The Latest Happenings At Laurel Mt. Llewellins

Puppy Update:

 

The most exciting news, is of course, Maisy x Brier puppies are 3 weeks old tonight. The weeks have flown by! The puppies are really “waking up” now and this is a really fun time. They are playing more and more with each other and chewing on their toys (yes, some of their teeth are in, now). They are getting around the whelping box quite well and are coming to the door to curiously look to see what is outside of this box. #1 and #6 have even tried to escape, but are unable to get over the pvc-pipe pig-rail. We will have to remove the rail and put the door up soon to keep the little squibbers from escaping.

We introduced their first “mash”, as I call it, tonight. This is just some of the puppy food (that Mamma has been eating) with warm water added. It tastes most like what comes from mom, or so I am told. This soaks for about 20 – 30 minutes to absorb all the water, then I mash it all up and add a little more water. We could also use a milk replacer, but when out (as I am at the moment), water is just fine and, in my opinion, is more like what they have been receiving from Maisy. We only let them have a few tastes at first so as to be sure to not upset their systems. They were all very interested and smelled it as soon as the dish was placed in the box. They came over with wagging tails and started lapping it up, stepping in it and licking it off of one-another’s faces. I think they like it. It was too cute.

Update on Shay’s Progression:

Shay has started to show a few signs of pregnancy. While at just about a month pregnant, it can be very difficult to tell, but a gal that is usually absolutely famished at dinner time has not eaten very much the past two days. I remember her doing this last time she was in-whelp at different stages as the puppies start to grow. She is widening a bit and losing some hair around the teats. We brought her inside last week during the frigid temperatures and she is just thrilled to be inside. Shay usually loves to be outside in her kennel keeping watch over the neighborhood and is terribly bored in the house, but she barely wants outside now! She has been perfectly content to wrestle around with Luke in the dining room (Shay & Luke are great buddies), make her rounds checking out the yard and the bird feeders, but otherwise is spending the days curled up snoozing away in her cozy crate. Only about 5 1/2 weeks to go! Shay is due to whelp around March 30th..