Ask Cari

Eros, Atlas, Freja, Oden and Apollo discover the drawers to hide in, every day they run through the dressing room and kitchen for excercise and look for new things to chew or hide in. Today they went outside for the first time for a trip to the vet, they all weigh in at 6 pounds, with the exception of Atlas who is a porky 7 pounder. They were very relaxed in the truck and well behaved at the vets office, but they came home and collapsed from the outing.

Comet takes the puppies for a run around the kitchen for some excercise

Atlas and Apollo are trying to take off my wrist brace, they love the sound of the velcro

Freya is running back for some food in the puppy room

Today the puppies have entered the world of the kitchen, exploring beyond the puppy room. Oden climbs in the wine shelf Apollo nestles in the bread basket Freya kisses Michala

Inquiring Atlas wants to play

While Cari is away in Florida on a judging junket this weekend, I have been given the dubious honor of sleeping over with the puppies for two nights. When you consider that I have never owned a dog–or a cat, or a horse, or even a gerbil–my assignment might seem a bit odd. But, hey, I’m a neighbor and all the pets know me pretty well. Most of them even come when I call them. Except for Cupid, who has to mope about at the top of the driveway waiting for Cari to come home and must be chased, grabbed, bodily picked up and driven back to the house in the car. Very loyal, that little girl is.

Luckily for all of us, babysitting puppies consists pretty much of making sure the other canine family memebers don’t have access to the room with the puppies while allowing Mama Comet plenty of access back and forth to feed her babies. So far, I have handled this part of my job quite well.

They look so cute right now, you want to die. I was not explicitly told to play with them constantly, but I have added that to my job description anyway. Every few hours or so when they wake up from a nap, I go in and let them chew my fingers (they have tiny teeth now!) and climb all over my lap and make their teeny little growling sounds at me.

And, yes Cari, I wash my hands! Every time! My hands are shriveled up from washing so much! And although the puppies have only had two visitors so far, they have all willingly washed their hands too.

So, the puppies are safe, well-fed, happy and sleeping tons:

Atlas tips the scale over 3 pounds at 3 weeks old Apollo and Oden fighting for attention

Here are the puppies at one week old nursing like piglets….

Comet’s puppies are growing by an ounce to 4 ounces per day