We're getting so big! Happy 2 week Birthday! “Let Me be Clear…” Many of the puppies’ critical organs including their brains are not fully formed at birth and they will spend several weeks developing rapidly. Since the gestation period in dogs is a scant 63 days, the tradeoff is that puppies are quite helpless at birth. Biologists refer to species that produce immature dependent offspring as altricial, which means “to nurse, to rear or to nourish.” It refers to the need for the young of these species to be fed and taken care of for a prolonged period of time. Puppies are born with their eyelids tightly shut because their central nervous system is still developing including the eye and optical nerves. These are extremely fragile at this stage. The closed eyelids serve as a barrier to protect the eyes from potential damage allowing the eye to develop in safety without the risk of any foreign objects (like dirt or dust) causing an infection or other developmental...