"A Strange Rift"; This Day in My Personal History, January 24, 2012

From my diary, a year ago today:

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

9:40 AM

I feel like I'm in a strange rift between the past and the future. I feel like something big is changing. Some massive set of events is set in motion, and I'm about to be carried off into a strange life I don't recognize. It doesn't feel good or bad, just strange. I feel like my brain is rewiring itself and history is rewriting itself to compensate for some strangeness in fate that is poised to arrive. I'm still tired, but not exhausted, or weary. Just... reposed. Now let's go look that up. I looked up hinterland from "bed" this morning [I was sleeping on the floor then]. It meant exactly what I thought--back country. At least in the literal sense. In the monologues and lectures and conversations in my mind, it's nearly synonymous with "red state." "Reposed." I don't know if that works. Maybe "subdued." In the sense that a color is subdued, not that I'm a rebel army that has been put down through violence. I'm sad now. It's overcast. It's 10:07 AM.

The Puppies Are Five Weeks Old Today!

I haven't done an update since the tenth, which means almost two weeks have gone by since you've seen the puppies! In that time, they've begun to run and climb and get out of their box and chew on things with their new teeth. Their mother has cut back on nursing them, so I've begun soaking dry puppy food in water, then mashing it up and letting them lick it off my fingers. 

The puppies are much more aware of their surroundings now. It's still surprising (and a little bit creepy) when I walk into the room and they all look up. If they're fully awake and ready to play but I don't pick them up or let them out of their box to ruin my stuff with their sharp teeth and snaggy claws, they throw tantrums. Lately they prefer playing, fighting and biting to snuggles. Even the gentle little brown puppy (the one girl) will give me a nip now and then. 

One fortunate thing is that they trained themselves to confine their potty-going to the front edge of their box. When I realized that, I attached a low box to the front of the box they were born in so they could climb over and use that as a separate "potty" box (it's lined with a disposable training pad topped with newspaper--I change the pad once or twice a day, and the newspaper oftener and oftener!!). When they got strong enough to get out of the low box, I had to replace it with a box as big as the one they were born in. I'm practically in a panic as to what I'm going to put them in next!!

THE FOLLOWING PICTURES ARE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, FROM THE PUPPIES' THREE WEEK BIRTHDAY TO LAST NIGHT:

The puppies have begun to wake up at 7 AM pretty regularly and have a morning tantrum. Their mother lets them cry a while, then gives in and nurses them. Then they fall asleep again:

Here Ginger is insisting that she's had enough and deserves a nap on my bed:

Here's a photo from before I attached the low "potty" box to the front of their sleeping box. It's hard to believe a 3" ledge ever confined them:

 Here's Spot sleeping in the same corner after I added the potty box to the front. The gray t-shirt made it easier for them to climb over when they were still getting used to it:

I took this picture because I thought Spot's expression was hilarious... like he's at NASA mission control, and the fate of the world depends on how well he drains that teat. But with Ginger nursing less and less, the puppies really do have to maximize their consumption:

The next few pictures show Spot engaging in the aggressive nursing tactic of climbing up and standing on his siblings. It was new at the time, but it has become an all too common maneuver:

This was one of the few days when the "day box" was still useful. (Shortly thereafter, the puppies decided they hated being in there and soon learned how to get out. Now it's entirely useless, unless I want to hose it down and store my summer clothes in it.) 

Here's a cute snuggle:

And another one:

There were a few days in the teething process when the puppies were lying on their backs and chewing on their own front paws in the cutest way. They looked kind of like human babies do when they stuff their fists in their mouths. I could never get a clear picture though because they were very wiggly when they did it. The best I got was Brownie doing this Wendy Williams-style "How YOU doin'?!" thing:

Now that the puppies' eyes and ears are open and better developed, it's hard to take pictures of them napping without waking them up. Blackie heard the camera and woke up just as I snapped this picture:

When he stirred, Brownie woke up and decided to get a better angle on her snuggles:

While Spot didn't stir at all:

More good snuggles:

Spot chewing on his foot:

Here's Blackie noticing the camera again. He's the most observant and aware of the puppies:

Some not-so-good snuggles:

Ginger and I have become quite a team lately. I think of her as just being "Ginger-sized" now, so when someone stops us on a walk/run and says, "What a cute little dog!" or "I bet they call you lil' bit!" I'm kind of surprised. Here she is posing with my Office Depot rewards card, which is the size of a credit card. I guess she is pretty small:

Funny snuggles:

Here's Ginger lying on her back to take the pressure off her sore tummy. (A minute or two later, she stretched luxuriatingly and tumbled off my bed. Luckily it's just a mattress on the floor, and she was okay.):

I think this was the day (January 16) when the puppies realized they hated the "day box" and just wanted to get out:

What's a good puppy name that means "blots out the sun"?:

One morning I woke up and Spot wasn't in the puppy box. Instead, he was on the floor by my bed. Luckily for him, I've been getting out of bed carefully for just this reason:

Here he is napping on a t-shirt on top of my bed. I try to spend time with each puppy individually. Often they are so comforted (or worn out?) by it that they fall asleep:

Good snuggles:

More good snuggles:

Not so good!:

When Spot got out again later, I realized we would need a potty box with higher sides:

Blackie got out while I was taking Spot's picture:

To wear everybody out so they would sleep long enough for me to go to Costco and get a bigger box, I took them outside for the first time. Technically they went outside the day they were born, but only being carried in a box to go to and from the car for their vet visit, and their eyes weren't open then anyway. Here they are having their minds totally blown for about 45 seconds:

(They weren't out very long because it was only 59 degrees out. Before this, they had never experienced a temperature below 72 degrees. When I put them back in bed, they looked shell-shocked for a few seconds and then piled up and fell asleep. Later I checked if it was okay for me to take them out, and there was some controversy online about it, but the consensus seemed to be that as long as it's your own yard--and not a public area where they can pick up dog diseases--it's okay.)

Here's where Ginger has been sleeping where the comforter piles up at the foot of my bed ever since I found out she was pregnant and quit making her sleep under a laundry basket. (Sorry I forgot to photoshop the blood stains out--it's common for dogs to bleed here and there for a few weeks after giving birth.):

Continued protests against the day box. They were like dissatisfied cruise ship passengers:

Spot noticing the camera and waking up:

Spot had the worst claws for a while, but then one day Blackie's became harder and thicker and sharper, like fish hooks. They're absolutely terrible and they will destroy you:

He looks little and cute enough here though, doesn't he?:

Sometimes the boys are too much for little Brownie, and she'll get the shakes. That's when I scoop her up and wrap her in an old t-shirt and carry her around while I do chores. She's my favorite. She kind of looks like a baby squirrel now. I took these portraits in the light of the front window (the one that makes Ginger's sunshine spot):

And here she is on the bed:

In this picture you can see that Blackie's front claws have snagged on his own back claws:

OUCH! He has giant lion paws:

Good snuggles:

A different angle of the same scene, showing Spot:

Same scene again. I just can't get enough of good snuggles:

This photo is from January 21. Brownie is the last one to be able to get out of the day box. The boys are long gone:

For example, here is Blackie, tearing up one of my best towels (which I had been generously using to stop the draft under the closet door):

I tried to get good portraits of the boys in the light from the front window like I'd done with Brownie. They are much too wiggly. This is Spot's best one:

Temper tantrums in the new, higher-walled potty box:

HOWLING!:

Blackie's front window portrait:

He's highly aware:

The boys tussle a LOT, and they are rough. It's natural and necessary to their development, but it still worries me, especially since Brownie is smaller and a little bit behind. She's getting a little better at holding her own, but she stays on the sidelines as much as possible. Here she is sleeping while the boys roughhouse:

And here's Blackie attacking her later:

And realizing I've caught him:

I thought this picture was too goofy-looking not to include, even though it's blurry:

Here's their current set-up. Ginger's eating area on the left, the box they were born in with the new (and soon to be obsolete) potty box clipped onto the front with large drawing clips, Ginger's soft blue bed, and the abandoned "day box" on the far right. I'm constantly making modifications and improvements, MacGyver style:

Here are the puppies playing in their mom's eating area. Spot has found the roll of toilet paper that I always have on hand for quick puppy cleanups. As you can see, I've had to use most of it already:

Here's Ginger, exhausted again. I like it when she lies on her side because she looks like she's flying:

And here's my morning coffee and what's left of the flowers I bought at Costco the last time I went there to filch a puppy-box upgrade:

I'm lucky if, in all this craziness, I can squeeze two meals into every day. I'll think everybody is asleep, and then I'll hear a squeal and have to go run and deal with something (or more likely several things). Even since I started working on this blog entry, I've had to get up five times to deal with the dogs! I feel like I'm pretty lucky not to be working right now, otherwise I'd come home to squalor and screaming and even less rest for myself. So I'm doing okay, I guess.

For now.