How are they already 6 weeks old?  The time goes by so quickly.  The puppies are fully transitioned to hard food and they have mastered the dog door.  They love to play outside and like to chase and climb on and play with the big dogs. They wrestle and play with each other which teaches them social skills and how to get along with other dogs.

Our sweet Hiccup is 4 years old today!  He is the cutest, sweetest, funniest little guy and we are so lucky to have him.  This boy was imported from Serbia and his previous owner just couldn't give him much attention.  We are really glad he ended up here!  Our happy little ball-obsessed boy is so much fun.

The puppies are growing up so fast!  They get play time outside almost every day now and have learned how to escape their indoor puppy pen (when we open the door).  They are starting to learn how to get in and out of the dog door, and Mom Kimber or Big Sister Mocha sometimes hold the door open for them to help them figure it out.  They are learning how to get up and down very small stairs and they really like to play in the grass with the big dogs.

These little cuties are a year old today!  They are all in the most happy, loving homes and have amazing families.  We love that we get updates from their families and love to see how happy and fun they are.  This litter is from Kimber and Hiccup.  Left to right in the puppy picture are Doc, Luna, Bug, Samson, Max and Penelope.  Four of these puppies get to go to work with their people.  Doc's family owns a store in Silverton, CO and he gets to hang our there with them.  Luna gets to ride motorcycles with her dad and go with him to his tattoo studio.  Bug gets to go to work with her mom at a vets office - and she loves to go camping and hiking and fishing on their days off.  Samson is a private little guy, but super cute all grown up.  Max gets to go on hikes and loves to swim in the lake, his people are retired and he gets to spend all day every day with them.  And Penelope's person works from home and she has dog and cat siblings plus human and grand-human siblings all right nearby that she loves to play with.  Getting to hear from all of these sweeties and knowing they are so happy and loved - that's why we do this!!  

Four weeks old and growing fast!  Puppies completely have their legs under them and walk and tumble and run around everywhere.  They like to wrestle with each other and we use strips of washcloths with a knot tied in it for chew toys.  They are starting to get teeth so mom feeds them less and less, and they have started eating puppy mush from a round bowl which is a very funny and seriously messy event! 

Puppies are three weeks old now!  They are using their back legs much more and it's adorable to watch them toddle around and try to pounce.  They can see and hear better now and are starting to become more social with us and each other.  They play and wrestle with each other and will make noises when we talk to them.  They are finding their little voices and trying out barking, yelping, growling, and even the cutest little howls you've ever heard.

Oh No!  Kimber went outside last night at abut 11 for one last bathroom break before bed and while she was ut there, she got skunked!  I'm not sure if the skunk was in our yard or outside the fence, but she took a full-on spray.  I had no idea so opened the door for her to come back in and she brought ALLLLL the smell in with her.  Then she proceeded to rub herself on the carpet, couch, blankets, pillows, and everywhere else she could reach while I froze for a minute trying to figure out what to do.  

Hiccup likes to watch TV - especially if there are balls or other animals on the screen.  He lets everyone know when there are dogs to watch on the TV.  Kimber doesn't care much but Mocha REALLLLY wants to play with the TV dogs.  Sometimes we will watch agility on the TV and she moves around and follows closely when the dogs are running.  If the TV dogs run off the screen, all three of our adults will run outside trying to find them.  These silly pups keep us very entertained!

The first puppy born from this litter is this cute little boy.  He has a very interesting mark on the back of his neck that originally looked kind of like the Batman symbol.  As he's grown it has grown and changed with him.  We are located in Colorado so I like to think it looks like a Colorado C, with a sort of mountain peak on top.  Other people have said it looks like the silhouette of a child's head - more specifically, Charlie Brown.  Or looking at it the other way, it looks kind of like when a child puts their hands together to make a heart.  There are lots of different opinions - what do you see?  I wonder what it will look like when he is grown up.

The first puppy to open her eyes this week was Girl 1 at 10 days old!  It's so cute to see those adorable little peepers start showing.  All of the puppies have their eyes open now.  They still can't see very well, but they can see light and shadow and close-up movement.  Their eyesight will continue to develop over the next couple of weeks.  Their ears are very slowly starting to open up a little bit too.  They will react to sudden loud sounds, like when Mom barks at the neighbor dogs.  It will be a few more days before they really start hearing much, though.  They have started using their back legs a little more and are a little more efficient at squirming around.  They are all healthy and gaining weight like crazy; they have all doubled their birth weight.  It's cute to watch them eat, they will push each other around and squirm under each other, a few will even end up eating upside down.  For such little tiny things, their mouths open up like gigantic Pac-Man figures and they are very good at getting their food.  Mom takes more frequent and longer breaks.  She sleeps with us now instead of the puppies, but gets up often to go check in with them and feed them.  

For the first week, the puppies' daily agenda is eat, sleep, bath, repeat.  Mom keeps them fed and cleaned and keeps their bed clean.  They sleep most of the time except for when they are eating - which happens at least every two hours right now.  They can't maintain their own body temperature yet, so they snuggle with each other or mom to keep warm - which give us some super cute puppy pile pictures.  We also keep their room warmer and have a warming lamp on their bed to help keep them warm enough. 

One of our little girl puppies was not gaining weight, even though she was active and nursing well.  We started her on colostrum and puppy support and were bottle feeding her.  She was quite a little fighter, working hard to eat well and gain weight so we were all in the fight with her, helping in every possible way we could.