Day two: a pair of new PUPPIES!
Confirm: they are cute and the boys a great match together. They play around with each other and do seem like good companions. They are composed of Lab, Blue Heeler, and unknown(s). Possibly/likely two different fathers.
Confirm: all-consuming and tiring! We get up at night to put them outside. Still, I’m on edge all night wondering when to get up and just tense so I’m really messed up tired today. Rob holding up amazing.
Potty training is a work in progress. They are something like 8 weeks old I think? DOB: March 26 and so have some work to go. A few accidents but it’s been a whirlwind of change and they DO like to do their business outside or, if necessary, on pee pad so we think soon they’ll have it down. (unless there are no pee pads because we remove them after they insist on tearing them up!!).
Names: We circled round and round with so many good ideas and we settled on Tombstone (Stony) and Driftwood (Woody). They were born in Driftwood, Texas and both are solid frontier town names! Stony is the black mottled one.
Everything is new to them, even bird calls and TV! They haven’t yet noticed the deer that frequently walk around the outside of the fence. We only put them out in front yard so far as the chickens roam the back and there are also more fire ants back there. We did carry them out back once in our arms and showed them the chickens, and they seemed scared, so then we went inside. We hope that’s a good sign so they will hopefully long-term just leave the chickens alone. Eventually we’ll put them in back but right now the front is easiest place to get them trained in.
Speaking of chickens. Change of mood. Please adjust and have a seat.
We lost One-a yesterday.
It was late afternoon and I headed to the coop to gather the eggs and saw an immobile chicken underneath the hanging feeder with a foot askew and clearly looking not-right. I went back to house and asked Rob to investigate. Cause of death: unknown. No sign of an “attack”. It appeared as if she was eating and simply died naturally. Certainly possible! And in the roosts there were eggs so didn’t seem like anything had been going after the eggs or anything.
We gave the survivors our condolences. No detectable change in the flock’s behavior since then. Tua is still behaving as queen of the flock.
The pups are sleeping more today than yesterday so I’m hoping that’s a sign they are feeling more comfortable here. Correction later in day: it is so extreme we are realizing it is likely due to the de-worming medication we gave them this morning. Anyhow.
Some of the pups’ favorite activities include: playing with Rob when he is laying on the floor, chewing and pulling on his hair, scalp, and arms, chewing on cardboard boxes, chewing on pee pads, chewing on rug fringe, chewing leaves, chewing flowerbed plants, chewing shoelaces, chewing electrical cords, chewing the base of the couch & recliner….
Noticing some other cute characteristics. When Stony is feeling playful, he’ll spring up like a fox hunting in the snow. When they are eating, we serve in two separate bowls, but they both go to the same one and eat ravenously, then race to the other and so on. Slight moderation/synchronization today but still, hilarious. They occasionally have spats and growl and yip and when it gets too loud Rob may give a sharp whistle which can end the escalation.
