Fury loves her kids still.

So a couple people have been asking how Fury's relating to the puppies now that they are older. I have to say, Fury is an amazing momma. I guess lots of people were expecting her to get tired of them and want them to ship out, but this could not be further from the truth.

All the pups are sacked out all over the living room. Rippa made her debut as a true adventure puppy today - hiking through backcountry brush with Yishai to scout a new rappel site for our upcoming Adventure Race in may, and then she and Daca got to go to SLO Op, where they socialized with our friends and tore around the parking lot and gym for about four hours before coming back home to eat and tear around the house again.

I just watch Fury get up from her nappy spot on the couch and go over and lick Daca's ears, eyes, and paw where she has a cut from being a reckless puppy. For a good ten minutes. She alternates between gestures like that and strong corrections for bad behavior - if Daca or Rippa get too far out of line with her, or each other, she kind of mouths/gnaws their head and will escalate it as far as they want to go, and as soon as they back off, she follows them around, licking them and rebonding.

Fury has been an only child since I've had her. I've always wondered what would happen if I introduced a puppy into the mix. She's had to share living space with other people's dogs for four out of her seven years, but she's always been a bit of a tyrant with them. If they go near her food, she corrects, if they let her hump them, she will. But she's done no such thing with the puppies. Aside from an early overcorrection, Fury rules her puppies benevolently, doesn't mind sharing lap, couch, crate, or bed space with them - should the situation arise, and one of the most endearing things is that in the mornings, I kick out Daca to the backyard while I finish sleeping (she gets up around 7). She and Rippa will be out there all day if I'm busy and Yishai drops his puppy out, and Fury will beg at the door to go be with them. She hasn't tried escaping once from the backyard while they're out there. It's pretty cool.

Still, I wouldn't say that they are overly bonded to her, either. I have Rippa on my couch, Daca on another, and still Fury on another. They all retreat to their corners and they all look to me or Yishai for guidance over each other. It's a good balance.

The only thing I have to be careful about is that if one of the puppies keys up (more specifically Daca, because pretty much nothing phases Rippa for long, if at all), she keys up, too. It's something I don't like, but I do think that over time as Daca learns to chill over situations that make her uncomfortable, Fury will chill, too. It's like when one cries after an accidental injury or something - she always goes over, whining, to see what she can do about it.

I remember Yishai being kind of annoyed at Fury's obsessive licking while she was pregnant and I told him to just wait and see, and it became apparent that the obsessive licking does have a nice trait along with it - she got to do it to the puppies (and now dumb ol' Lil Rippa dog has it - Daca is more the fall onto the ground and rub all over it while you rub her belly type).

I can't really describe it, but in all her currently naked splendor (but the new stuff is coming in and she's even softer than the puppies now), Fury's gotten sort of holy to me. She went from my dog, albeit a quite awesome dog for my purposes, to something with a higher calling - and one that hasn't gone away yet. It may still one of these days, and for now I'll appreciate it. I was expecting Fury to want to teach them to back off of her, but she still regularly engages them in play and grooming sessions and it's done HER a world of good, too. She's younger acting and more fun and happy all the time. When she was pregnant, she was anything but. Poor girl.

And when they leave, I can't say she clearly misses them - with Reid she was a bit confused and searched the house for him, and then got over it, but she is loving to them when they are around. :)