Today, puppy turned 1 week old! In celebration of this magical event, here’s a video for you to enjoy:
She’s growing so fast! She can move her paws pretty well, as you can see. All that twitching is paying off. And did you notice her hair has grown quite a bit and is becoming more curly? Definitely a head-turner in the making!
Here’s a picture of mother and daughter, taken early this morning:
Puppy is a day and a half old in this picture, huddled in between London’s legs. She’s deaf and blind at the moment… her eyes won’t open until day 10 or so. Also, she cannot walk or crawl, just wiggle a little bit by shifting her weight around. But luckily she has her mommy London and step-mommy Judy to take care of her, so she’s not worried whatsoever.
Most important in these first two weeks is that puppy keeps warm (snuggling is a prerequisite!), that she gets plenty of nutrition (London’s milk will help her get the antibodies she needs) and that she keeps twitching. The twitching part may sound kind of strange, so let me explain… At this stage, puppy’s legs are still very weak. The twitching movements that happen during puppy’s activated sleep will help strengthen her muscles so she can crawl by the end of week three and walk, even run, around week four! It’s a true miracle!
Right now, though, puppy sleeps 90% of the time (which makes total sense, because if you can’t watch tv, listen to some music, read a book or even get up for a walk, what’s the point, really?!). And since she’s the only puppy, I imagine things are pretty laid-back. No competing for mom’s attention… No brothers or sisters to push you out of the way when trying to find a nipple… (which I imagine can be quite the task when you’re deaf, blind and nearly immobile!) Our little pup has it made!
Let us introduce London’s brand new baby girl… born today, Tuesday August 16 2011, shortly before 5pm PST:
Is she cute or what?! As you can see, she’s a redhead, just like her mommy! Judy informed us that everything looks good; she’s “full of herself and raring to go”!
The vet said mom and pup are both doing great, just marching to the beat of their own drum. Very Canadian, we should have known. In Canada, if you’re supposed to meet someone around 7-ish, this can be anywhere from 7.01 to 7.59. And even then they might be late!
I guess if I was curled up nice and warm inside London’s tummy, I might not want to come out either! However, Judy seems to think tonight is THE night…
Hold your horses! Nothing happened over the weekend.
Perhaps the puppy is a little shy… or maybe it wants to make a grand entrance (it’s doing a great job at keeping us all in suspense, for sure!)
Either way, another trip to the vet has been scheduled for today to find out what the holdup is…