger by the time it reaches us, in which case we may just have to get out of the way and take care fof ourselves. In any case, I plan to keep the puppies with me. Fiona, Kep, and possibly Duncan will probably go with the rest of the family and Mama to my grandparents, near Perry, FL. Though they live on the Gulf of Mexico, their house is built like a fort and should withstand anything that isn't a direct hit by a powerful hurricane. If it looks like that is going to happen, they will all head further north to my great-grandmother's in Atlanta, GA. For those of us left here, we will do our best to put the livestock and chickens in safety (probably in a neighbor's barn since ours is right next to the power lines). If the storm is comparatively weak when it gets here, we may stay in our home and keep an eye on things from there, but if it looks like it will still be really strong, we will pack up the other dogs and puppies and head to our church fellowship hall, about 10 minutes down the road. There will most likely be some other families waiting out the storm there, so the puppies will get some unplanned socialization. :) Of course, in the event that we would have to all evacuate further north, I will take Cleone and the puppies with me. While human life is always more important than animals, no matter how wonderful the animals are, I will do my level best to protect the animals which are entrusted to me, and where I go, the puppies go, to the best of my ability (unless they would be safer somewhere else.) Thankfully we are far enough north that the storm will have had time to break up and spend some of its violence before reaching us, and we are still praying that the Lord will turn it out to sea in a direction that will not do damage. Whatever happens, we are trusting that He will do what is best and that is the best confidence we can have going into this hurricane. The puppies are already three weeks old! I can hardly believe the time has passed so fast, yet it seems like a long time ago that I was crawling under our house to pull them out of the nest Cleone had made by ripping apart our ductwork. Time truly does fly. Only 5 more weeks until they are ready to go home - and I know it will pass like a flash (at least, it will to me!) These little rascals are getting cuter every day. They are beginning to fluff up nicely and to bark, growl, whine and play! They are also getting some teeth. Very soon it will be time to start getting them used to solid food, a little at a time. I will probably start encouraging them to lap formula out of a dish this week, which is the first step to weaning. (But it will be a few more weeks before they are weaned.) I am beginning to allow my younger siblings to handle them more, under very close supervision, and will take opportunities when we have visitors to get them used to other people. So far Sox and Lancelot are the only ones who have followed Cleone out of the doghouse, but I am sure they will all begin doing that within the next few days. Sox scared me badly the first time she ventured out, because she crawled into a tiny, Sox-sized cave under the edge of the doghouse and I couldn't see her. When I couldn't find her in the doghouse or in the pen around it, I was naturally quite worried -until I went outside the pen to a place where I could see under the doghouse, and saw her sleeping peacefully in her little den! The next day she got out again, with Lancelot for company, and they both curled up in the den and went to sleep, but this time I knew where to look for them. I am going to try to keep Cleone's holes filled in as much as possible, and am letting her out of the pen more often now that the puppies are bigger, so that should help with the excavations. I always try to get individual pictures of the puppies every Saturday, but that doesn't always happen. Here are the pictures I took this afternoon. Sorry they are too bright... I had the camera on the wrong lighting settings and didn't realize it. Lancelot contemplating another escape from the doghouse... JJ in danger of tumbling out. Clyde (originally Percival). Tommy was very interested in Fiona and kept sticking his nose through the fence to check her out. Too cute! I actually forgot to take individual pictures of Jackson and Sox, so I stopped in the middle of this post and went back out to take some. Mama, Frankie (2), and Anna Frances (4) came out while I was taking the pictures, and of course the little guys loved the opportunity to hold the puppies. Jackson is the smallest of the litter right now because he had some digestive issues (loose stools) when he was younger, but I think he will catch up to his siblings and be one of the bigger ones. He seems to have a really happy, outgoing personality. And last but not least, here is Sox, A.K.A. "Chubs." She doesn't seem to really enjoy being held, like most of the others, but she appears to be developing a confident, cheerful, rather dominant personality. She was really sweet today, though, when Frankie held her, and never made a noise the whole time. I think she actually kind of enjoyed it. Maybe she just likes to be held by small children... (He was not squeezing her, I promise! He always tries to hug the puppies when he first gets them, but then is very gentle when we remind him, and usually spends his time giggling, saying "Puppy!" over and over, and carefully stroking them, saying, "Gentle! Gentle!" So cute!) Bo came out to see the puppies and agreed to help me set up a family portrait. It didn't turn out very well because Duncan was scared of the puppies and did't want to get close enough to them for a good picture, and Cleone was looking at me, but such as it is, here it is! The puppies were determined to crawl away, so they made things rather difficult, but that is okay. |
AuthorMy name is Alayna Feldman. I have been greatly blessed and am thankful, first and foremost, to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who has saved me. I am also deeply thankful to my parents, who have raised me in a stable, safe, loving home and taught me about what is most important in life. Archives
February 2022
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