The pups just experienced their first Thanksgiving, and they had a great time. They had company from several children, and I believe that they are now one of the most socialized group of greyhound pups around. They continue to grow and look bigger almost every day. They play wild, rough and tumble games and have been working on their best growls and barks and even starting to learn how to howl. On December 6th they will be 8 weeks old, and we have the challenge to round up 7 very busy pups and take them to the vets for their 1st shots. Not many days after that several will be moving to their forever homes. Two will be going to Upland & Rancho Cucamonga homes, one to Los Vegas and one to Scottsdale. Momma Sarah will be moving to her new home in Thousand Oaks on the 1st of December. She is doing well; her milk is pretty much all dried up now and when she comes by to see her pups, she likes to lick them to make sure we are keeping them clean enough, but she does not want to get near enough that they might want to nurse. In general, they are land sharks with terribly sharp teeth and nails. They still have not managed to figure out that if one pup is screeching it is because the other one is biting them. Targets are tail, ears, legs, and anything else they can get their jaw around. If you have watched any of the puppy camera you know what it is like here in the puppy corral. It is located at https://www.twitch.tv/grey_save and it is scheduled to be on 11am to 1 & 6 to 8pm CA time. Here are some current pictures of the very busy pups.
On Monday Nov 15th the pups turned 6 weeks old. What a difference a week makes when you are a puppy. They are now quite mobile and always looking for new challenges. They love to escape their x-pen area. Then they are off to explore or just charge around in the bigger room, that was once my office. Once in the bigger area they run, jump, climb, eat anything they can find and try to get into spaces that they should not be. They particularly like shredding cardboard, paper towels, pee pads, facial tissues and chewing on feet with or without shoes. They are great explorers of everything new. Anything added to their realm is sniffed, climbed over, and tasted. They particularly like freshly washed bedding and towels. The pups are weaned from mom Sarah and eating puppy chow and goats milk mush with much enthusiasm. We are not sure Sarah is relieved, but she should be since we all saw how rough they could be on her. Sara is now relaxing, hopefully regaining her slim figure, and settling into her own retirement.
Last week Brian, one of our Board members came to Salt Lake City from LA to help with the pups and has documented their lives and growth. He took some great pictures and videos that you can see on the front page of Greysave.org website and on Facebook. He also built a puppy identification table located on the GreySave Website and on Facebook titled “Telling the puppies Apart”. In a few weeks the pups will be getting ready for adoption. That is both sad and exciting. For now, they are working on their hunting and agility skills and most of all their scary growling and barking voices. The truly great news for us is that they sleep all night and take a couple naps during the day. Stay tuned to the puppy camera and see if you can figure out what their personalities will be as they develop. I know most people recognize Cobalt, Smoke, Tess and maybe Slate but the other three boys – Nick, Coal and Indy are very special in their own quieter way. The picture below were taken of the events leading up to age 6 weeks. The puppies are cuter than ever, and this week has resulted in a noticeable increase in puppy activity. They are playful and will pounce on and bite each other. We are starting to have some escape from their x-pen, which means they are going to need more exercise, soon. Indi,
Their teeth and nails are growing fast (their nails have been trimmed twice already). This is all much to the chagrin of Sarah, who remains stoic despite her tender teats, albeit a bit less patient with long-term feedings. Here are current pictures of the little ones. Cobalt is the "cow dog." Tess (the only female) is the only dark brindle. There are two lighter brindle boys, Nickel ("Nick") and Charcoal ("Coal"). Coal has a black collar, but Nick's collar has fallen off. Nick has a small white tip on his tail. There are two solid fawn-to-blue (Maybe blue-fawns? We'll see as they grow older): Indigo ("Indi," who may have a purple collar on) and Slate ("Sluggo"). Slate was the runt, so he's a bit smaller, and he is a bit lighter in color and has a distinctively dark muzzle and ears. Indi is a little darker, with a lighter face and a white tip on his tail. |
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