Week One--Collie Puppies

The puppies are two weeks old today, so I thought I better get busy and do some catching up! Week one was tense and busy. The littlest tri girl required tube feeding for the entire week. The morning of their third day she was slowly spiraling away. After a night of her temps dropping and losing weight, it was decided as a last ditch effort to tube. The first part of the week it was about every two hours, but she almost immediately and rapidly gained ground so within a few days I was able to extend the time between feedings. By Sunday she was down to every six to eight hours. I gave her last feeding on Sunday of last week. While she is much smaller than her siblings she continues to gain about two ounces a day and is one tough little cookie.


The puppies were restless and vocal a good part of that first week--especially those first few days. As time progressed they actually started sleeping (quietly) for longer periods and were less dramatic when they did wake up. The noises that can come out of a pound puppy are amazing. Grunts, yips, yaps, wails, an occasional scream--momma don't clean my bottom so hard! --to the more contented humming and suckling sounds.

Apparently puppies can neither see nor hear for about the first fourteen days. They use their little noses and do allot of loud sniffing. When one was separated from the others, at first they would wobble and bobble as they crawled around (mostly in a circle those first few days), squalling at the top of their lungs. After a few days they got better at finding each other (and momma).

This is a puppy corral--at first when I let Ashley out they would flop and roll everywhere, screaming the whole time. I finally rolled up a little blanket and would place them in there when momma was away.

Ashley has done a good job so far, in spite of all my 'advice' to her. My big fear is that she will lay or step on one of them, so especially for the first week, I was constantly on the alert. I didn't get much sleep.

Into that first week their personalities started emerging (can you say DIVA??) but I'll talk more about that in Week Two).

Holding and cuddling them has been a real chore, let me tell ya. The kitties are becoming more used to the sudden invasion, although they still get concerned when one of the pups starts squawking.

Without further ado, here they are..in order of birth. No they aren't named--I daren't get too attached to the little buggers (yeah, right) because three of them will go to new homes. I will not get first pick either.

Puppy A--Tri Female (this is the one that had to be tubed)

Puppy B--Sable Merle Female

Puppy C--Tri Female (and largest of the bunch)

Puppy D (for DIVA???)--Sable Merle Female

Puppy E--Oh, wait, that's not a puppy, but Chaco surveying puppies from on high.