Two boys, two girls!

The pups will be one week old tomorrow, so it’s time for a progress report.

Deca and the pups are great.

It’s quite amazing to me to see how fast they’re growing. And although their eyes are not open and they can’t walk, they’re remarkably mobile—and fast—as they crawl around the whelping box. Looking for their mother and a meal.

They’re also quite noisy. One of them is almost always making some noise, more often than not, two or three of them are squealing. That’s really what it is…a squeal. And loud too. But this is a good thing.

I’m still checking on them regularly to see if they’re still breathing! It’s what I do, can’t help it.. And I check to see that they haven’t crawled under the mat which lines the whelping box. They have done that on several occasions, and it appears that Deca has pulled back the mat so that puppies are not covered. Good Deca.

Deca is a great mother. She seems to have the puppy thing down. This litter was delivered in 2 ½ hours, her first litter, although larger, took more than 14 hours. Deca spends a lot of time with the pups, although not all. When they’re sleeping, she visits Ajax and I in some part of the house, or she takes a nap outside, where it’s cool.

Her appetite is ravenous, as you might expect, eating more than 6 cups of food per day. She’s still on the Science Diet Puppy food, which was recommended for pregnant and lactating dogs, and she seems to enjoy that.

Here’s some news: There are two males and two females. I think!