Our eyes are open! “The Little Temple” Pepper’s little ones are doing very well – almost too well in fact. Since there are only five in the litter and their mom is in overdrive and loaded with milk, they’re growing and developing in leaps and bounds. They now resemble mini Buddhas with their plump little bellies, so we’ve had to try to limit Pepper’s nursing time before they explode. It’s exciting for us when the puppies’ eyes open at around the 10-day mark. Many of the puppies’ critical organs including their brain are not fully formed and they will spend several weeks developing rapidly. Since the gestation period in dogs is short (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 long period of time. Puppies are born with their eyel...