Week 2 - 11/10/2019

Week 2, puppy fun here we come! Although my (Kristy's) favorite week is week 4, week 2 is a close second as these little lumps start to look and act like little dogs and realize there's more to the world around them! All the pups' eyes and ears are open so this weekend they started showing more interest in the people of the household and not just mama Zazu. They are starting to play together, doing more than just using each other as pillows, and now they are softly gnawing on their siblings ears, tails and noses as well as our fingers. It's the stage where you see one of them awake and you drop everything to go "play" with them, which usually means pet them and have them explore you with their little noses and mouths, but still it's super adorable and makes you smile every time!

The pups stimulation exercised came to an end, so this is the week of getting them used to be handled by people, playing with toys, and being exposed to a few different surfaces. Next week they'll start to leave the box more to eat some goats milk and spend time in other rooms and have other visitors to come see them. Asterin was the first pup observed to start doing the wobbly puppy walk. Now they are all wobbling around as they move around their box. Aedion had a cute little growl that he did that sounded almost like a cat meow mixed in it. I tried to get that on camera, hopefully he continues to do that so we can catch it. It's funny now that they can hear more, how when one barks, even if they bark themselves, they get all startled like "what was that?" Manon would bark as she woke up and then did a double take and barked at the thing that barked (aka herself). :D Their little personalities will start to come out so there will be more fun updates on each one in the coming weeks.

Our son is doing so well with the pups. He loves asking questions and telling stories and dropping facts on us (he's known as "fact boy"). The other night when I was making supper he had brought a new book home from the school library. He really wanted to read it and I was busy so he took it over to the puppies and started to read! It was so sweet and adorable. At that time the pups ears weren't quite open all the way, but it was still pretty nice of him to do. Then today he was with Jon and put his arm in the box. A few puppies came over to him and were kissing his hand and laying on his arm. Pretty soon the entire bunch were all around him. Jon dubbed our son the "puppy whisperer". He's calm and gentle around the pups so they tend to gravitate towards him.

Zazu continues to be a super mom, spending just enough time outside of the box and just enough time going in to clean and feed the littles. We've never had such a clean whelping box before, especially with 9 pups! It was fun putting all 9 puppies on the dog bed while changing the whelping box bedding. They at first all slept in a puppy pile, but a few like Nehemia and Dorian tried to climb down the "huge cliff" of the edge of the bed and squealed as their back legs clung to dear life, until their front paws touched the ground a mere inch away. Trying to walk on a slippery surface proved difficult so they just decided to sleep instead. :D Little adventures like this still make me smile and chuckle, no matter how many litters we have.

We have a YouTube channel for the "puppy cam" that's often on during the day. Please click here to go to YouTube and subscribe to our channel so you can be alerted when the camera is on and watch some puppy adorableness!!! Also stay tuned to our Desert Sol Chinooks Facebook page to see more daily videos and pictures. We are also looking for some homes for the boys so if you're interested fill out a puppy application. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures and videos and when they're sleeping you can curl up with a good book "cough, Throne of Glass, cough". :)

The Throne of Glass litter (as always in order of appearance):