Puppies! The first week...

Well, It's been 2 years since I updated my blog. We've had several litters of pups with no update. I'm sorry. Life with my family and the dogs had to come first, but I'm going to try again with this, our last litter. On January 10, 2022, Ditto had her fifth litter of pups. She had 9 this time, and broke her record of having at least 5 males and 5 females each litter. This time, she had 3 males and 6 females. All are healthy and we are so thankful. It was a very uncomplicated delivery with only 4 hours between the first and last pups, but those were a very busy 4 hours. Ditto is such a good mom!

The pups were born in the basement, so I made my home there with Ditto for the first week. It helps Ditto to have me there when one or two pups manages to move away from the rest and start hollering. (After a week, it was sure nice to go back to my own bed!) When I can't be down there, I have several children volunteering to go and read with the puppies. This became a coveted chore!

Newborn pups are NOISY! This is what it sounded like most of the night for the first few days as the pups figured things out. (It's dark because it's about midnight.)

For the first couple of weeks, all the pups do is eat and sleep and grow!! These pups are my heaviest litter. And they keep growing!! I have one smaller one, who was probably conceived a few days after the others, but even she keeps growing and at 16 days old has already tripled her birth weight!