Drum roll, please.....and the father of Halia's litter is.....

SPANKY!

As we suspected, results of dna testing confirm that Spanky is

the father of all the puppies--sorry Harvey!

Six weeks old, and all the puppies are showing Spanky's

gorgeous, silky coat and sweet, gentle nature!

Bella's puppies have such unique coloring!

Every day their distinctive colors develop more fully. Blue boy is dark chocolate, Pink girl, Red boy and Yellow boy are chocolate sable, Purple girl is black sable and White girl and Green boy are black.
The chocolate sables will lighten over time to cafe cream with possible chocolate tips. The black sable will lighten to silver gray with possible black tips. Right now the sable coats have a marbled appearance. Several puppies have lovely white accent patches. I'm excited to see how they continue to change.

The way Yellow boy's color around his eyes is changing, it looks like he is wearing a mask--should we call him Bandit, or Zoro, or Mister Incredible or Rocky Racoon or ?

We already have been calling little white girl "Little Sox" for her four white feet. She was the first to walk and the first to get teeth. She has almost reached two pounds and is slowly catching up to the rest of the litter--pretty good progress for a puppy that only weighed 4.1 ounces five weeks ago!

Interesting puppy colors!

A few of the puppies in Bella's litter have very interesting colors developing. We're watching them progress--at this point, though, I think we have four that will be sable--three chocolate and one black (purple girl). A couple of the chocolate puppies even look like they have some phantom markings appearing, so we may have some chocolate sable phantom puppies--how exciting!

I'm awake....wanna play??

After a busy day visiting with their new families, the puppies were totally exhausted--I could hardly wake them up long enough to eat their dinner. At midnight...they finally woke up!

Wanna Play, continued.

After about a half hour of hectic activity, the puppies finally wore themselves out and crashed for the night.

And they just keep growing!

It's unbelievable that another week has flown by!

Halia's Puppies

White Boy, Lime Green Boy, Purple Girl, Blue Boy, Yellow Boy, Aqua Boy

Red Boy, Dark Green Girl, Tan Boy, Orange Boy, Pink Girl 

Bella's Puppies

Halia's puppies sleeping

These puppies look and act more like dogs every day! After a great breakfast and playtime, everyone settled down for their nap. Of course there's always at least one that likes the litter box--go figure!--there's the group that gathers around the "water cooler," some like the "cave" under the Kuranda bed, some just crash where they land. Such fun to watch these puppies grow into little dogs!

REAL FOOD!

Bella's litter started on solid food today....
the first meal is always such an adventure!

The puppies wear as much as they eat.

Not only does the dish hold yummy food--
it's so fun to play in when it's empty!

So proud of our Little Sox--

she stopped eating, ran over to the litter box,

put one toe in and went potty.

Does that count as hitting the mark?

In my book, at this age, one toe in is a grand success!

Serendipity wants to play with the puppies so badly--

she and Red boy greeted each other through the fence.

Mama Bella kept a close watch on the meal.

I let Bella in at the end to clean everything up.

She polished the bowl, then let
everyone have a drink before bedtime.

She climbed onto the top "bunk" of the Kuranda bed,

the puppies crawled into their "fort" under her,

and everyone slept for several hours.

How can that possibly be comfortable!

Amazing how fast time flies!

Bella's litter is three weeks old already! and Halia's litter is four weeks old!

Food Fight!

Well, it's just dinner, but it does get messy! Mama Halia just couldn't keep up with feeding all these puppies, so a few days ago we started them on real food--and they love it! We start the puppies off with a thin gruel of goat's milk and baby rice cereal. Then we begin adding softened kibble to the mush and over the next few weeks we'll gradually make the mush thicker and chunkier.

The first few meals the puppies wore almost as much as they ate, but they caught on quickly to standing around the dishes rather than in them. We let Halia in at the end of the meals to tidy things up--she does the dishes, mops the floor and gives everyone a bath. A few of the puppies always take the chance to grab dessert while she is preoccupied with her housekeeping duties. Then we change the bedding, and everyone settles down for a few hours of sleep.

Snacks and Naps

EAT, SLEEP, GROW!

Puppies got new collars today, so now we can tell who's who much easier!

I love how Purple Girl is sprawled across Bella's neck.

Bella held perfectly still until the puppy moved. What a good mama!

Mama Bella with her babies

Bella's puppies are two weeks old!

Halia's puppies are three weeks old!