Moving indoors

The polar vortex hit today. Our high temperature for the day was at midnight. The wind came up and blew in frigid artic air, the likes of which we rarely see and are never prepared for. The forecasted low is 8 degrees for tonight and 5 degrees tomorrow night. I wasn't at all confident that the space heaters could keep the puppies warm. And the way the wind was blowing a power outage seemed like an ever present danger. The obvious choice was to move everyone inside. 

We still had the piece of flooring that we had used for Della's puppies three years ago. There was a lot of stuff to move out of the way, but we cleared the space in the guest room, laid down the vinyl flooring, and put up the exercise pen in a rough 8' x 8' square. What happened next took me by surprise, however. It was too hot in that room. Holly was panting and wouldn't lay with the pups. They were screaming for their mom and were also fatigued by the warm, dry air in the house. I shut off the air vent and finally managed to open a window to return the room to a comfortable temperature.

The only downside now is that Holly no longer has free access to the outdoors when she needs it. We'll manage that somehow, but at least everyone is safe and warm. We will keep them inside until this bitter cold weather relents. That's nine adult dogs in the house tonight and seven puppies. Fortunately everyone gets along, but we are making use of the crates and separate rooms. 

I still have no good pictures of Cooper, but he's a really nice boy.

If you ever wonder if you could have more than one dog, believe me, you can.