I love coming down in the morning to hear the excited little squeaks of my prot\u00e9g\u00e9s. My Mistress would have had a good long night\u2019s sleep if I hadn\u2019t been sick as soon as she had gone to sleep and then the rest of the house woken her to come and sort me out. In reality, I didn\u2019t mean to. I think I may have got a bit carried away eating bird seed yesterday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m looking forward to today\u2019s midday weigh in as I think\nsome of them might be gaining quite well and Shadow seems to be feeling better\nthan she did a day or so ago. I think she has more milk again, which is good\nnews for everyone.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today the puppies move into their ninth day. It is still\nearly stages for them, but we are already talking in detail to the people whose\nhomes they may go and live in. There are so many important things to arrange.\nObviously, I need to meet all the prospective owners and give them a good\nsniff. We need to talk to each of the puppies about the sort of home they\nwould like to go to and especially with Aristotle we need to think if anyone is\neven nearly special enough to have him as part of their family. Then we need to\nask each of them to buy a comforter, like one a baby has and to sleep with it\nunder their arm pit for a few days, so that it really picks up their scent.\nThen they need to bring it for their puppy so that he or she can get used to it\nand have Shadow\u2019s scent mingling with theirs. That way when they go to their\nnew home it won\u2019t seem quite so strange and the little puppies will settle more\nquickly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Then just in case you haven\u2019t had enough of puppies, Mum said\nI should look at 2015 when Shadow\u2019s final litter were born. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Della is eating for England and had a lovely long time\nbottle feeding earlier. As much as possible our Mistress is trying to get them\nto feed from Shadow so that her milk flow continues, but when one is clearly\nstruggling to find a teat or is crying as they cannot get enough our Mistress\nis scooping them up and trying to supplement them. They are all going the right\nway, but progress is slow and we are hoping that trying the sponge method\ntomorrow will be easier. Little by little Shadow\u2019s infection seems to be\nclearing so we are hoping it will only be a day or two before her milk supply\nis good enough to feed the pups as much as they demand. Shadow is eating quite\nwell so that\u2019s good. Our Mistress says that the diarrhoea seems to have\nimproved, for which she is grateful, but Shadow now has unpleasant wind, which\nin a small room being kept warm and draft free is not the best for them all.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think our Mistress is going to have a serious attempt at\nbottle feeding them all at bedtime in the hope she will get at least a couple\nof hours sleep before they want their next feed. As yet they haven\u2019t got into\nany pattern, but that will come in time. D\u2019Artagnan and Duchess are both\nshowing early signs of being quite strong willed. Our Mistress says she will be\npaying careful attention to that and talking to their prospective owners. I\nsuspect they will be like their Mum and will just need an human to make\nclear who is in charge.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I really do have to stop there. Have a great Friday<\/p>\n\n\n\n Love Wilma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/alfiedog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/DSC00918-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/alfiedog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_8384-768x1024.jpg\")
Sorting out their homes<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Shadow improving<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bottle Feeding<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n