Whitney & Jazz Litter – Week One

Mr. Buff with his milk moustache!

“The Memo”

No matter how hard we tried, she would have none of it. We begged and we pleaded and even resorted to bribery but it was all to no avail. Whitney was so dedicated to the wellbeing of her new family that we finally had to drag her out of the whelping box just to get her to go out for a bathroom break. Once outside, to linger was out of the question. Like a woman on a mission, Whitney would race back to the door, anxious to get back to tend to her babies. Even Whitney’s meals were delivered to the whelping box so that she could enjoy breakfast in bed with her flock.

One never really knows how a girl will take to motherhood, but Whitney has joined the ranks of those we deem “supermoms”. She has been exceptionally enthusiastic when it came to the hygiene of her pups and initially licked them so much we were surprised they still had fur on them. This certainly qualifies as the cleanest litter ever. We were awestruck by the observation that Whitney rotated sides when feeding her pups so that her top nipples were always full of milk. How did she figure that one out? A mom’s milk contains antibodies vital for the first several weeks of their lives. Thanks to Whitney’s dedication, the milk bar is open twenty-four hours so the puppies’ weights have doubled since birth. Of course they don’t spend their entire time eating; they spend a great deal of time sleeping and a bit of time in the gym as well. We’ve introduced a couple of stuffed animals into the whelping box that the little minions need to climb over as they scurry about in search of a snack.

Weighing the puppies, which we do twice a day for the first while to ensure that everybody is getting adequate representation at the milk bar, proved to be an immense challenge. Whitney whimpered as we removed a puppy to transport it to the weigh scale and despite its prompt return to the whelping box wasn’t convinced so that she began to escort each and every one on the journey.

Puppies are born without sight or hearing and it will be a while before their eyes open, so for now their senses of smell and touch are what guide them to their mom. They use their tiny forelimbs, coupled with a great deal of determination, to propel themselves around. Now mind you the scale of their world is quite small at this stage so that when a puppy makes a wrong turn and ends up in a far corner of the 48” x 48” whelping box, the volume of their cries for assistance causes us leap to attention. And if that weren’t enough, Whitney herself begins to whimper just to be sure that we got the memo.

That’s it for now, but be sure to join us next week for another beguiling installment of “Puppy Tales”