Next stop, Sharon and Jared's to collect Roughy aka Sky Blue who I now lovingly refer to as "Rough Enough". He's grown over the past of 10 days of course but still looks too thin and still noticeably smaller than his litter mates. He's developed quite the little personality though with all the interaction and undivided attention he received. And he's essentially crate trained and well on his way to being potty trained. Between feedings and playtime he slept in his little soft side carry crate and Sharon reports he'd bark to get out when he was hungry or needed to do his business. Sounds as though they had things down to a science and he only had one accident in his sleep crate. As far as his social skills go, he's a bit advance I think. He likes to play and cuddle and has learned to bark back a greeting when he's greeted and called with exuberance by name as if to say, "I'm here, right over here and I'm ready"! His first day here I allowed him to run the floor of the room hoping Majestic would be more inclined to feed him... she's serious about weaning the others. I also wanted to supervise the feedings I provided so I knew how much he was eating. Sharon told me he was doing well with the bottle but not so much the pate'. So, it would be my job to graduate him fully to solids, supplemented only by what Mom was willing to provide. Unfortunately I discovered the same thing... he wasn't keen on my concoction of pate' either. He spent the first night in his crate because I arrived home late with him. The second night I left him to run the room and left his crate open. Much to my surprise that's here I found him when I woke up this morning. Majestic on the bed and Rough Enough sound asleep in his crate. I also noticed him play with the other pups through the bars of their cell this morning and knew it was time to place him in with the rest of the pack.
This morning I set up the outdoor corral and provided the pups their first outdoor dining experience. I was pleasantly surprised to see that in good company R.E. took the act of eating seriously! He got right in there, stayed in there and came away with a nice fat belly! I think he's about to start thriving and I'm anxious to see his transformation. Thanks to all of you who've been rooting for him. He's doing great and I predict he'll definitely prove to be rough enough!
Today brought forth another change. While the pups enjoyed the afternoon weather with Majestic and Lexi their guardians, I did a deep clean on the pup habitat and added shavings when I put things back together. I've got their newly revamped space divided in two by a 1x6 so they have a section for eating and sleeping and a separate area for play and potty. I went ahead and tossed the Ugo dog in the corner of the play area in hopes they'll use it. They've been using it but have also gone indiscriminately on the paper as well. Maybe they just hit it accidentally... not sure. As long as they do their business somewhere in the appropriate section I'll be happy!
Hopefully everyone noticed, I opened the individual pup pages last night and finished them up this morning. Regarding the slide show I posted yesterday, for those of you studying trying to decide which pup has your name on it, the following legend will tell you who's who so you'll know who you're looking at since their collars are again hard to differentiate. Maybe I can find time to build their big pup collars before I head back to work but no promises there. I'll have to see how tomorrow shapes up. Anyway, the pups in order are Red, who's collar is still pretty obvious followed by Yellow, Grey, Navy, Tan, Purple, Brown, Green, Black, Pink and finally Orange. I'll place a comment on the first of each series of photos so you can tell where one pup ends and the next begins. At this stage in the game there are only subtle differences between them with a few exceptions. One less subtle difference is Red. He's huge! I weighed and wormed them as planned Monday but ran out of time and didn't get the weights posted. Unfortunately, I think I inadvertently tossed the paper with a bunch of others when I was cleaning so I guess as far as weights go, I'll leave you in suspense until early next week.
Below are a few shots I snapped today simply because the camera was there....
And with that, it's goodnight!