Goodbye Misses Red and Yellow

We said goodbye to our two borrowed pups yesterday. Miss Yellow and Miss Red were reunited with their mom, Schooner, and their littermates after a long trip to Long Island. Neither the pups nor their dam missed a beat and the pups immediately settled down for a meal after we arrived at Sue Carpenter's. It was hard to send these pups home, they were wonderful to have here.

Corey has really missed her two "big uns." She has looked everywhere for them and now walks around the house carrying a big toy and whining softly. I tried explaining where they are to her but she doesn't seem convinced that all is well. She's now bringing toys into the whelping box. The big, green rubber toy appears to be her standin for her two short-coated pups. She even turned down food rather than put down the toy! That is a First for Corey.

Corey's two pups are doing better every day. Hopefully, they are over the hump and will continue to thrive. Miss Raspberry doubled her birthweight yesterday and is now over 1 1/2 pounds. Mr Black is the smaller of the two but is now 1 lb 3 ounces. By comparisons to other litters, these two are quite small but they are strong and vigorous so we are optimistic.

Corey continues to be a wonderful mother. She is getting a little bored hanging out in the whelping box since we still have it in the upstairs bedroom. Normally, we would have moved it into the dining room by now, putting the dam into the middle of family life. However, we have been concerned about the pups' fragile state so have decided to keep them in a quiet place a bit longer. Good for the pups but bad for Corey's social needs :-).

The pups' eyes should open this week and they'll be able to hear by next weekend so they'll be ready to take on the world by then. In the meantime, I'll keep Corey working each day to keep her brain stimulated.

We've been entertained this week by Una, who is going through a false pregnancy. She has almost as much milk as Corey! She kept trying to steal the Labrador puppies and eyed the two goldens with envy. Initially Corey was concerned but she finally realized what was going on. Una even got in the whelping box yet this morning and is cleaning and snuffling the pups when I bring them out of the box. These pups sure are getting lots of mothering!