An armful of love....life with puppies!

Our puppies were two weeks old on Sunday. They have probably tripled in size. Each weighed about 8 ounces when born but are now close to 3 pounds. They are just beginning to walk on their legs as opposed to crawling around the whelping box. Their eyes have opened this week but it is clear that they aren't quite focusing yet. They spend their time nursing and sleeping. Freckles is now beginning to leave the whelping box for short periods of time...I guess, like all Moms, she needs a break once in awhile. My boys are trying to pick the puppy they want to keep. Siah is pretty set on a little girl named Snowflake. Jeremy can't decide between a boy named Boris (the largest puppy) and a girl. We have read that sometimes the male puppies can be aggressive towards livestock...we are trying to research this further because we have never heard of a male Pyr being aggressive at all...except against predators! Elijah is holding puppies here as we clean the whelping box....a NEVER ending chore at this point! This is a job he eagerly volunteered for and loves doing although it is getting harder for him to keep them contained. When I watch him doing this the phrase that always comes to mind is "an armful of love". It has been hard to keep the attention on math and reading when there are six adorable puppies in the room. This next week will prove challenging. Now that eyes are open and puppies are up on their feet, we can look forward to lots of escapees. We have had a few attempts already. Sometimes they start looking for Mom when she is out of the box ...up until now this had been done through sense of smell. But now that eyes are open and just beginning to focus - I can see real trouble ahead! In another week we will begin taking deposits on the puppies we decide to sell. We already know that it will be hard to part with them. I think it will be hardest on Elijah since he isn't getting "one of his own". They are beginning to growl and bark - cutest sounds you ever heard! To be so little and to act so fierce! They like to pile up and sleep together. I think it is part warmth and part security. Their markings are beautiful - they all have the badger mask so common to Pyrs. Each one a little different in shading and depth of color but all of them adorable! This is a close-up of Boris - (Boris the Big!). He is huge! He also seems a step ahead of all the other puppies - his eyes opened first, he was up on his feet before the others. So, from my perspective, this means trouble :) What amazes me most are the size of the feet on some of these guys.....some look like 50 cent pieces (remember those?). It has been a wonderful experience for my boys. So much more personal than the calves and goats who arrive each spring. But, it is not one that I am anxious to repeat any time soon! The amount of laundry required to keep the whelping box clean is amazing. The fact that someone always has to be in the house has made things difficult...from a trip to town, to church etc., someone always needs to stay behind. I know that we will be experiencing the "teething mode" before I can say "NO!" and I am really not looking forward to that! I know from experience what one set of puppy teeth can do.....imagine 6! So, today we will be extending the height on the sides of the whelping pen so we can keep them contained a little longer and hoping for warm weather so they can be moved outside.