Storm and Sierra Litter – Week One

Hard to believe it's our 1st week Birthday!

“Topsy Turvy”

She kept us in suspense for a couple of days, making us wonder whether we’d possibly mismarked our calendar, but after midnight last Friday Sierra made it clear that her puppies were on the way. Finally at 1:13 in the morning, we welcomed Mr. Sunshine, then Mr. Aqua, Mr. Cloud and Mr. Navy. When we thought she couldn’t possibly have five of a kind, along came Miss Lavender at nearly 5:30 a.m. to make it a royal flush.

Sierra has always been a lady of leisure. After two or three days in the whelping box nursing puppies, Sierra decided she would changes things up and get comfortable by laying on her back. The puppies were confused at first because the plumbing wasn’t where they expected to find it, but they eventually managed to navigate their way to the inverted milk bar. In due course, many of the pups emulated their mom by sleeping on their backs as well. Most of the puppies in both Sierra’s and Bailey’s litters quickly got the hang of this new eating arrangement as we had an outsourcing program in effect. Since Sierra had five puppies to Bailey’s eight, we took full advantage of the extra plumbing Sierra had at her disposal and used it to balance out Bailey’s load.

Puppies are born without sight or hearing and their eyes don’t open until sometime during the second week, so for now their senses of smell and touch are what guide them to their mom. They use their tiny forelimbs, coupled with tremendous resolve, to propel themselves around as they seek out their sustenance and warmth. Since their body temperatures will not have been regulated until after week three, the little gang relies on mom and each other for warmth. Of course, we do use a heat lamp for good measure when mom is off on a break.

While she’s certainly a dedicated mom, Sierra’s always been a “kid” at heart - never failing to make us laugh with her signature wiggle and howl. When she wasn’t trying to dig a tunnel in the snow to move her puppies to, she did manage to blow off some steam with her roommate Bailey to make snow angels on their break together. Life is good.

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