5 Weeks Old! Pretty as a Picture...

Little Miss Kearney

Bailey Boy

Mr. Seamus

So here we are at five weeks old! Each day they look and act a little more like dogs and less like little infants. Don't they look so grown up?!

They went to Pet Helpers yesterday for their weekly weigh in...

Drum roll please!

• Seamus is leading the pack at 7 lbs. 1 oz!
• Kearney is not far behind him at 6 lbs. 14 oz.
• Bailey a respectable 6 lbs. 10 oz.

I am sure that weening off of formula and moving to puppy food (Good bye midnight feedings! I won't miss you!) is responsible for much of the gain this week. They are up to a full 13oz. can of soft food per day per puppy. The evolution of their eating continues with incorporating solid food. Oh, and let's not forget the daily baths in the water bowl. With big dog food come big dog water bowl. Fun stuff.

Speaking of baths, they get a dunk in the sink just about every other day now. Keeping them on a schedule has been key. We feed outside on the patio to keep the mess to a minimum and then they can go straight into play and potty time. House training has been very successful. with strict adherence to the schedule, we have had only one or two poops in their puppy den and them mainly going outside. They use puppy pads when inside and that equals cleaner, less stinky puppies and puppy house and a happier puppy mama.

Feeding takes a bit longer now that they each have big dog bowls. They manage to get in a quick game of musical bowls while eating... so ambitious. I am happy to report that they show no signs of food aggression to people or each other. In fact most of the meal is spent trying to get them to focus on eating instead of seeing if the food is tastier in the next bowl.

After grub, a quick game of bite a tail. They play so hard that 20 minutes of game time and they are exhausted. They let me know when they want to go in, because they toddle up the stairs to the back door. It's really something - they actually tumble UP the stairs.

After four hours of nap and quiet time we get to do it all over!

It's amazing to watch their personalities develop. They see and respond to their world in very distinct ways. I want to tell you all about each one, but the little idiosyncrasies of all three would be too much for one blog post, so I'll let you get to know them separately in days to come.

Public Service Announcement

Take a few moments out of your stress filled day to goo-goo gaa-gaa over some seriously cute puppy pictures. I have a theory: the world would be a much better place if puppy picture viewing was mandatory for five minutes each day. So think of your time here as a public service... view before driving to mitigate road rage or before disciplining your teenager. Enjoy.

P.S. these pics are all little girl Kearney.

Side note: B and I are as tired as these puppies look after the feedings and the outside romping and the baths and the feedings and the outside romping and the baths.... did I say the outside romping? But I don't feel as tired after looking at these sweet faces and knowing that they are alive and safe because I am giving them my time and love for a few weeks. Makes me well up to think that if we hadn't said yes, these sweet little paws might not have had a chance to grow.

If you think you might want to save a few cuddly, snuggly-wuggly, smooshy ... (clearing throat) I mean, if you have any questions about becoming a foster go to www.pethelpers.org to find out how you can save a few sets of paws yourself.

4 Weeks Old! Time to Eat...Play...Potty Train!

Today was a major milestone.... RECESS!
Now that these little sluggers are four weeks old they are big enough to venture outside the walls of their little puppy den. Their immune systems have finally caught up with their desire for lots of space to play. Our fenced in back yard is a safe place for them because only our dog Peanut has access, so we know they won't be exposed to anything dangerous for puppies. Dog parks and other public places are still out until they have had all of their vaccinations. I am going to have to be a little faster on the shutter from now on. They can really get up some speed!

It was sooooo adorable to see how they reacted to having space to really get up some speed running. At first they stayed pretty close to us and would immediately come to our voices.

Clearly Kearney thinks that this new 'running' business is exhausting.

FEEDING

The pups are now lapping from a bowl and got introduced to a mix of canned puppy food and formula today (AKA Gruel). It took about 3 feedings for them to get used to eating from a bowl and now they run right to it and lap away. Feeding now takes place on the kitchen floor and is followed by play and potty time.

Potty training has started and we have successes and failures, but routine is key. Making sure they are placed on the puppy pads after naps and before meals begins the connection of a time and a plce for 'going'. They usually go before and after meal time, so you must be prepared or clean the consequences. As they grow their play den is being used more for play and sleep than for potty. And I am happy to report that they are more on a potty schedule.

WEEKLY WEIGH IN

Another weekly adventure to Pet Helpers for their weekly weigh in. Here are the results:

• Kearney 5 lbs 4 oz


• Seamus 5 lbs 4 oz


• Bailey 4 lbs 14 oz

That's 1.25 lb gain this week. With gruel being introduced, we fear they will take over our little kingdom Godzilla-style within the week.

Dinnertime will now include a bath as a necessity to keep these little tykes from gnawing on each other for tasty leftover morsels from their last meal. Seamus for one is not happy about this, but complies quietly.

Good night from three happy, full and played out pups.

FRIDAY'S ALRIGHT FOR FIGHTING!

Friday night, after Batman and Robin returned from a quiet dinner out, we decided to put the pups in the kitchen and play with them a bit. We have done this one on one over the last few days since they are walking good now. This is first time all three have had this much room to run around together. They had a blast! At 26 days old, they are becoming very playful.

They taunted poor Peanut at the gate wanting her to come in and play.

Little did they know that Peanut could and did jump the gate. All 3 attacked Peanut with love, kisses and playful bites. Being playful and socializing is important at this age. Peanut lets them know what is good play and bad play, just like their real mom should be doing.

They now have there voices and bark and growl when playing with each other and us.

After a nice hour or so of play it was bedtime, so they curled back in their puppy den with their Easter Ducky and went right to sleep.

HAPPY EASTER FROM THE FOSTER PUPS!

3 weeks old!

The pups turned 3 weeks on Sunday, March 28th. Today marks their second week with us. Time has been flying by but it seems like they been here for longer.

Here is an update:

Monday we had a weigh in and here are the results!

1. Kearney 4 lbs
2. Seamus 4 lbs
3. Bailey 3 lbs 9 oz

That is a gain of 1.5 lbs in a week.

They are up to eating 100 ml per feeding and eating 5 times a day. The first week they were eating about 20 ml per feeding. We took away a feeding because they were not eating in the afternoon, so we spread the feedings out more and now they eat a full meal each time.

The eating schedule is now:

1. 7 am
2. 12 noon
3. 4:00 pm
4. 8:00 pm
5. 12:00 am

They are now:

• Standing and walking easily!
• Barking, howling and growling!
• Playing both with us and each other!
• Getting their baby teeth! OUCH!

The next two weeks will be challenging as we try to ween them from the bottle and eat from a saucer and also introduce solid food.

MORE NEW PICS COMING SOON!

Just a minute of your time...

Now that they are a bit more mobile I thought a quick video would be fun. Sorry about the quality... I shot this with my phone. I am hoping that as they grow, so too will my videography skills. Either way enjoy a minute with these little cuties!

Check Up

Teddy bear Kearney says hello everybody! All went well at the vet check up today!

Waiting...Introducing Dr. Love (not kidding) of the Greer Clinic at Pet Helpers. Ran through the basics of any doctor visit for tiny beings... eating schedule, poo schedule, funny incidents and sleeping habits. These three are all rolling along just fine except for the poo. I won't unsettle anyone with details, let's just say there was a lot of discussion about a bit of an irregular poo situation. Instructions are to keep watch and see if their little tummies will settle in the next few days. If not, medicines will have to be administered.
All vitals strong; heart rate, eyes, ears, vocal cords....

And the all important temperature. Puppy temperatures in the third week should stay above 99 degrees. Now that they are a bit stronger and wigglier, it's less about getting an accurate reading and more about making sure that they are at least within range. I don't blame you little buddy, I prefer the under the tongue method myself.

And in this corner... weighing in at 2.5 pounds...

Seamus and Kearney are both two and a half pounds, while Bailey is a slim two and a quarter pounds. They have doubled in size in just the few days! Yikes!

It's a relief to know that all is well and that they are each strong and healthy. Now I'm off to make new calculations for feeding time... I think they are big enough now for that extra 1 oz. shot of formula in their bottle!