4 Weeks

Oh My Gosh - where does the time go - it is hard to believe these puppies are already four weeks old but they are.  I have pretty much moved them outside since the weather has been nice and that way they can have more room to spread out and can start learning to poop in the grass.

Last week I had a scare in that Orange boy all of the sudden just wasn't doing well.  He didn't want to eat and was lethargic so off to the vets office we went.  He had a temp and she checked him for Parvo which was negative, thank god.  And determined that he just had an upset tummy.  She gave him some IV's to get him hydrated again and a short of antibiotics to kick start his system.  We isolated him from the other puppies for 24 hours just to make sure that if he did have something we didn't spread it all the way through them.  I am happy to say that 24 hours later he was full of piss and vinegar and feeling his oats.  Dad joked that she gave him a pick me up shot.  Thankfully no one else was showing any signs and they seem to be thriving with all the fresh air.

Little Lime girl is still the smallest and this morning she weighed in at 4 lbs 2 ounces.  On the flip side, Black & Purple Boys both weighed in at 6 lbs 12 ounces this morning.

We have our routine,  I wake up and take them all outside in the grass, so hopefully they poop and pee in the grass and not the deck, I usually put Ivie out with them and then come in the house and make their puppy gruel and place it out in the grass for them to chow down.  While they are eating I feed the big dogs then Ivie comes back out and cleans out their bowls and starts cleaning them.  It has been a bit cool in the wee early morning hours.  So in this time I go and put fresh bedding down in their box and take the rest out to be washed - I call this the great Poop Fest.  Then I clean each puppy with a damp soapy washcloth and bring them back inside until they have pretty much dried.  Then I weigh them and bring them back outside where the poop fest continues.

During the day they pretty much sleep, play with each other and poop.  We do a midday lunch around 2pm and then an evening meal around 8pm.  After the evening meal they all get cleaned up again and brought in the house for the night.  They have been doing pretty good about sleeping through the night - which has been wonderful for me.

They are starting to love human interaction and I have been soliciting friends and family to come and let the puppies chew on them.  Their little teeth are getting sharper by the minute but they just love getting petted.