Mom and pups (still no pics)

 I still can't share pictures of mom and the pups or say anything about where they came from, but I can talk about how they are doing.

By my reckoning they are three weeks old today. I got them when they were three days old and didn't start recording weights until June 13th, but the chart below shows their growth since then. The red line is the one female pup. She started out as the largest but the blue boy caught up and they've been swapping the lead back and forth. The second boy, green, is significantly smaller but he's growing. Once they make the switch to solid or semi-solid food he may close the gap, or he may just be smaller. They got a dose of wormer today, that may affect their weight gain too.

There were only three pups in this litter so we used a smaller wading pool as their initial bed space. The smaller pool is also shorter, so this group of pups got out of their wading pool earlier than other litters I've had, at about two weeks. They've been moving around the larger space without much of a clue about what's going on. I have put a couple of things in there for them to climb on and interact with, but at this stage they are really still mostly interested in mom and each other. They are beginning to play with each other now and are gradually becoming more aware of their surroundings. Maybe because it's warmer, they don't all pile up on top of each other to sleep the way some litters have. It's not unusual for me to walk in and find them laying in different locations, not even on the bed. 

Momma dog is a conundrum. She's been fine with me going in with her pups and even handling them, in spite of the fact and she didn't know me from Adam when they all first arrived. The only time she reacted was when one of the pups starting screaming for no apparent reason when I picked him up for the daily weigh in. She came over and grabbed me by the ankle and tried to pull me away. 

She nurses standing up most of the time. That may have put the smallest at a bit of a disadvantage in the beginning but he manages now pretty well. She won't go outside. I've only tried to get her out a couple of times and had to force her to leave the shed. She poops and pees inside but she has always, without fail, used the puppy pads that I put down for her in the corner. I appreciate that very much. I'm hoping the pups will learn that behavior from her quickly. 

I can touch her, but she doesn't seek it out, and never seems happy to see me, even though I come bearing food four or five times a day. I have tried a variety of foods that most dogs would love, including canned food, my Satin Balls, shredded chicken, hotdogs, and cheese. If she doesn't recognize it as food, she won't touch it. The only things I've gotten her to eat consistently, other than the dry puppy food, are cottage cheese and yogurt. 

She's in a place where she's safe and comfortable and has everything she needs to care for her pups. I had hoped we'd be further along with her socialization by this point, although it hasn't been quite three weeks yet and she had a much longer period of living under much worse conditions, so I guess it will take her a while to come around. I'm hoping for a "turn the corner" moment when she will relax and trust and love me, and I have to believe it will come, but we aren't there yet.

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from my phone over the past few days.

My calla lilies are still blooming and this one has just put out two new blooms.

I realized today that it's been several weeks since I've needed to use the long line on Paisley to get her to come back in the house from the yard. She is now my shadow and is usually easier to get back in the house than Elvis.

I have been sitting out in the Garden of the Dogs many mornings with my coffee and the dogs always join me, mostly to tell me that it's time to go back in the house for morning nap time.

Clay and I were on the downtown mall in Charlottesville on Thursday evening and we encountered the Green Dogs out and about class. They go to different locations each week to expose the dogs to new things and work on their training in new and distracting environments. This is former foster Cooper, who was part of the class. Clay and I remarked to each other about what a good looking dog he was before realizing that he was our Cooper. We got him in December as a rescue by the HOWS Project and he was adopted in January of this year. He was, and is, just a very nice dog and a good looking one too. The tipped ears remind me of Trooper and his personality remind me of Theo. That's a helluva nice dog.