The puppies are a week old now. I spend pretty much all my time the first few days keeping them cool. It was low 90’s here. Newborn puppies don’t have the ability to cool or heat themselves. But we got through that hot spell ok. They are getting much stronger. Some of them can stand well enough for their tummy to clear the ground. Everyone is gaining nicely.

Purple – 1lb 2oz

Green – 1lb 4oz

Orange – 1lb 7oz

Red – 1lb 3oz

Pink – 1lb 2oz

Blue – 15oz

Magenta – 1lb 0oz

Echo has seven healthy babies. Three females, two solid black and one black/tan. Four males, one solid black and three black/tan.

Purple – 12.3oz

Green – 13.5oz

Orange – 14.9oz

Red – 11.5oz

Pink – 11.5oz

Blue – 10.3oz

Magenta – 9.8oz

I’m a horrible blogger. Sorry folks.
Echo is coming into heat. She is spotting and starting to flirt with Bree. He is keeping a nose on her but not getting excited yet.

All the puppies have gone to wonderful homes. Blue/Aeden went last. He was such a dear! I love bonding time with the last puppy. It’s always the hardest one to let go. Aeden went to a family who has a full sister of his. That was pretty exciting! I heard that yesterday he “helped” his dad plant some shrubbery. He did so well staying with me those few weeks longer. I am toying with the idea of keeping the pups a week or so longer for the chance it gives me to give them an even better start on life. They would be a bit steadier and better trained. It would make things easier for them and the new families. We’ll see.
I’ll be putting up their pictures on the past litter page as soon as I can.

I let the puppies out day before yesterday to play around the farmyard. Here are some pictures I got.  Later that evening I had Black, Olive and Yellow inside so I could set their ears. Click on any picture to get  larger view.

It was getting closer for Miss Coco (purple) to leave. I wanted to start getting her used to being away from her siblings. Being inside with only people. I brought her in to be with me for the afternoon. She was not very happy with the idea. She is not quite as people oriented as some of the other pups. I played with her and gave her all sorts of goodies but she really wasn’t interested. Mostly she sat by the door and whined. I noticed that part of the problem was the heat. She had a lovely warm coat for living outside. Compared to that inside was sweltering! I made a note to trim her before she went home. I brought her in a few more times that day. She was doing better by the end of the day. Last night really changed things. I took just her on a visit to one of my friends. This friend had a cat, Chance. Coco knew sometime about cats. Our cat Tansy had given her a good lesson a few weeks earlier. Chance on the other hand, didn’t know about dogs. Coco was very respectful. She gave very nice dog speak saying she wasn’t a threat. It was delightful to watch to them communicate over the course of the evening. They didn’t get to the friend stage but Coco was so polite that the cat eventually unruffled and would play on the bed where he could keep an eye on Coco.
It was also very endearing to watch Coco getting tired. She was so like a little kid. Very tired but not quite ready to settle down to sleep. I had brought a snuggle blanket but that wasn’t quite good enough. She found my jacket on the couch. She pulled it off. That was great fun. But she was still very tired. She mouthed it for a while. I didn’t take it away from her. This was not in anyway destructive chewing. It was like a little kid sucking his thumb. Pretty soon she fell asleep snuggled down in my jacket. I was dearly wishing for my camera. It make a sweet picture. We had more snuggle time on the 30 minute drive home. When I went out to get her this morning she came right to me. When I set down with her in the house she stayed with me and gave me gentle kisses. It’s hard to let them go when you’ve started to bond. But I felt much better about letting her go. Our hearts had met and what I found reassured that she would be just fine with her new people. Be well Coco, you are in good hands!