Eyes Open and Walking

The babies are adorable right now.  I love how they stumble as they learn to walk.  All eyes are open and the last few days have seen some large weight gains.  I am trying to get a good video of them all walking around, but its for such short spurts of time that I keep missing it.  Its usually when they are all hungry and mom comes into the box.  However, she keeps them so well fed that its pretty rare to see them hungry.  Some of the pups are quite fat!  I have caught pink puppy sitting there and looking over the rails of the whelping box.  I am betting she will be the first to escape!  I can already see her thinking "I wonder whats over there"   Cinders is such a good mama.  Its amazing how she knows to rotate the pups.  She often keeps them in 2 groups.  She nurses one group, takes a short break, and then comes back and takes care of the other group.  Sometimes she lines them all up in the middle for "group bathing".   The brown boy is a mama's boy.  You often see him under her front where she can keep track of him.  He was very upset this morning.  Apparently, he didn't get enough to eat, so he started howling (I have NEVER heard a pup this small howl- but that's what it looked and sounded like).  He was definitely telling her what he thought!    The little burgundy girl is quite the trooper.  Because she is smaller than the others I always make sure she wakes up and gets to mom whenever mom is in the box.  Lately, every time I go to check on her, I find her already nursing!  Her big brothers and sisters come along and try to knock her off, but she holds on and usually they move on to a less determined sibling!  From what I saw, she was also the first to start walking.  The light blue (was the smallest boy) has also been making a push lately. I think we may see more and more from him as he gets older.   Its interesting that people often worry about the "runt", but I find that they often turn out to be very feisty.   I remember Rain had a rough start.  Rain was actually sick a lot as a very young puppy (in contrast - Burgundy has been very healthy).  She was a C-section baby that had been revived by the vets.  She was also the smallest.  By the time the pups were 5 weeks old, no body messed with Rain.  Cinders used to pick on Rain and play rough with her.  Rain would get angry and chase Cinders out of the room.  Cinders would look at her like she was a monster!  I wonder if we will see that with burgundy.    Its interesting to me to watch the pups and compare them as they grow to the last litter.  Right now pink reminds me A LOT of Tessa.  Purple reminds me of Porsche and Burgundy reminds me of Rain.   Well see if that holds true.  Last time Porsche was a sleeper, but I always looked at her and thought she would probably be the one I kept.  I always felt like she was the quiet type that was going to burst forth.  She was highly compliant even as a very young pup.  Never complained.  However, you could tell by watching her that she was the thinker and problem solver.  Later I saw that she had the ability to be calm at times but ultimately had extreme energy and drive.  I''ll be watching purple closely.  For now she is  the quiet puppy that likes to eat.   Green and yellow are my quiet boys.  They always make sure they get their meals and they can hold their own, but they don't fuss like orange.  Orange has been a complainer since he was born.  He lets you know what he is thinking.  He LOVES to eat.  For the most part Brown is pretty quiet.  He is either eating or sleeping.  He usually just plants himself on a teat and doesn't get challenged by the other pups.  He is not really fussy.  Probably because he is usually fat and content.  But he does have the ability to complain. He also seems to get around the whelping box a lot because you ALWAYS find him wherever mama is.    Its going to be fun to see how they turn out!