Puppies heading home

The first two of the puppies have headed to their forever homes this weekend and will both live just a mile apart in Seattle. Hopefully they will get to set up some play dates so they get to see each other. Milah will now be called Paisley and Worf's new name is still being decided. I think the list has been narrowed to Fritz, Otto (nodding to his schnauzer heritage) or Moose.

The 3 remaining boys will be dropped off tomorrow morning for their neuter surgery and then will head home over the course of the next week. Sisko will head to Portland on Wednesday - his new name will be Deiab (Dee-ab). Dax will be next and will be travelling to Beaverton Oregon a week from today. His new name will probably be Dexter. And then last but not least, on the 26th Rom's dad will fly across the country from Baltimore to carry him home. His new name is Hurley.

It has been a wonderful, but exhausting experience. I think we'll stick to adult fosters for awhile. We still have Franny and Star who are waiting patiently for the right home.

The photo above was taken when I had the bright idea to turn the bathroom into the puppies' nursery so they'd have more space. After the demise of a roll of TP and chew marks on the wall I decided that they would have to go back to the ex-pen.

The pack

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted to the blog. It seems like all my time is spent cleaning up after puppies. If I rush it still takes a full hour and a half in the morning to get everyone cleaned up, fed and pooped and cleaned up again before I can take a shower and get ready for work.

The puppies were listed on Petfinder and Adoptapet.com today and already we have applications for Rom and Sisko. We are going to miss them SO much after they go to their homes. When you watch a pup be born and care for it since birth it's tough to keep from getting too attached to them.

Franny and Star both are doing excellent with their housetraining and are such good girls. Franny has learned the "sit" command and "in your house" (which means she needs to go in her crate) and we are working on "leave it" and "drop it" with her. Both girls are very food motivated and smart so training them is easy, it's finding time to work with them that's the difficult part.

Star went to work with me yesterday and was so good. She greeted the customers like they were long lost family (still working on not jumping up on people) and when she wasn't doing that snoozed behind the counter in a nice cushy bed.

So that's the latest. If you know of any families who have the time, love and energy for a young puppy be sure to let them know about our little Trekkies.

Almost 8 weeks

The puppies turn 8 weeks old this Saturday and that means they are ready for their first set of puppy shots. Boy, this has gone fast. It seems like only yesterday that they were squirming around on their bellies. I've been meaning to post for quite awhile, even have a bunch of notes for a post but I never have time thanks to their penchant for tromping through their poop overnight which requires a pen cleaning and five puppy baths each morning. It's a good thing they are so dang cute.

So here's a photo of them at 6 weeks old. As per usual most of their ears are inside out. L to R are Dax, Rom, Sisko (back), Worf (middle) and Milah Jo (front, lying down). They are mostly weaned now, although Star is still having trouble letting go and is still quite protective of them. Their little personalities are very apparent now, which is fun. Anyhow, I have to run now - time to feed the puppies - again.

The perfect storm

Sh$% storm, that is. The puppies are growing up and now that they are over 4 weeks old the poop is coming fast and furious. This would be fine if it was a nice little pile in the corner, but no. For a young puppy pooping usually involves walking through the pile, wandering around in circles and then wiping in on your sibling a few times when you put them in a puppy smackdown.

It's a good thing they are so dang cute because these little boogers have entered the stage where they are a LOT of work, what with the supplemental feeding, extra laundry, and the steady supply of urine and feces they provide.

They are growing so fast, so a couple days ago we moved them out of their playpen and into an x-pen where they have more room to play (and spread their poop around.) Fuzzy faced Sisko is the biggest at 2# - 13 1/2 oz and Milah Jo is still the smallest at 2# - 3 1/2 oz.

Their personalities are starting to emerge which is very fun. Dax knows what he wants and isn't afraid to let you know about it. Milah, Worf and Rom are all pretty easy going with Milah being the most playful of the three. Worf was the first to discover his bark. Even though Sisko is the biggest, he is a bit timid and takes longer to get used to new things.

The picture above was taken after an extremely involved cleanup of the x-pen last night. Watching Troy and I work so much at cleaning up their poop and pee really wore out the pups and they crashed with all the little brown/black pups (F to B: Milah Jo, Worf and Sisko) lined up in a row.

Wire-haired?

The pups are now 3 weeks old and the big surprise this week is that several of them are growing these scruffy long hairs around their face which makes me wonder if dad was wire-haired or long haired. Since we were told that Star is from a puppymill we assumed that dad was another rat terrier, but who knows now. We will just have to watch and wait.

Dax continues to lead the pack in development and Rom in size. This week Dax has learned how to pee and poop without mom's help. Thankfully he walks over to the corner of the playpen before he does his business. He's the smallest of the boys, but is certainly precocious. Rom is now almost 2 1/2 pounds and the smallest two pups, Milah Jo and Dax, should hit the 2 pound mark today.

The photo above is of Sisko and you can see a bit of the scruffy hair that is growing in around his face.

Going mobile

The puppies' 2nd week was a week of firsts: early in the week Dax opened his eyes followed a few days later by the rest of the pups. Then a couple days ago Dax started walking and today all the pups are up on all fours, wobbling around the playpen. Another first this week was my first panic that something was wrong with a pup.

Although Dax was the last pup to be born, and one of the smallest, he quickly overtook the others in weight as was soon tied with his brother Rom for heaviest. Then over the course of 3 days his weight gain slowed to a stall and he seemed low energy compared to his typical self. He also no longer was seeking out the pile of siblings when he went to sleep but would snooze off by himself and his suck when he nursed seemed much weaker. His weight gain dropped to the point where he was the smallest again so I purchased some puppy formula at the feed store and started supplemental feeding with a small syringe. After just 2 days of these extra feedings he started putting on a more typical amount of weight and immediately decided that walking would get him moving much more quickly than scooting around on his belly.

Now that they are all "walking" when you look in the playpen there is often just a mass of wiggling movement - not often distinguishable as separate pups but a big pile of squirming fur. Soon they will start to be more aware of their siblings and play will begin.

The puppy pit

Once the whelping was complete and Star and her pups had some time to bond I needed to move the family into new, clean and comfy digs that would allow mama to get in and out but would keep puppies securely in one place where they'd be safe.

A lot of people use those hard-sided kiddie pools that you can buy at Target or places like that. Perfect idea, except that it was October and the kiddie pools had all sold out of stores by early August. At the Pet Market we have these playpens that are specifically made for small dogs and puppies. They are very similar to the fold up playpens for babies except these have an end that zips open so dogs are able to come in and out. This one also has a hard plastic liner that fits in the base and is easy to clean - perfect. With some clamps and cardboard I added a lip to the end to allow Star to come in and out easily but to keep the puppies inside and it has worked wonderfully.

Once they are bigger we'll switch to an ex-pen at home and the playpen can go back to work for when the puppies have had their vaccinations and can visit the store with me.

All 5 of the pups have now passed the 1 pound mark and we anxiously await their eyes opening. Their little snouts are starting to lengthen so they look more like puppies and less like little mice. lol

One week old

The pups are now a week old and a couple of days ago the blonde guys started getting their nose and pad colors. Here you can see little Dax's nose, starting to get a little bit of black at the tip.

They have nearly doubled in size and are all quite healthy. Star has an arm chair in the puppy room that she sits on and chews on her nylabone when the pups are sleeping. It's 84 degrees in the room so they do fine without her body heat. Like any mom, she treasures her kid-free moments when she can relax and do what she wants.

I really find it tough to believe that Star was a puppymill dog. She is in no way fearful of humans, loves attention, and (drumroll) is housetrained and trained to a pee pad. She was just going on the pee pad in the middle of the night but she has taken to waking me up at 5:30 am so we can take a walk in the back yard in the freezing cold and she can do her business. I much prefer wadding up a pee pad at 7:30 am to getting up at 5:30, but hey, I shouldn't complain.

Today we took the puppies' 1 week old photos that will be used on New Rattitude's Website for the nursery Webpage. There was also a New Rattitude litter born in Michigan this week - 4 girls. Watch for photos of them on the New Rattitude Website soon.

Little Squirmers

The puppies are all doing great and growing quickly. Star continues to be a great mom and dotes on the puppies constantly, only leaving her box for quick bathroom breaks. After she's done she tears back in the house and up to the office, waiting for me to open the door so she can get back to the babies.

The 2 blondies are the biggest and are growing faster than the other three. Dax actually started out as the smallest, but now he's as big as brother, Rom. They are nearly identical so we had tied a ribbon around Rom's neck so we could keep track of who was who at weigh in time. Last night I went to weigh the pups and was calling out the weights to Troy, who wrote them down for me. I weighed Dax, put him back in the box, and then grabbed the other blond pup, Rom. I weighed him and the weight was the same. Then I realized this pup didn't have a ribbon. I looked back in the box, confused, and there was Dax, asleep where I had laid him. Then I realized that Star must have chewed off the ribbon. We laughed over that, trying to decide who was who since Dax had caught up in weight to Rom. Luckily I had noticed earlier in the day that when you turn on the overhead lights that Dax is just slightly darker than Rom along his back. You have to have them side by side to notice but there is that slight difference.

The three dark pups are all starting to get their rattie eyebrows which is SO cute. They show up best on the brown pups, Milah and Sisko, but I can see that Worf is getting his as well. It will be fun to see their little markings start to emerge.

Anyhow, the photo above show little Mr. Rom, before his ribbon was removed by his momma.

Star and her Trekkies

Yesterday from 3:45 pm to 6:20 pm Star gave birth to 5 healthy little puppies. There were 4 boys and 1 girl and they were all between 7 3/8 oz and 7 3/4 oz in size. She is an excellent mom and really there wasn't much for me to do but sit back and watch her work. I actually missed the birth of the first little guy because I went downstairs to get heat the microwave pads for the puppy basket. I figured I was way early but, you know - better safe than sorry. I get upstairs 2 minutes later and Star is licking this little black blob.


Two of the boys are blondies, like Armstrong/Sunny if you remember that little foster guy that we had. As they age their markings will show up but for now they look solid. The first pup is a black sable with tuxedo markings and then the other two are dark brown with black sable and the tuxedo markings.


The girl's name is Milah Jo, and the boys are Worf, Rom, Sisko and Dax. All the names follow our space theme and are from the TV show "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" since these five pups bring our current dog count to 9!

Blogger is being obnoxious and currently won't allow me to get photos in my posts from Flickr. So to see all the photos go to the Star set of photos over on Flickr.com.

Star

Star stopped eating last night and has been resting most of the morning. Now stage one of her labor is starting so we should have puppies tonight. Wish her luck!