Going to get our health certificate

Yesterday was the day! Our little sable girl had an appointment to get her required health certificate so she can fly home tomorrow!

First was the truck ride there. From our house to the vet who does our health certificates, is about an hour's drive. (Yeah, you hate to have an animal emergency in our neck of the woods!) First we have to drive to the river and ride the ferry across, then it's up and other the mountains to the "highway" (a two lane 60 mile an hour road), which takes us into town to the vet's. Thankfully, with all the ups and downs and winding roads she didn't even get carsick! Now, that's amazing!

Once we arrive, she is weighed. Wow! A whole whopping 2.8 lbs! (her sister is twice her size!)

 (I don't understand the garbage can on the scale?..maybe it's easier to weigh the little ones.)

Next we go to the exam room and meet Dr. Steve where we'll get the rest of the check-up.

He checks her all over, even running a fine comb through her hair to check for parasites or skin issues, but she looked good! Here he's checking her ears.

Smile for the camera everyone! (I love this picture~What a silly guy!)

Checking her little ticker. Everything sounded good!

She was such a good girl.....and who could resist that face?!

Next the micro-chip is implanted. Unfortunately, a large needle is use to insert the chip just under the skin between the shoulder blades. But she was such a trooper and only gave out a "YIPE!" when it was inserted.

All done! Whew! Glad that's over with. At least we know she'll be safe and have permanent identification if she were ever to get separated from her family.

So everything checked out good and she got her health certificate and is ready to fly home Thursday!

Now, for the long drive home....well, at least my commute is pretty!

First Bath!

It's always interesting to give the puppies their first bath. They get so excited when you pick them up and carry them to the laundry room, then they probably begin to wonder, "what's happening?"

First, I hold them and trim their toenails, then I set them on a towel on the washing machine and put little plugs of cotton in their ears to keep the water out. At this point they're usually holding pretty still wondering what's going on.

I have a small bucket that I use for the puppy shampoo. I add some to the bucket and then put some warm water in and mix it up. Since I'm not using straight shampoo directly on the puppy it makes my shampoo go further. A trick I learned from my dog groomer friend.

Next we gently set the puppy in the laundry sink and turn on some warm water and start getting the coat wet. It's pretty easy at this age and size since I can just hold them under the faucet and turn their little bodies any ol' direction to get all the hair wet. Then I dip a sponge in my shampoo and started lathering the puppy all over.

At this point we get different reactions; some kind of freeze and just sit still, some whine, some wiggle, and some try to just climb out of the sink. "Get me outta here!"

 Coco

Little sable girl

Oscar

It doesn't take long to bath a small puppy, so soon I'm done shampooing and start the rinsing phase which is basically the same as at the start. Then I use my hands to squish as much water off the puppies coat and towel dry. If it's cold weather I use a hair dryer for the next step. But since it was so warm today, I put the puppies back outside in their pen to air dry.

They look so cute, all fluffy and clean, and smell good too!

Cavapoos-Eight Weeks Old

Well, it's that time again! The weekly puppy update! This should be the last one as the pups turned eight weeks old today and are ready to go to their new homes:) The little boy, Oscar will be going to his new home on Sunday. (His new "mom" is sooo excited!) But the girls will actually be staying a couple weeks longer as their new families already had things planned and can't get them yet. So maybe we'll have a couple more puppy blogs after all.

This week my family was visiting from out of state and my seven year old, animal loving nephew was here, so the puppies got extra attention! Sometimes I would look around for him and not seeing him anywhere would ask his mom, "Where's Ethan?" She'd give me that look like, "Where do you think?" And we'd find him in the puppy pen with the babies. He was always so gentle with them too.

Because of the nice weather we have been spending a lot of time outdoors and so have the puppies. I have their exercise pen out under the trees still, so they would be out there most of the day. One day we woke up to rain, so they couldn't go out.  We have another big pen right in our garage, so we layed a new sheet of linoleum down on the floor and it gave them a large area to play when the weather was bad. It had plenty of room for the potty boxes, bed, food, water and toys, with room to run!

 The puppies love to run around that tree and play "catch me if you can" with each other.

One day Ethan's mom found him in there laying on the dog bed with the puppies crawling all over him! Too cute! He really wanted to take the "little brown" one home. He thought maybe I would have more brown ones and also mentioned that he was going to put a puppy on his Christmas list;) (hmm...could that be a hint for Auntie Jen?)

His favorite:)

The puppies have been completely weaned off mom now and are eating and drinking like "big kids". They will be getting their first bath today and their first shot today or tomorrow also. They also finished their second type of de-wormer this week.

They are so adorable! Their hair is growing and getting thicker and longer. This litter has some of the riches colors we've ever had too. I can't wait to see pictures of them as adults!

My aunt and uncle came for a visit this week. She loved the puppies too!

They say that Cavaliers are cat-like, in that they like to climb up on higher places. Our first Cavalier loved to sleep on the back of the couch behind me. Well, Coco, the Cavapoo loves this box! She jumps on and off of it, sleeps on it, and stands on it. I think she'll be one of those "back of the couch" sleepers if her new family approves!

A lap full of puppies!

And a good-bye kiss from Oscar!

Cavapoos-Seven Weeks Old

Only one more week and they're ready to go! Although only Oscar will probably be leaving then. The girls' families both have trips planned so they won't be leaving until later in the month.

So this week they have had more time without mom. By now they spend their days away from her, but she comes back with them in the evening and through the night. They have playtime in the house and also outside. Right outside our front door under the pine trees, I set up a couple exercise pens attached together for them to safely play. That way I can water the garden or work and not worry about them wandering off or getting into trouble. If I'm right there, I'll let them out of the pen for more exploring and visiting with the big dogs.They have their food, water and some toys. And this week I cut a door in a cardboard box and they enjoyed playing and sleeping in their new "fort".

We also started them on the second kind of de-worming medication which is given daily for six days. By using two different medications over a period of several weeks we hope to remove any chance of parasites by the time they go home. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee, so we always recommend the puppies new owners have their vet do a fecal exam on the pup once they get settled in their new home.

Babysitter

Big leap!

"Hey, sister...Get off me!"

Looks like she's going to slap Moriah with her paw!

Notice here she is now in the belly-up/submissive mode to "Auntie" Moriah.

"Coco"

"My, what a big nose you have!"

"Fort Pinewood"

"Can someone get me outta here?"

"Me too."

Fun!

Cavapoos-Six Weeks Old

I can't hardly believe they're six weeks old already! Only two more weeks and they'll be ready to go to their forever homes! Bittersweet; happy to see them with their new families, but will miss their silly puppy antics and sweet puppy kisses. But I'm getting ahead of myself here!

This past week has been a busy one for the kids. They've had new visitors besides the locals they see around the neighborhood. Sherry came at the beginning of the week to meet her new little boy in person, and it was love at first sight. She's thinking of calling him, Oscar, which I think is adorable.

Then later in the week, Joan and Garland drove over to meet their little girl. They've decided to call her Coco.

The last little girl has a couple anxiously waiting to meet her in another state.

The puppies are still with mom, but she spends less and less time with them. They happily crunch away at the dry puppy food that is kept in their food dish and drink water from the bowl too. They spend time in their playpen but have playtime here in the house too, and are getting more brave and inquisitive.

"What's this big thing?"

"Hey, who are you?" (Meeting Auntie Hope the Cavalier)

Today was there first foray into the great outdoors! They were a bit tentative when I first set them in the grass, but then their adventurous spirits kicked in and they were having a ball! Romping through the grass, wrestling with each other, jumping and playing and just having fun!

 Coco~"What's all is soft, green stuff?"  Oscar~"I don't know, but I think I like it."

 

"My world just got bigger."

Getting some love from Austin.

Meeting Jack.

Don't mess with little sister or she WILL take you down!

 

Isn't he cute?!

I know this picture isn't very clear, but I love the action; running along with the ears flapping!