Avita Whippets

Woot has been spending a few days with our friend Jennie and her two whippet girls, Porkchop and Breeze.  Breeze is in a cast so not very active at the moment.  Porkchop, like Jennie, is a mile a minute kind of girl.  Woot and Porkchop are keeping each other busy while Breeze is out of the loop and we're all about the little puppies here.

Jennie took a picture this morning that shows how excited Woot gets.  Notice the blur differential  between Woot and Porkchop.   Porkchop is wagging her tail.  Woot is wagging her whole self.

Tonight I put smushed puppy kibble in the puppies formula for the first time.  They loved it!  Actually licked the bowl clean.  Even the ones that were not so into the formula loved the kibble.  Who knew?  

The other fun thing today was our friend Monika came by for a visit.  The puppies swarmed to her and just as Button seemed particularly attached to her, BlackBeard cozied up and went to sleep.  Just like Button used to do.

...mixed reviews from the canines.  The puppies LOVE that they have room to romp and knock each other over and have several bouts involving two or more of them in several corners of the ex-pen.  On the other hand, the penny hasn't dropped at all for some or completely for a few others.   The first day there were about 3 hits and 25 misses - probably no better than chance.  It's a bit better now.  One or two will go in on their own; one or two will go there if I pick them up at a strategic moment.  A couple of them put their front feet in and then pee in the step area as if it were a urinal.  I have to believe it will get better.

It's been time for several days to set up a larger (and taller) area for the biggie piggies and this afternoon I finally had a chance.  They are now on the new linoleum I got for this purpose and in a two foot high ex-pen.  I cut their pool down to just large enough for Big Mo to use when she nurses.  Added a litter box though they haven't used it yet.


Several of them were determined to crawl into the space between the pool and the expen.  I put in various stuffings to block their openings.  On one side, it didn't seem to be working so I rolled up a towel and put that in as well for a better block.  Several of them tried to get up and over or through with no success.  But only Keyhole boy thought to back into it to try to push it with his largest end.  I watched in amazement as he gave it a backward shove or two and then turned to see if it worked.  You could almost see him sigh.  What a smart boy.


They are all showing personality traits now.  Some of these will change of course but it's fun to watch them now. 

Yesterday marks three weeks since reality overran my calendar errors.  I was so busy working, I forgot to get pics!  I did manage to get a few this morning and will try to get individual shots later in the day. 


The puppies are now playing with each other quite a bit though for very short periods of time.  This morning Black Beard had an actual growl (baby version) and The Other Boy came over, gave him a look and climbed on his head.  Lots of bitey-mouthy games.


I'm supplementing them with formula with mixed success.  The larger ones have caught on how to lap it up though they don't want to eat very much of it.  The littlest tykes haven't mastered the art of lapping fluids. They snort and shudder whenever their nose goes near the bowl.  I suspect they think we may be water boarding them. Check out pictures here

Now that the puppies are old enough to see and hear, a couple of them have decided they want different baby names.  Cappie did not like his name at all and wants to be known as Topper.  BlackNose boy heard some cool pirate stories and now wants to be known as Black Beard.  The Other Boy feels as though he is not loved rather than a victim of our failure to pick out a unique distinguishing characteristic.  He's a little pouty but I'm sure he'll be alright as soon as he gets a more distinguised and distinguishing name.

The puppies have started playing with each other and with the toys that Woot has so thoughtfully brought to them.  They are on very wobbly back legs and seem to enjoy toddling about on them.  They just seem so darned healthy.   Knock on wood, we are very lucky.