The Penny Candies are beginning to leave for their new families today, three today, a few more tomorrow, perhaps one on Sunday. So it will soon become a lot less noise and laundry around here. But we will miss them.
The life of a breeder is one of some sorrow and great joy. But, as I've always said, having a litter of puppies is like having a favorite excentric aunt come to visit for a few months. Lovely to anticipate the visit, wonderful to have the day arrive (though it's a lot of work and little sleep), and very nice to see her go home because she can be exhausting at times. (I once used the Yiddish Proverb of the Goat, but the Aunt visiting is a bit more on target.) The bottom line is that they come to us and go away, a sort of bitter sweet thing throughout.
Since their evaluations we have seen quite a bit of development in the pups. We have had three days of relative warm weather and cool early Spring sunshine. So the Candies have been able to go outside for a few hours a day. At first none of them could do stairs and spent most of the time close to the front door, this morning there was a stampede of fur flying through the doorway and out onto the front porch. On day one the hens would come in and intimidate them, this morning one hen was brave enough but three puppies frightened her away.
We had one minor health thing. The Vet. sold us flea drops called Revolution and many of the pups had allergic reactions (hives). There was nothing too worrisome about this and we used a bit of Cortizone10 on the spots to clear them right up. We lost some hair where the meds were placed, but nothing to visible for the most part. One of the pups had a farily severe reaction and we had to use one-quarter dose Benedryl tablets in some peanut butter for a few days. The problem is fading away slowly and the Vet has seen the puppy three times since (just for the sake of the new family). We recommend and usually use Capstar chewables if there is any signs of fleas in the puppies. Capstar kills the fleas in just a few minutes but does nothing for the longer term. We will go back to the chewable for safety's sake. We do use K9 Advantage in all our dogs about twice a year for those looking for a good recommendation. The K9 Advantage hasn't given us any trouble at all, but we only use drops on the adult dogs too, so there is a difference.
Everyone has doubled in weight since the last weighing at six weeks. We have reduced feeding to two larger meals and some snacks to bring them into line with their family feedings. You never experience anything like it when nine hungry puppies dive into dinner. Of course what goes in must come out and yesterday we washed five loads of laundry. We do one cup of food at morning and evening meals in our adults dogs and this is usually enough. A puppy might eat too much, but never get full at the same time. Bassets can have sour tummies so we try to keep the intake to the right level to avoid having to watch them recycle their dinner.
We will treasure the peace and quiet, but we will definetly miss them, those that go. Two of the pups will be staying with us for the advanced Basseting Course which goes on for a few more weeks. This is good for the Mother and great for the pups, and not too bad for us as well. We will miss them all and cannot wait to get started missing them.
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