April 2013 - Life Gone To The Dogs

Moving Day: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/04/29 at 2.39pm / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

When Leona and her litter-mates woke up they did not know it was moving day.

April 17, 2013 (Part 1)

With all of the extra mush life had become the very bestest it could be. I could eat all I want, decorate the whelping pen, sleep, snuggle with mom and wrestle my brothers. The smell in my whelping pen had grown stronger though, and not in a good way. It seems like all this mush was creating another kind of mess. The Man had said something about waiting a week before moving day came. I was not sure what a moving day was. We had always lived in the whelping pen. Once in a while The Lady would take us somewhere and she did something that was called photography with us. Those times were kind of confusing. She would put me down on something strange. I would start sniffing and looking around to figure it out. Then there would be a huge flash of lights going off. The first time I noticed those lights I have to be honest and say it scared me a bit. When The Woman would smile and seem all happy while this was going on I decided it must not be a bad thing. I like to make The Woman happy, so if she wants to flash big lights at me it is OK.

Because that was all I understood when The Man came in this morning and started complaining about the smell I was not sure what he wanted. My sister Lani had been moving to the far part of the whelping pen for as long as she could walk to go potty, but we all still could smell it. My lazy brothers did not seem to care where they were going potty. Sometimes they went right where I was sleeping. I do not know if others have had this experience, but it is really gross.

The Man then said that it was moving day today. He wanted to get us away from that gross smell. Already I had tried to lead an escape from the smell. I know where the door is to our whelping pen! I have watched mom, The Woman and The Man go in and out of it. I also know it does not stink out there, so I was planning my own moving day. When my brothers and sisters figured out what I was doing they decided to join in on my private moving day.

A day or two ago Leo had attempted to go exploring out that exit. I do not think he was planning on a moving day, it was just an exploring day. When he got outside the whelping pen he started crying and crying. Those brothers of mine want everyone to think they are so tough, but they are big babies. Leo did not want a moving day, he wanted back in the whelping pen with the rest of us.

English Springer Spaniels like to be around others. I have heard The Man use the word social when he is describing us. All I know is that I like mom, I like my litter-mates, I like the big dogs and I even like the people. When I met the big dogs a couple days ago I could tell they were so excited to meet me. That was not a surprise, after all I am pretty special. Those big English Springer Spaniels are social, and I am going to be social when I grow up. In order to be social I needed to have others go with me as I planned my moving day. I got us all lined up to jump out of the box on this moving day, and then The Man caught us.

Leona attempts to lead and escape on moving day

I heard him say that today might not be our permanent moving day, but we were going to spend at least part of the day in the big pen. I am excited about going to a big pen. I also am a bit scared, but do not tell anyone. I know that there is so many things out there that I have not been around. What if moving day is bad? I like it here with my family. The smell is really bad, but we are safe and the food is good. Maybe this moving day is a bad idea.

Authors Note: We did not show the puppies The Great Escape prior to this attempt. Somehow untrained puppies learn how to escape all on their own, without any coaching.

Extra Mush: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/04/25 at 6.02am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona wants extra mush!

April 13, 2013

During the night I get to snuggle up with mom. It is a bit of a fight to get the best places though. Except for Little Lee my brothers push us girls around. Only when they get sleepy are we able to push our way in close to mom. Sometimes we still get a private feeding time with mom, which I love. Those boys seem to eat extra mush, leaving less for me. It seems that by eating extra mush they are growing faster than I am too. I need to start thinking about this. Right now, during the night, there is no extra mush. Whatever is left in our bowl mom eats. She eats the extra mush and leaves none for us puppies.

I know when morning comes The Man will bring us extra mush. Oh it is so delightful when he brings out extra mush. All of us puppies scramble to get the best spot to eat extra mush than anyone else. Today I am going to try to eat extra mush than even Liglag eats. He is the firstborn in our litter, and the biggest. He loves all kinds of food and will eat extra mush than anyone, except for our mom. He will even fight mom to get extra mush. Mom will growl at him as he is trying to get extra mush. Mom does not know it, but all of us English Springer Spaniel puppies laugh at her growl. Mom would never hurt us. Maybe there is something else around that she is protecting us from, but she will never hurt us. She is the best mom in the world, but I wonder sometimes when she takes our extra mush.

The Man brings extra mush

I smell The Man coming to our whelping room. Mom is usually with him. Mom really likes The Man. I do think my mom is a bit confused though, sometimes The Man tells her to do something and she does it. Mom must forget that dogs are in charge, not people. As The Man comes closer I sit up and start sniffing the air. OH MY GOODNESS! While I like it that The Man smells what he has with him is some extra mush! I know it is not mom’s milk, but the more mush we have the better.

Ever since we started eating more mush we puppies could eat so much that our bellies would feel all stuffed. I also learned something about having more mush. Puppies can play in mush and the more mush there is to play in the better. We splash the mush all over, and the more mush we splash around the better.

It seems like when we puppies get done getting our whelping pen just right, with more mush spread all over it, we go to sleep. Usually The Man keeps mom away when we are eating our mush. I did wake up a little bit after eating more mush and decorating our whelping pen with it. I saw that mom was eating all of our hard work. She was not leaving any more mush in our whelping pen. When she got done cleaning up the pen I saw her look at me.

Puppies eating all the extra mush

Leona leaves the extra mush

I love it when my mom is around me. She was looking at me with those soft brown eyes as she came over to me. Then she started licking me. My mom loves me so much and kisses me. I just wish that she would kiss me without removing more mush off of me while doing it. When all of the mush is off me she moves on to another puppy.

As mom moves on to clean up the rest of the litter I find I cannot keep my eyes open any longer. Oh my belly is so full. It is hard work eating more mush. But I am good little English Springer Spaniel puppy and I will do my best to eat more mush than all of the other puppies in my litter.

Puppies sleeping after getting lots of extra mush

Author’s Note: Getting weight on this litter was very critical. At two weeks of age they were running about half the size of what we have experienced with other English Springer Spaniel puppy litters. We found a local farm that we were able to get raw goats milk from, which we have had better success with than formula. While these puppies would eat dry at this stage it was not enough to put the desired weight on. Instead we decided to mix the goat’s milk with Purina Pro Plan Puppy Food, Chicken and Rice. We are not proponents of long term us of canned foods since dogs need the dry to help in the care of their teeth. However putting weight on puppies, or supplementing nursing or expecting mother are two reasons we find valid for going with the canned food.

Mush: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/04/24 at 9.57am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona discovers puppy mush

April 11, 2013

Over the last several days I have begun seeing more clearly. I now know that at first when I was looking around things were blurry. My nose is really good at helping me know when something is around, but my eyes help me find whatever it is I am looking for faster often. Now when I smell mom close by, and smell her so full of milk I can see exactly where to go so I can drink that so creamy and wonderful milk she has. Mom has the best milk in the world.

The Man has been giving all of us goat’s milk still. Even though mom has the best milk in the world I want you to know that this milk that The Man gives us is pretty good too. I love goat’s milk so much. Mom never seems to have enough milk for all of the puppies. So it is a good thing that The Man can make goat’s milk. I am not sure how he makes goat’s milk. Now that I think about it I am not sure what a goat’s is. That does not matter though, since it sure has good milk. Maybe someday I will know what a goat’s is. I am a smart puppy and I can learn this type of stuff.

Every morning when The Woman joins The Man we are getting weighed. They no longer smell afraid like they did the first week after all of us puppies were born. I do hear them often say that the puppies need to grow more. The Man has mentioned something called mush, and how he wants to get us started on mush soon. The Woman seems to worry about us eating mush too soon though. Then I heard them saying something about the puppies not having teeth yet. I wish I knew what teeth were. However I really want to know about this mush thing. It sounds like The Man is wanting to give me more food. The Man gives us good food. I have finally got him trained so that when I cry he puts me close to mom so I can eat. He also gives me goat’s milk. So if my man is going to give me mush to eat then it must be something that is so wonderful.

When The Woman leaves and goes to work sometime The Man does things with us that she does not seem to know much about. Today we were crying because we were so hungry. I heard The Man say “That does it, I am giving those puppies mush. They cannot stay hungry all the time”. I like my man, he does not want me to be hungry. I do not know what that mush thing is, but if it is like goat’s milk then I know all of us puppies will be happy.

Soon I could smell The Man coming back. I like it that he smells. I know where he is, and if I need to cry to get him to do something it makes it easier. My brothers sometimes cry even if The Man is far away. Those brothers are not as smart as I am. I know how my man smells, so I save my crying for when he is close.

As The Man came close there was another smell with him. OH it did smell so good. It was kind of like some of the food that mom eats, but better. I could smell the creamy goats milk mixed in with other smells. So this must be mush. Oh I think I am going to love mush. It is going to be the best thing in the world. There are so many best things in the world, and it is good mush is going to be added on to my list of best things in the world.

For some reason when The Man put the mush in our whelping pen he did not pick me up and put me next to it. Sometimes that is confusing for me. I am positive I am his favorite puppy. I am the best English springer spaniel puppy in the world, so why does he let Little Lee eat first? What took place next was worth me waiting though. The Man had moved Little Lee over by the mush. I could hear Little Lee make a loud happy yelp. Next I heard his lips smacking and him groaning with delight as he was eating mush. Oh the scent of the mush was a heavenly delight. My little brother sounded like he was the happiest puppy in the world.

Little Lee eats mush the first time

I then noticed a change in The Man. I could smell the joy coming off of him. He had been happy when we drank goat’s milk. However he was pleased as we listened to Little Lee slurping up that mush. I am going to make The Man happy also. I will eat lots of mush when I get a turn.

Before long The Man put me over by the mush bowl. It sure did taste good. There was something odd about trying to eat it though. When I nursed from mom I just sucked. I did the same thing with the bottle of goat’s milk that our people would give us. Must was not like that at all. I could see that it was all of the place in front of me. Also sucking it was different. Mush did not seem to flow like milk did. I had to work my tongue and mouth differently to eat it. This was a lot of work and I had to learn something new. I am a smart puppy though and I learned how to eat that mush. As I ate the mush my belly became so full. No wonder Little Lee had went to sleep so quickly after eating mush. Oh it feels so good to have a full belly. But I am sleepy now, so I think I am not going to talk about mush any longer. Instead I think I will go to sleep.

Author’s Note: Over the years we have discovered that different foods attract dogs at different times. This litter actually liked dry puppy food before they even had teeth. While they could not eat enough to take care of their nutritional needs from the dry food it was an interesting note. What Little Lee is shown eating is Purina Pro Plan Puppy Food, Chicken and Rice Entrée, 13-Ounce Cans mixed with raw goat’s milk. The results we saw using this combination was amazing. I hope to show those results in a later blog.

Eyes open: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/04/23 at 6.59am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona’s eyes open.

Little Lee before his eyes open

April 6, 2013

The night before Leona’s eyes open

The night had been like so many other nights. Before we had went to bed The Man had come into the whelping room. The scent of those big dogs was always strong off of him. The scent of so many of them was overwhelming. I do not know where all those smells come from. Since I never had been around anything except what was in our whelping pen there was only so much I knew about the world. The best thing ever in our room is milk. It smells so appealing, drawing all of us puppies towards it. When mom lays down to nurse us we can smell her so full of milk. The rich creamy fragrance of her milk consumes all of my thoughts when she is near.

The morning Leona’s eyes open

Today started out differently for me. I began noticing light. Then at times I could tell that another puppy was close and there was movement. I knew which of my litter-mates it was from their smell. Some of them were extremely unpleasant to be near because of their smell. Little Lee and Lani seemed to always smell disgusting. Whatever it was coming from them at times made me want to move away from them. That sickening smell comes from the back parts of them. Normally it does not stay around long, mom cleans them up so I do not have to smell that strange scent.

When The Man picked me up I saw everything moving around me. All that I could see was blurry, but the light and movement was a whole new experience. I heard The Man get really excited as he held me close and he said “One eye is open, no both of her eyes are open!” My man was happy with me since my eyes were open. I like making my man happy. When he laughs I smell such a warm comfortable smell come off of him. Usually when he laughs if others are around I notice that they also begin to smell more comfortable too. If open eyes make The Man joyful then I will open them some more.

I can see a shadowy form located where The Man’s voice is coming from. So The Man must be a shadow. This is so exciting to be able to open my eyes. There are things moving around me and those amazing lights! Having my eyes open is not as wonderful as getting milk to drink, but I think this is the best thing in the world.

“Here take a look at her open eyes” The Man says while moving me closer to The Woman. “The eyes are not fully open, but there is a good start for both of them”. I am starting to get sleepy, but this sounds important. The Man said my eyes are not open all the way. Sometimes people use words that are hard for puppies to understand. This sounds like my eyes are going to open more though. I am not sure what good it will do me to have my eyes open up more, but if my man likes it then it must be a good thing. Now I have another wonderful thing in my life. My eyes are open and I am starting to see. At least that was the way I understood The Woman explain it.

Leona’s world changes as her eyes open

My world has suddenly become bigger. As the day went on I noticed more and more light moving around. I could see my mom moving in our whelping pen, but I still could smell that creamy milk on her long before I saw the movement. Even the goat’s milk smelled so yummy when The Man would bring us some to drink. Now, with my eyes open, I could watch The Man while he gave me the goat’s milk. There is so much in the world for me to experience. What will life bring an English Springer Spaniel puppy now that I have my eyes open?

Author’s Note: While looking at the subject of puppies getting their first glimpse of the world I thought about the wonderful work that seeing eye dogs do in helping the blind. Here is a fun children’s book about Buddy: The First Seeing Eye Dog. This book is an excellent read if you are wanting your child to understand more about the history of dogs and their service to humans. If you are still a kid at heart, like myself, you might enjoy the story as well.

Bark, The First Time: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/04/22 at 6.22am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona’s brother Lost learns to bark

April 4, 2013

A New Sound, The First Bark

At night it is so quiet in our house. Sometimes we will cry if mom is not close to us. She lets us nurse at night. I think that when our humans are quiet mom stays with us more. These are good times. I was sleeping and I heard a new sound, it was a bark. I have heard my mom barking and there are other big dogs I smell in the house that I have heard barking. This bark was different though.

The voice that I heard was much smaller. The only small voices I know are the puppies that are in my litter. I have never heard any of them bark before, so why would one of them bark now? However the more I listened the more sure I was that it was one of my litter-mates that was making that noise.

As I became wide awake I heard the bark again. Then I heard a tiny growl go with the bark. I took a sniff and I could tell that Lost was the puppy I could hear bark. It figures, my brothers are such show offs. They are always wanting to do stuff that the rest of us cannot do. Maybe Lost wanted to learn to bark first since he had been born last? I know I do not like to eat last, and eating first is good. When I nurse off of mom it is important to be first. Otherwise there might not be a spot for me to eat. I even like to be first when The Man gives me the goat’s milk to drink.

While I was listening to Lost I hear The Man and The Woman coming. Usually I can smell them before I hear them, after all people smell a lot. This time it is different, I hear the people laughing as they come closer to our pen. I like hearing my people laugh. When they laugh I can tell they are very happy. There is no smell of fear in the air when they laugh. I will remember this, if my people are laughing then there is no reason to be afraid. There is so much to remember as a puppy. I hope I can remember it all.

“Who made that noise?” inquires The Woman. Usually when The Woman asks a question it is serious. This time she sounds like she is laughing though. I wonder if she heard the bark that Lost made. I heard Lost bark a lot. The Woman should know it is Lost that made the bark.

The Man laughs and says “Look it is Lost who is barking.” This is strange for me. I am getting confused by what my humans are acting like. I have heard those other big dogs bark before. When that happens often The Man will say “Leroy, do not bark.” It is fun when they hear Lost bark, but not Leroy. This is very confusing for a little puppy like me to figure out.

Leona Learns She Needs to Bark All The Time

Maybe Leroy is a bad dog. That does not make sense though, since I hear The Man laugh and play with Leroy sometimes. So Leroy must not be bad. I think I have it figured out. If a puppy is barking it is fun. If a big dog is barking then it is bad. This is another valuable lesson for me to remember. I need to make sure I learn how to bark. Once I learn how to bark I need to bark all the time so I can make my humans happy. All this noise and thinking has tired me out, I think it is nap time.

Leona and her fellow puppies resting after Lost learned to bark

Note: Barking from new born puppies is extremely cute. A certain amount of barking from older dogs is normal. Our Springers rarely had a problem with barking. The most effective way we have found to deal with that was hanging one of these in our back yard:

Outdoor Bark Control

Bottle Change: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/04/17 at 9.24am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

With the smaller pet bottle not working very well a different bottle is tried out to feed the litter of puppies that Leona is part of.

April 1, 2013

My mom is the most wonderful dog in the world. She loves all of her puppies. She keeps us warm, cleans up after us, snuggles with us and feeds us. Mom never has enough milk for us, and our humans are using a bottle to feed us goat’s milk. Most of us like the goat’s milk when it has been warmed up, but it sure is hard to get a good drink from the bottle that the milk is in.

I have heard The Man saying that mom is not eating enough. I think I can eat my mom’s food if she does not want it. I am hungry most the time, so it would be good to have more to eat. For some reason The Man does not give us puppies mom’s food. We can all smell it when he brings it out, and I think it would taste wonderful.

The Woman feeding Lady bottle

This morning when we were put in that container, where The Man calls out a number and The Woman gets sad, our woman did not seem as sad. I heard her say “Well the bottle feeding did help out, most of them gained weight.” She did not smell nearly as afraid as she had the last few mornings. Ever since mom was sick The Woman and The Man have smelled like they are afraid. I notice when I drink good out of the bottle that they seem to be less afraid and it makes them happy. I am not sure why they should be happy when it is me that is getting the milk from the bottle. I would drink from the bottle even if it did not make them happy.

“I got the new bottle, do you want to try it out on the puppies?” The Woman asked The Man.

He replied “Let’s try it, hopefully this new bottle makes it easier for the puppies to get that goat’s milk.” The sound of that was promising. The worst thing about drinking that goat’s milk was that the bottle was so hard to get the milk out of. “I am going to try the new bottle on Little Lee first” The Man continued. I should be first to get to eat. I am the prettiest and the smartest puppy in the litter. I am nice and sweet too. Why they keep letting that noisy little brother of mine go ahead of me does not make any sense. Maybe if I got loud like him I could go first. I will have to think about this more. Maybe a puppy needs to make lots of noise if they are going to be fed first from the bottle.

Little Lee being bottle fed

With this new bottle The Man and The Woman seem much more relaxed as they watch all of us puppies eating. I can drink my bottle SO FAST! It is not like nursing from mom, but I know it is ok for me to drink from the bottle and nurse off of mom too. Right now The Man is feeding me one time per day from the good bottle, and I think that is what all the rest of my litter-mates are getting. We are still hungry often, but not nearly as bad as it has been.

Goats Milk: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/04/16 at 6.41am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona starts getting goats milk on a regular basis

March 31, 2013

Lack of milk from Lady pushes the need to supplement with goats milk

It seems like this constant hunger inside me never goes away. I can tell that all of us puppies are hungry. My bigger brothers push the rest of us aside all the time when we are trying to nurse off of mom. I know that I am crying most of the time when I am awake because it hurts to be hungry. I am having a hard time remembering what goats milk tastes like since I have not had any for such a long time.

When I heard The Man come in the whelping room I did not feel like moving much. I heard him say “We are going to get you little guys some goats milk today. Hopefully you all will drink out of a bottle. I do not want to have to use an eye dropper to feed that goats milk to you.” I am not sure what an eye dropper is. I do remember a little tiny bottle that I got goats milk out of before. That bottle was not like nursing from my mom at all. The nipple was so tiny. I really had a hard time getting any goats milk out of it.

It was not long and The Woman came in the room too. That was when our morning routine would start. The Man picks one of us up and puts us inside something. He then will say a number. The Woman is not happy with the numbers that The Man is telling her. If my man was smart he would stop saying numbers to The Woman. He should know he is making her unhappy. Maybe men just do not understand how what they say makes women unhappy. This is something else I need to train my man on how to behave. I have a lot of work to do if I am ever to get my man trained.

“The puppies are one week old today. Looking at their weight chart and comparing them to Libby’s last litter they only weigh 54% of what the other puppies did at this age” The Woman smells of fear as she quietly states this. “I am heading up to the pet store to get that goats milk right now” she adds with determination.

Humans blabbing about goats milk

Humans are really strange is what I am learning. They seem to talk about stuff a lot before doing anything. The Woman has been saying forever that she was going to get some goats milk. After that The Man talked about goats milk. Now The Woman is talking about goats milk again. I wonder if they even know what goats milk is. I wish I could talk, I would explain to them how good goats milk tastes and how I want some.

All this talk about goats milk had made me sleepy. Before long I went to sleep. While I was sleeping I dreamed about having mom all to myself. I was able to eat just as much as I wanted. This is better than fighting that little bottle to get goats milk from. This dream was wonderful, I do not understand how dreams work but I like them.

Finally the goats milk arrives

“Can you tell if the goats milk is the right temperature” The Man said, waking me up from my wonderful dream. I need to train my man not to wake me up when I am having a good dream. I hope I can keep track of all these things I need to train my man to do. He has so many things to learn, and it is hard for a puppy to remember all that she needs to teach him.

“The goats milk feels good to me” The Woman announced. This sounds interesting. I wonder if these humans actually did get some goats milk for us puppies. I like my mom’s milk better, but she seems to always be running out. If my brothers did not drink so much there would be enough for the rest of us. The Woman then added “Start on Little Lee and Leona, they are the smallest.” Little Lee is getting a turn ahead of me. Why do I have so many brothers? They always get to eat before I do. I guess girls just have to be stronger than boys.

The Man picked up Little Lee. I can smell my man easy now. When he is close I am aware of him being there. It is just hard to tell what direction he is. I wish there was an easier way to find things then just listening and smelling. I can smell pretty good though, and right now I smell goat’s milk. The goat’s milk is too far away for me right now, but I hope The Man brings it closer.

“Little Lee just does not want to take this bottle of goats milk” The Man snaps. My man sounds unhappy right now. I could have told him that dealing with one of my brothers was going to make him unhappy, but I do not know how to talk to my man yet. Little Lee is not smart like I am, I will eat goats milk.

With that The Man put Little Lee back in the whelping pen and gently picked me up. It is scary to be picked up and not know where I am being taken. I can feel The Man bring me up close to him. When he does that it takes my scary feeling away. I notice that I stop crying.

The nipple on that bottle with goats milk is small. It is nothing like nursing from mom. I have to work at it pretty hard to get any goats milk from the bottle. If I was not so hungry I would not trying getting the goats milk out of that bottle. The Man seems to know that I am struggling and tried to keep the bottle in front of me. I am moving around a lot trying to get in a better position to nurse that goats milk from the bottle. Even though me and my man work at it pretty hard it is a struggle, but I do get some. I am still hungry, but I am too tired to try to get any more goats milk from that horrible bottle.

First bottle used to feed puppies goats milk

“OK, I need to get a better bottle for the puppies to nurse from. This bottle is not working for these puppies.” The Woman announces. I am not sure what she is talking about. Humans talk way too much for puppies to understand, and I am sleepy again after working so hard to get some of that goats milk. Once again I go to sleep hungry, but not as hungry as I had been.

Private Feeding: A Puppy Diary of Leona

13/04/15 at 7.25am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona’s mom’s milk shortage leads to private feeding of some puppies

March 30, 2013

Mom lay where we could all nurse from her through the night. She has always done this for us, even when she was not feeling well. This night it seemed like there was less milk from her than we had before. I am one of the smaller puppies in my litter and it is easy for me to get pushed aside by my big brothers. Even my two sisters are a bit stronger than me, so they push me away from mom sometimes. Little Lee is the only one I am bigger than. He is a strong fighter though. For me on this night I never did get a full belly.

In the morning when our people came to put us in that hard, cold, container I could tell they were sad. When it was Little Lee’s turn The Woman said “He has got to start putting some weight on. Maybe some private feedings would help.”

The Man responded “The three girls need a little boost too. I will try giving all four of them some private feeding time with their mom, and without the bigger ones pushing them aside. I like my Man. He is going to put me with mom and those big mean brothers are not going to be there. My Man might not be smart, but he is nice. I hope that he can get smarter too. Maybe I can teach him more, but for now I am very happy that he is going to let me have private feeding with mom.

As the day went on The Man put Little Lee with mom. I could hear him squeal with delight when he started nursing on her. I wish I could be with mom. My Man was supposed to give me some private time too. Instead Little Lee is getting it.

After what seemed like forever I could tell Little Lee was getting full and sleepy. Oh I wish I was full and sleepy. That is the best thing ever. The Man seemed to figure out that Little Lee was sleepy too. When my Man picked me up I did cry a little. It is scary sometimes when you do not know where you are and there is nothing underneath you. When The Man put me down next to mom he said “There you go Leona, private feeding for you now”. All I know was that there was a lot of room for me to go wherever I wanted to eat. I smelt around and then found the best place. I began eating as fast as I could, since I knew that mom might leave or The Man could take me away. When you are little you have to eat fast since everyone else can make it so you lose your food.

This time The Man did not take me away, nor did mom move. Instead Lani and Lala were put with me and mom. I liked that. It was warm and snuggly with all of us girls hanging out together. The sisters were having lunch together! A private feeding is fun to share with my sisters. I love my sisters, except when they take my food.

The Woman did not seem to be gone as long today. Sometimes it is hard for me to keep track of time since I do not know how long I sleep. When she got home all of us littler puppies got another private feeding with mom. I think The Woman is more patient with us eating than The Man. She never seemed to get in a hurry while we were eating.

Leona’s sister having private feeding

I could tell it would soon be night. Our home gets quieter and I can tell it is night because The Man and The Woman start acting tired too. They do not talk as fast and they seem to move slower. I am not sure if they sleep, but if I was one of them that is what I would do when I got like they do at night. Before they left for the night all of us puppies were put in that little container again.

“Not much weight gain at all today either” The Man says. I can smell a bit of fear coming from both The Man and The Woman. They do not make any sound for a bit, and then he talks again “Tomorrow I will try bottle feeding the smallest ones some goats milk.”

“I will have to run up to the pet store to get some, we have to get the raw goat’s milk and not the stuff they carry in the food stores” The Woman announces. “I can do that in the morning since I do not have to be at work” she adds. I remember tasting goat’s milk before and I liked it. My mom liked it too, so this is good. I wish I could have some now since I am hungry. Another private feeding sure would be nice.

Lost Tails: A Puppy Diary of Leona

13/04/12 at 6.14am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona’s mom, Lady, looks for her puppies lost tails.

March 29, 2013 (Part 2)

I have noticed that The Woman is not around as much as The Man. At night they are not in our room, but I can hear and smell them close by. After night The Woman leaves for a long time. I hear the word “work” used before she leaves often. I am not sure what work is though.

With mom being sick and then losing her appetite I had not thought about those lost tails from yesterday. Lost tails is not a subject I really think is good for puppies to think about. We have more important things to worry about, like who can get to mom first to nurse. I like being first and finding the best place to eat. My brothers are bigger than me though, and unless I hang on really well they push me aside.

Mom was sniffing where our lost tails had been. Then the stupid Man says what all of us already knew, “Are you looking for your puppies lost tails Lady?” Even though my Man is not so smart I like to hear it. It does not really matter what he talks about, even lost tails is OK, since I know he is helping mom.

The day was long, and mom still is not eating much. I notice that there is not as much milk coming from her also. I wonder if our lost tails have something to do with less milk coming from her. I do not understand how that could be, but I am only a little puppy and there is still so much for me to learn.

When The Woman comes home she walks in the room and says “Are you looking for those lost tails Lady”? Mom is nearby, but not in the whelping pen. I am pretty sleepy, but I listen closely. The Woman is here now and she is smarter than The Man, so I can learn from her. She is not as smart as mom, but that is OK.

Lady in basket looking for the lost tails of her puppies

Or was she just looking for her puppies and not the lost tails?

“She is in the basket I took the puppies in yesterday, looking for those lost tails” The Man drones. He is not very smart. My mom knows our lost tails are not in that basket. Those lost tails are back at the vet, and we are never going to return to that bad place.

“Oh that is so sad, her looking for those lost tails” The Woman states. My confidence is shattered in The Woman. All this time I was sure she was smarter than The Man. Now she is acting like him. I wonder if being around stupid people makes you act stupid. If that is the case I need to escape. My mom is not looking for lost tails. She just remembers how bad it was yesterday and she is making sure today is safe.

Maybe when it is safe she will start to eat again. I know that all of us puppies are starting to cry more since we are hungry.

Note: Snips ‘n snails and puppy dog tails…that’s what little boys are made of was what I thought of as I shared this story.

Appetite Loss For Mom: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/04/11 at 5.34am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona’s mom, Lady, suffers an appetite loss.

March 29, 2013 (Part 1)

Lady’s Appetite Loss

During the night The Man only came in to see us one time. Mom still was not moving much and had an appetite loss. This made it easy for us puppies to stay close and try to nurse from her. Even when I am hungry I do not cry as much when my mom is near. I think that crying is what brings our Man into the whelping room. At night he always seems to want to leave though. I do not think he likes staying in our room at night.

When night was over The Man came into the room. He does not smell as good this morning. He does not smell like much of anything. He needs to get his dog smell back. He is noisy when he comes in and all the puppies wake up. We do not have an appetite loss and go back to nursing.

The Man puts some food in front of mom. I can smell that food, but milk from mom is so much better. Mom normally will eat all the food given to her, but she has an appetite loss. When The Man gives her something to drink mom does drink a little, but not like she was before.

Soon The Woman comes in the room and The Man begins picking us all up and putting us in that cold thing. “Well none of them lost any weight. That is good news after having their tails docked” he states. He is so stupid, there is nothing good about getting a tail docked. He is so dumb he probably liked it when he got his tail docked. Maybe with him being dumb it might be easier to get him to obey me.

“Has Lady ate anything this morning? Does she has an appetite loss?” The Woman asks. She is smarter than The Man. Food is more important than tails getting docked. I wonder if she did not like it when her tail got docked too. She must not have liked it or she would talk about it more.

“So far it does look like she has an appetite loss” The Man stupidly reports. Well at least he can see that mom is not eating as much as she used to. There might be hope for my Man after all. “I will work with her today and see what happens” he continues.

The Woman gets closer to mom. Soon I hear The Woman say “Well Lady’s temperature is staying down. Now we need to keep her medication going so we get rid of that infection. This appetite loss might be a problem though.” The news sounds good about mom being sick. I do not always understand all the words that are being used, but I know when our humans are happy, sad, or afraid. Compared to last night they are much happier, and the fear is mostly gone. My mom must be getting better. I do not understand why a dog would have an appetite loss though.

Throughout the day The Man keeps trying to get mom to eat. Finally she does eat some, but with her appetite loss it is not like it used to be.

Lady eating in her whelping pen while suffering an appetite loss:

Mom really seems to be doing better. She gets up and leaves for short periods of time, but she always comes back. It must be something really important that she has to take care of, otherwise she would never leave her puppies. Our mom loves us and will take care of forever and always. I hope her appetite loss does not cause problems though.

Note: With the appetite loss that Lady was suffering getting her to take her medicine was challenging. We tried a variety of ways to get her to take her pill. Ultimately we ended up using Purina Pro Plan Puppy Food to hide the pill in so she would eat it.

Happenings while living and raising Springer Spaniels