Newf Puppy House Guests

A few weeks ago I agreed to puppy sit this weekend for the two puppies that Bill and Bonnie, our breeders, are keeping for their kennels. Those two puppies are Rhett (pictured below) and Johnny (formerly Mr. Blue). Well, two of the people who had reserved puppies changed their minds at the very last minute. While I feel sorry that these people won't get to know the joy of one of these fabulous pups, I'm glad that the puppies aren't going to a home that may not be fully prepared for them. Newfies are high maintenance dogs and need tons of love.

So, instead of two puppies we are keeping four (the additional ones are Vivian and Clint). Plus we have our Louis, Katie and Scarlett... SEVEN dogs at the Happy Haus. This house is not very big, so this seems slightly insane. It's lovely though to have them around. Other than constantly cleaning up after seven dogs, it really is fun. Every time I go near them they swarm around me begging for love and petting. They are sweet, sweet babies and thankfully they are much calmer than Katie's litter :-)

Wilbon's Gone With the Wind (Rhett) formerly known as Mr. Yellow

Louis has only been home for a week and I was afraid that having his litter mates here would cause him to backslide on his sleeping patterns. The first four nights he was home were pretty awful for both of us - as is to be expected when a puppy is learning to sleep without his littermates. The fifth and sixth nights were still not good, but quite a bit better. Thursday night, the first night of the puppy sitting, was not any worse, so I was happy that he at least didn't regress. Then last night... perfection!!! He cried for about 5 seconds after I put him in the kennel (it is raised up at the foot of our bed so that he can see me and so I can put my hand through the bars to comfort him). Then he slept non-stop until 2:00 a.m. At that point I took him outside to potty and then put him back to bed. He cried for a couple of minutes but then fell asleep and was completely out until 5:45. It was heavenly :-) He is so cute when we come in from going potty in the middle of the night. He now walks all the way through the house right up to his kennel and waits for me to lift him up and give him his tiny treat. He is adjusting beautifully to our routine.

Some of the puppies want Katie's stick

Katie is such an angel with the puppies. She is very calm and patient with them, but whenever they scrap with each other she gets very agitated. She barks at them (as you will see in the video below) to try to get them to stop. A few times Katie was so concerned when she heard one of them squealing, as a sibling bit their ear or some other convenient body part, that she gently pushed them apart with her head. Once they were separated you could see her body visibly relax. Then another pair would start to scrap and her brow would wrinkle with worry again. She doesn't understand why the babies play so hard.

Scrapping puppies (Green and Louis, I think)

Silly puppies could be outside, but instead they decided to all cram into this little space to have a pre-lunch snooze.

The puppies chow down as Katie longingly licks her lips. Don't worry, I gave Miss Katie a treat afterwards for showing such marvelous restraint.

A short video of Katie and the 4 visiting puppies:



If you don't mind getting incredibly dizzy you can watch the following video. I apologize for the horrible camera work. I find it almost impossible to shot footage of the puppies and interact with them at the same time. Their cuteness is too distracting.