days 14-19 seeing the daylight

yep, as the title suggests all my little nippers eyes are open and although there seems to be a little confusion, they can see! and combined with their little leg muscles developing, they are really starting to move around the pen, making it hard to lay down without sitting on them!!

i was really sad when i found out toby could not make it back on wednesday night : ( fiona told me he'd hurt is back, which i was worried about too, so i was very relieved and happy when he arrived last night, yay! i was so excited to see his reaction when he saw the pups, as they've grown so much, so quickly.

tobes popped down at about 430 this morning as the pups were making such a racket! but all was ok - always lovely to see him, although he made me laugh, he was still half asleep and butt naked - fortunately the pups eyes were closed at the time!!

we had a busy saturday morning, tobes building a bigger pen while i fed the pups. his mum, harriette, arrived later to see us all and lend a hand - tobe was not his usual agile self ; ) they weighed all the pups, gave them new collars and some needed their nails clipped - when's he going to get round to doing mine, does he really expect to bite them?!











so much going on today - tobe also gave the pups a meal of processed puppy food and water, they loved it, but trying to keep them clean was impossible, some had climbed into the bowl! so while tobe picked them out, i licked them clean - but the food was so nice, as soon as the pups stopped eating i dived in!! cant's waste it ; )


later tobe placed the pups in their new kennel. i was a little concerned as i did not really understand what he was doing and i could not see them. but he lifted the lid for me to see them all curled up asleep, so i relaxed a little and enjoyed a moment to myself until the next feed.


even so, i was relieved to see them clamber out of the little door way when they woke, pee on the newspaper and walk over to me for their milk. tobe was there to guide them, i think he could tell i was anxious, but i needn't be, he'd never let me down.

tobes said i should put some photos up of me, in my former glory, pre dugs for britain!! can't wait to get back out into the hills, chase a few rabbits, hares, may be even a deer =))

days 6-12 - growing pains

long days and long nights, bouts of deep deep sleep, then lengthy feed sessions, followed by cleaning and i mean a lot of cleaning......including the things the pups leave behind!

the week was mixed, toby went up to london for a meeting on monday, back down that night, and then away again on wednesday, only to be back friday. i miss him when he's away, especially now with all the pups. i'm lucky to have fiona here looking after us all, but it's just that for 4.5 years i've been almost everywhere with tobes.  hope it's not always like this?

so nice to sit in the sun, at least for a few minutes!

weekends are very busy, lots of visitors. yesterday, toby's brother max popped by, then jenny came to stay and then friends of toby's from new zealand - who currently live in dubai - donna, andy, fin, maya and riley (hope i've got the spelling right??). and of course mary pops in most days, though i think i must have been asleep when she came in? anyway, i was knackered by the time everyone had left, slept like a log last night!

in my own basket at last

had a yummy leg of lamb today. jenny cooked a roast, smelled sooo delicious, my mouth was watering! such a contrast to dried dog food, which although good, it is a little dull. having said that, toby has been adding mince to my food, so that's been an improvement....but for how long?

diet obviously ok though, they're all growing though, ranging from miss grey at 850g yesterday up to 1200g for both mr yellow and mr turquoise.

huddling together for comfort and warmth



however, what's good for the pups may not be so good for me. weighed myself today 46kg! normally around 41kg and my teats are huge! hope i'm gonna be able to get rid of these in a few weeks??? hydrotherapy is apparently the answer, i'll have to make sure toby sorts this out for me once i've weaned the pups off the milk. weaning starts next week, thank the lord! yes, that's right, week three starts on wednesday.

adorable while they sleep!










naming, well that's a challenge. i know toby's got to register a kennel name and names for each puppy - i wonder if he'll like the ones i've chosen? it's very exciting! but even more so, mr white (collar) opened his eyes on friday! fiona was the first to see him and mary popped in and saw them open too. some of the others are starting to open their eyes, very slowly. still, i doubt they'll be seeing very much for a while still.

they sleep everywhere and anywhere