Rushing It

Dear Hubby, ever-faithful in his concern for our health and well-being, keeps us well-supplied with daily vitamins. Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that the pharmaceutical company for which he works makes our brand of vitamins or the fact that DH can purchase them any time deeply discounted at the company store.

In any case, we never run out of vitamins.

Something strange happened recently, however, in our vitamin cabinet. The label on the bottle changed. It's the same brand and still a daily vitamin, but a different product.

Now it says "Silver" or something to that effect. And if you read the fine print at the top of the the label it says (gasp!) the following:

"Specially formulated for adults 50+"

Fifty plus? That may be well and good for you old folks on the AARP roster (which includes DH, who is 51), but I'm only 47!

Unlike some people, I haven't hit the golden milestone yet.

So why is DH supplying me with old people pills?

Isn't that rushing it? I mean, come on, give me the 2.5 years I have left to razz you 50+-ers about being old (despite the fact that I'm more gray than many of you already).

"Silver" vitamins? Geesh.

"And just what does this have to do with Labs?" you ask.




Our sweet Pinot girl is a whopping 5.5 months old now--still a pup by any stretch of the imagination. But she's so sweet and so low key and so gentle (with people at least), it's easy to forget she's barely out of toddler-hood.

And because she's so calm (and because she's so much older looking now), we sometimes expect more from her than is reasonable or than she's able to give. We sometimes treat her like a little (in stature) grown-up. We occasionally assume she'll focus and pay attention the way the bigger dogs do. Or that she won't break concentration like mature Labs three times her age.

But she's just a puppy.

The fact that she can only focus well for 15 minutes, if that, has nothing to do with poor development or willful disobedience; it has everything to do with the fact that she's a puppy.

She's a young pup at that, just five-and-a-half-months-old. It will be at least a year before she moves out of puppydom, maybe more (Labs can take a good two years to mature).

But because Pinot is so sweet and low-key, and because she's seemingly so mature and intelligent for her age, we find ourselves unfairly rushing her development.

Not on purpose, mind you. We just forget.

Just like DH forgets that I'm four years younger and that I can still take regular (not-for-SILVER-folks) vitamins. ;o)

But taking "silver" vitimins can't and won' t hurt me.

Demanding too much too soon from Pinot, though, could hurt her spirit in the long run, and it will only frustrate us.

That's the same thing that happened when we treated our kids like little adults instead of the children they were (forgive us, Kiddos, for all those times we did that to you; we were learning how to be parents every bit as much as you were learning to be children).

In the grand scheme of things, there has to be time and grace for childhood to be childhood and puppydom to be puppydom.

And there has to be time and grace for 40-somethings to stay 40-something, instead of jumping into that "silver" thing.

Let's not rush it; rather, let's enjoy each stage while it lasts.

Besides, God-willing, there'll be plenty of time for that other stuff later.

:o)

'Til next time,
Joan

Puppy Discoveries at 3.5 Weeks

People have laps, and they're pretty comfy, too. In fact, people are pretty nice. We're starting to bond with our humans:


But we still need Mom, even if she doesn't nurse us as much as she used to, and even if she doesn't stay with us all time:


Grooming ourselves is a good thing, especially since Mom doesn't do that so much anymore:


There's more to drink in this life than Mom's milk and puppy formula, and it comes in different containers. It even feels good on our faces and feet:


Foam rubber makes a comfy head-rest, but Grandma's gonna remove it soon since we're all getting teeth and starting to chew on it:


People arms are fun to gnaw on, but Grandpa and Grandma won't let us:


We can sleep just about anywhere:



We can sleep in just about any position:


We can sleep in just about any space, even in the tightest of quarters:


And sunshine through the window feels warm and good on our faces and coats:


All-in-all a puppy's life is a pretty good deal. We can't wait to see what next week holds!

'Til next time,
The Puppies, for "Grandma" (aka, Joan)

Miss Black Discovers Bobo

Little Miss Black has discovered Bobo, the long stuffed purple dog.

That is, she's discovered it's a toy to be played with. So she chews on Bobo's ear and tries to pick Bobo up (a trick when the other pups keep standing on Bobo). Then she attempts wrassling Bobo, but Bobo doesn't wrassle back.

Then she spies Mr. Mallard the Duck.

And if you watch long enough, you'll even get to see her bark at and pounce on Mr. Mallard. :o)

This is the first time I've seen Miss Black bark or pounce.

And, remember, she's only three weeks old, so her coordination isn't what you might expect. ;o)

Enjoy!




'Til next time,
Joan

We're THREE WEEKS OLD! (the puppy update)

The pups are all three weeks old now (as of early this morning).

Here's their progress report:

• ALL have quadrupled (at least) their weights since birth.
• Six of them are over five pounds. Two are just shy of 5 lbs.
• ALL are using their vision, though not visually tracking yet.
  
• ALL are hearing and responding to sudden noises.
• ALL are lapping liquids.
• ALL are climbing over the whelping box "door" (no one said it had to be graceful or controlled to count).
• ALL are teething.
• Some have some erupted teeth (teeth already broken through the gums).
• Red (Miss Scarlet) has the most teeth. :o)

• ALL have discovered they have litter mates.
• ALL have started "wrassling" with and chewing on their sibs.
• ALL will rest comfortably on their backs when cradled in our arms.
• ALL have demonstrated several vocalizations: bark, growl, howl, whine, grunt, etc. (I'm not sure they know what they mean yet, but they've at least tried them out.)
• ALL have experienced seven different surfaces beneath their paws (and all found it interesting).

Here are their weights to date (heaviest to lightest), at exactly three weeks old:

• Green: 5 lbs. 14 oz.
• Pink: 5 lbs. 10 oz.
• Pink-and-White: 5 lbs. 8 oz.
• Blue-and-White: 5 lbs. 5 oz.
• Red: 5 lbs. 4 oz.
• Blue: 5 lbs. 2 oz.
• Black: 4 lbs. 12 oz.
• White: 4 lbs. 10 oz.
  

That's the update!

Stay tuned for more milestones.

'Til next time,
Joan

Another Milestone: Learning to Lap!

Well, the puppies are three weeks old today, so we figured it was time to introduce them to "lapping" up liquids (as a precursor to beginning the weaning process).

In this clip, you see them lapping for the very first time. :o) DH put some puppy formula in a "flying saucer" feeder, set the pups around the pan, and let them go at it.

They were actually quite skilled and not nearly as messy as I expected.

See for yourselves:




I shot this next clip just a minute later when they all seemed to have figured it out.

The "crackling" you hear in the background is actually the noise of the puppies all lapping at once. :o)





Pretty smart bunch, I'd say.

Of course, I'm not biased. ;o)

'Til next time,
Joan

Adventures!

The pups explored toys for the first time this week. Here's Mr. Green taking a nice sniff of this strange furry creature (it's a plush mallard duck that makes a duck call when squeezed).


The sweet Elsie Girl, however, still likes duck toys herself. She had to play with this first before her kids could have a turn. :o)















The pups are getting more human socialization this week, too. Here's Miss White snuggling with DH Don.














We're also introducing them to new surfaces under their feet (just for a minute or two). Here they are trying out a natural fiber throw rug (like jute only a bit softer). Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, and Miss Scarlet were brave enough to explore beyond the carpet's edges.


















The puppies graduated to a new scale! Here's Miss Scarlet trying it out.

All the pups except Miss White have topped 4 pounds (that's 4x their birth weights in just over two weeks). Miss White (the runt) is still gaining proportionally, weighing in at 3 pounds 12 ounces.






All of their noses and pads have darkened, and their ears are soft and floppy now. Here's Pinky socializing with Aunt Jeanie.




A few of the pups have discovered there's a whole new world beyond the whelping box walls.

Yes, they're all of 16 days old and they're climbing!

We even had two escapees today: Mr. Green and Miss Scarlet.

I left the house for only two hours for a meeting this morning (second time leaving the pups with no humans in the house, the first time being yesterday, again for two hours). Elsie had just nursed the pups, Ridge and Kenya were crated, and Baxter lounged in the family room with Elsie. Because I'm still occasionally rescuing pups from beneath Elsie when she sits on them, I put the gate up between the family room and kitchen to be sure Elsie wouldn't go in the whelping box while I was gone.

When I came home, the first thing I did was check the whelping box.

Uh oh. Only six pups. Then I see movement on the other side of the kitchen underneath the dishwasher. There's Miss Scarlet.

Then I hear howling in the family room. Mr. Green had scooted around the gate's edge, down two shallow brick steps and was snuggled in behind a big pickling crock we have in a corner out there. Elsie was standing watch.

Everybody was fine; no worse for wear. But it sure scared me.

SO... the next adventure came this afternoon when I set up the exercise pen (didn't think I'd need this for another week or so).

The exercise pen for now gives me a safe place to put the pups while I clean the whelping box. This one will move outside when the weather warms up (we're only in the 40s tonight). I have another one for indoors, but this was handier, so I used this one instead.

In just a little bit I'll upload a video or two of the pups exploring. First will be a short clip of them leaving the whelping box for their playtime with people.

Then I'll post a brief clip of them exploring the new play area.

Be back shortly!

Joan

Two Weeks Old: Then and Now

We're all two weeks old now!

Here we are then (right after we were born):

Here we are now:

My, how we're growing!