Storm and Surrey Litter – Week Five

Our big adventure outside!

“The Extraction”

It began as a pleasant afternoon outside with Surrey, her puppies and Heidi who was out for a little fresh air herself. It was the puppies’ first time out and they did not disappoint. Some litters are a little tentative during their inaugural outing. Many puppies will stand there and tremble for several moments while they take in the vastness of a new universe outside their whelping box. Not this crowd. They embraced it as though they’d been playing outside their entire lives! They chased their mom, chased us, climbed over top of us and played in our laps. The mood was very relaxed and we even lay out on some blankets while the puppies carried on. Suddenly it happened without warning. We did not have a protocol in place to rescue a puppy that has crawled up inside the back of one’s shirt. Miss Shimmer kept her cool and waited patiently for the extraction to be undertaken and fortunately we did not have to call the fire department for this one.

The dynamic in the whelping box is also changing. The puppies are spending much more time awake interacting with each other. Something we’ve rarely witnessed with other moms is that Surrey would sit outside the opening of the whelping box for long periods of time just watching her kids at play. She typically sleeps down the hall or on the cool tile floor in the kitchen, but frequently makes her way inside to clean and check up on her brood or provide a snack to supplement the three meals of gruel they are getting daily. Admittedly Surrey does abscond with some of the puppies’ toys to cuddle with herself, but she is being a terrific, loving mom.

The gang was very well-behaved as they received visitors over the weekend. Everyone got a major dose of cuddling while some of their guests seemed to work through a mental checklist of every puppy to hold so no one would be left out. They doled out licks and kisses, nibbled on watches and lapped up all of the attention they were getting. It’s a good thing that the puppies only need to take short naps to get recharged for each new group of visitors so they didn’t miss out on too much loving. Of course the moms made sure they got lots of attention of their own. After all, that’s what Goldens spend their lives in pursuit of.

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