Avita Whippets

Argh....the puppies found several ways to get under the fence to my neighbor's yard. Head count was down three - made the trip to the neighbor's - one puppy retrieved.

Back to my yard - head count still down two. While this is going on, the big girls are jumping on me and the puppies that kindly stayed home are biting my ankles. The big girls go in the house and the door closes behind them. The homey puppies go into an ex pen (no more free range pups at my house) and as I head back to the neighbor's, one wiggles out from under the fence and goes into the ex pen pronto.

Over to the neighbor's yard - no puppy. Check out opposite fence and find no obvious place to go on through to the next neighbor's yard.

Back to my yard practically in tears. It is the littlest one that is missing - he is just over half as big as the largest ones. As I walk in, he bounds towards me with a happy little bounce. Thank goodness but oy vey - I could do without this much before coffee.

They had several visitors and spent the entire time doing either this:

Every day is different with these guys.  Today, Princess did her very best impression of jaws with her litter mates.  Taser and Key boy were particularly snuggly.  Both tried to jump into my lap several times and both took a little snooze in a puppy pile with Mr P on my lap. 

The little biggie piggies were free in the house while I quickly cleaned their room as it had gotten too hot to leave them outside.  There were the two or three little puddles for which I was prepared. 
Today I discovered that at some point they managed to bite through the computer speaker wire.   Ergh!
Today Princess was the bully.  Don't know what got into her.  Taser and Key boy continued their new affectionate ways.   RaRa has the whippet stare down pat and today Princess demonstrated that she can do the whippet head lock - locking one in the chair by the sheer weight of the head and neck.  They are all better at running and were positively scampering about the lawn today.   They are just so much fun.
On the down side, I'm out of newspaper.  I'm trying out ordinary white printing paper that is meant to be shredded.  Not a very good substitute.

It's striking how much their personalities/characteristics can change in just a few days.  Taser, former tormentor of the littler ones is now as sweet as he can be to all.  He is also coming over and asking for hugs.  On the other hand, the Dude, once the laid back big slacker, is moving along the dimension that heads to tormentor at the extreme.  Key Boy has turned into Mr Affectionate Cuddler.  I think he found he really liked all those hugs he got this weekend.  In contrast, he is also a bit more assertive with the others while playing.

Their play has matured.  They are now going into play pose to invite another to play.  They are loving the small stuffies and have learned to make them squeak.  They are also beginning to play tug games with one another.

I'm so lucky to be able to arrange my schedule so I can watch them during their play periods.  They are so darned cute!

Poor Dude was omitted from the individual shots through the error of photographing Cosmo twice.  In our defense, they are both blonde as am I which probably explains a lot if jokes are to be believed.  Friends helped me correct this error and you can see his first go at stacking for better or worse by clicking here

Time to rebuild the puppy pen.  Yesterday, Mr. P and Princess were climbing out regularly.  Today, it's the Dude and Princess.  Time to get the taller ex-pens up.  Shoot - now I won't be able to just reach over to pick them up or put something in the pen.

Finally had a chance to post a few of the candids from this last weekend.  We had so much fun.  See the pics here

The pups have been spending time in the back yard several times a day.  They are so adorable as they romp about.  Fortunately, we've had some visitors who have taken wonderful pictures.  Watch this space for those. 

I'm lucky that being self employed I'm able to take an hour in the morning to have my coffee and watch the puppies cavort in the yard.  Could there be anything cuter than a puppy bounding with some treasure?  This morning I discovered that the Dude, ever precocious as he is, has learned to bark.  He let a couple of his litter mates know what he thought of their play fight without him by giving them a good round of barks.  I thought I heard a bark from the puppy pen last night but assumed that I was dreaming.

This morning, the Princess was all cuddle bunny.  She played for a while and then climbed up my chair to get in my lap and snuggle.  What a sweet little bundle of softness.

Except for the Dude.  It was quite a week with my puter's untimely death, the older dogs going through the plate glass window (amazingly unscathed), etc.
The best part was that several friends came to visit and amongst them were Burt & Donna (Abby's folks) and they helped me get some individual pics of the pups.  Check them out here