goings on

In the run up to 3 weeks of age, the puppies open their eyes and ears, start to walk, start to play, bark and growl, and they start to eat real food.  Introduced first to puppy porridge made with warm goat's milk, they soon graduated to raw puppy paste and puppy kibble soaked and mashed up with milk.  Next will come scrambled eggs - that's always a big day for the puppies because they absolutely love scrambled eggs.  And while I am happy to make the puppies happy,  I do have a very slightly ulterior motive. 

The puppies were wormed for the first time at 2 weeks, and that is the first time in their young lives that they experience something truly awful.  And I have to do it to them 3 days in a row.  It's just awful.  This litter's prize for most screwed up face goes to

-->Tähti, who was quite appalled at the experience.  There is no photographic evidence, but for an idea, you can check out a photo diary of some of the Juhla puppies being wormed.  The next worming experience is at 5 weeks and when that comes around I hide the wormer in scrambled eggs and by then the puppies know they love eggs and they tuck right in.  Cunning, eh?

4 weeks is the next big milestone, and at the end of this week the puppies will move downstairs, meet the big dogs and start to meet strangers.  Their tails will also go over their backs, but as they are already sticking up like rudders when they walk, and wagging like crazy when they see us, I'm thinking their tails might curl before 4 weeks.

Another event that normally happens sometime before the 4-week mark is one or another of the puppies find their way out of the box, and that happened on the day the 3-week photos were being taken.  You might think it was Little Arvo, since he first stuck his head over the edge, but

-->Tähti was the first to stick her front paws up there and Kuu was the first to actually find his way over the edge.

Kuu photo bombing his sister's shots

Here's a selection of some of the other cute things that have been happening.