Day 70 - Pupdates

Well, it's quite an empty nest here in SLO - when Yishai takes his pup, it's a manageable 2-pup consortium.

Of course, every single time I go away, one of the designated caretakers makes a mistake in the pen procedures and my poor roommate, Laura, whose room is where the pet door to the yard is, gets to bear the brunt of it - as they come pouring in the pet door to chew and potty in the house unabated. Yes, neither Rex nor Fury do anything about it. Poor thing gets home from a job she doesn't especially love and . . . puppy pandemonium!!

Of course, I find much chagrin in the fact that she doesn't blame me but does want to force her parents to pick up little Fie (who has now been renamed Emma) sooner rather than later. But, alas for Laura, Emma will be living with us for another two weeks until they're back from Hawai'i.

Happily, the sun is out and the puppies are cavorting about in the backyard for the first time in a couple days. Since I moved them, I tried not to put the tarp up - as there is a very large, worn, nasty spot where the tarp was. I suspect it's more puppy foot work than tarp that killed my carefully grown grass (when I moved in here four years ago, the yard was nasty  . . . and now the puppy pens have made it nasty again. ooooops.

Everything seems to be normalizing. I get a lot of sleep, the puppies are on a good schedule, and we're all very happy at this point. I'm working on teaching them basic obedience and potty training, but it's fairly hard, givent that they are SO used to peeing wherever they like in the living room since it was impossible to manage playtime with six puppies.

As for the other kids, I am SO grateful to have been given the opportunity to place the puppies where I have.

First, we have Curry:

Curry's doing quite nicely in her new home - even though Amy bought her a down jacket my tough little working dog doesn't need it in the snows of New Jersey. I like being able to check Facebook to see what she's up to each day, and Amy does a great job keeping me in the loop with photos and updates on how she's doing. She certainly is a little spitfire and Amy reports I did good job in placing her with me, "very different from my other dogs" which I expected from her, but definitely in a good way.

Then there's Piper:

Goregeous little thing, and suuuuuuuper dominant. Here she is standing over Bekka's Willi. I wish I could link it so you could see Facebook videos. Piper is not intimidated by ANYTHING. Bekka sends me wonderful little love notes all the time: "I LOVE HER!!!! and I'm so glad I held out for MY puppy. ; ) Hope everyone is as over-the-top happy with their pups too." And yes, I think they are.

Then there is Reid (who got to keep his name):

I don't care who you are, if you don't love this photo of David, Reid, and Heather, you are dead to the world. He apparently is so glad to see them all come home that he sings to them now. I knew Reiderton would be happy as a family dog and this proves me right. He follows Kathryn around all day while she gardens (she is a Master Gardener), gets to play in the barn with the chickens and ducks, and he has his little dog family to keep him company when the people are gone.

And Rippa . . . well, I am errant on this one as I am the camera happy one in our relationship, but I have no adorable photos to post of Yishai and Rippa. I will tell you that he continues to share his bed with her. I was thinking about that this morning. I am so glad to have been able to give him his puppy. He loves dogs, always has, but hasn't had any even in his family since high school. He's the kind of guy that wants to give unconditional, unbridled love to things, and Rippa allows him to totally do that. All he does is kiss her and they  drive around with her on his lap (I keep telling him that is NOT gonna be so cute as she gets older . . .). When he's not around her, he talks about wanting to get back to her and squeeze her. She cries happily when she sees him (or me) . . . and I could not be happier with my choice to give him the pick of this litter.

As I said, Emma has a new home, but we're waiting for delivery, and then there's still Moto, and each week I have a couple of inquiries, but the longer I have him, the more I am sure he needs the most perfect home - one where he'll really get used but also have a lot of time with his people. I know I talked about breeding this litter for real life working homes, but I also socialized them so much that at this point, none of them is very happy about spending any prolonged periods away from people.