The Bean puppies (String, Sprout, Pinto, Vanilla, Fava, and Zulu Love) are 2 weeks old today. Their favorite activities (okay, their only activities) are sleeping and nursing. But all that sleeping and nursing have translated into a lot of growing. Zulu and Pinto are the largest and have exceeded four pounds today. The others are not far behind, all weighing in at around 3 ½ pounds.
Last evening, Nora noticed that the females (Zulu, Fava, and Vanilla) had their eyes open, just a crack. Maybe the boys’ eyes are starting to open too, but their dark fur makes it trickier to see? Or maybe they are just sleepier.
We are still mostly leaving the pups alone except to weigh them and check in on them. Mama Beans is doing all the heavy lifting of keeping them warm and fed. In another couple weeks, they will be exploring the world and craving attention, but for now, they do not require too much care from us.
I follow the blog of another dog foster, Cara Sue Achterburg. The blog is titled Another Good Dog (as is her published memoir of their first fifty foster dogs). She posted this week (It’s the cuteness that saves them) about a litter of 10 they are currently fostering. The puppies are six weeks old and she is in the thick of the often overwhelming cleaning and chewing phase.
“What can I say about the puppies? They’re adorable, but a ton of work. Every time I get to this point (six weeks), I wonder why I do this and swear I never will again.” (Then Cara continues the post with individual pictures and descriptions and you can tell she adores them all and will totally do this again in the future!)
As I smile down on these six chunky Bean puppies, despite having been completely overwhelmed by the workload of puppies before, it is difficult to imagine them being anything but idyllic. (Check back with me in a few weeks!)
Amina/Beans is starting to want to spend a little more time away from her brood. Anne is coming over this afternoon to help me walk her alongside my pups, Livie and Teddy. I am hoping they are friendly together so Beans can start spending some time upstairs with us when she is not nursing her puppies. She will appreciate the ability to get away, especially as they start developing teeth and clamoring all over her with razor sharp claws in the next week or two. I have my reservations because Beans regards other dogs she encounters on walks with anything ranging from complete indifference to raging barking. Livie is a calm, neutral presence with new dogs, but Teddy is an exuberant, in-your-face giant adolescent that many dogs are tempted (though maybe too intimidated) to bite! I will keep you updated.
Oh my, they are little butter balls! Scrumptious. Good luck with the intro, we are still working on that at this house – I have a similar dynamic – one kind of disinterested personal dog and the other in-your-face-let’s-play-let’s-play, so we are taking it slow as Mama Bell is also a in-your-face kind of girl. Theoretically they should be great playmates, but it escalates too quickly, so we’re going very slowly with just brief supervised interaction. Hope yours is smoother.
Thank you for the good luck wishes! I posted about it today, but the interactions went reasonably well. I wasn’t ready to throw them inside together, but Beans and Teddy did really well walking side by side. It can be difficult to predict how they will get along once the rough play begins, and I like to err on the side of caution because, ultimately, these mamas have an important role being mothers and are already under a lot of stress from the new environments and caring for puppies. We will take it slow, but are off to a good start.
Thanks for reading and commenting. I always value your insights, experiences, and opinions!