o'cockaigne

Last Friday, Callaghan and Cranston were 7 weeks young. How fast that time goes!

The week before they were already chipped, DNA was taken and the day after they were inoculated. This all went very smoothly and without a single beep. Driving was also fine. We had of course built this up slowly and done it more often, but not even a 20-minute ride. Fortunately no problem.

They grow well, they are more or less the same as the tables I still have from my previous litters. They mainly eat one-day-old chicks, sprats and all kinds of ground meat with vegetables, elderberries and seaweed. Meanwhile, Callaghan is almost as big as Cranston and last week the weight difference was only 450 grams. Callaghan weighed 5.65 kilo’s and Cranston 6.10. They are certainly not fat, it could be a little more but they seem to get enough because  they would like to eat more. And it is actually better that they do not grow too fast, let them take it easy.

Their favourite place in the house is the large basket where Brandir usually lies. He always looks very upset when the puppies have taken his bed again. Poor grandpa Brandir!

They are 99.99% house trained. It is very rare that there is still a pee in the house. And because we consistently clean up their feces directly behind their asses, they haven’t become shit-eaters either.

We have already had exciting moments with them. Two weeks ago, Callaghan was very interested in looking at something right in front of him. When I went to look it turned out to be four oak processionary caterpillars! I was startled and snatched Callaghan from the bed. Fortunately, it turned out that he hadn’t sniffed it because he showed no strange behaviour after it that could indicate that. I did immediately wash the cover of the bed and searched the area for caterpillars. Later that afternoon we found two more caterpillars on the grass. Dead scary! But yes, there are about twenty oaks with us, many of which are very large and therefore with inaccessible caterpillar nests. It cannot be prevented.

Vision starts to play with them a bit, but would rather leave that to Cearrean. However, she regularly lies cosy with her sons on a bed and you can see that Callaghan and Cranston really enjoy themselves here. The men are allowed to drink a little with her every now and then, but I think it is minimal what comes out because they are done with it soon.

Both puppies are already beginning to wear their ears well, the fold is in it and occasionally they can already fold forward. They are also high set. Cranston will most likely have very dark eyes, Callaghan, on the other hand, will get his mother’s eye colour; quite light. This was quickly seen as he had very light blue eyes while Cranston’s eyes were several shades darker. Even now the difference is clear.

Walking on leash is also no problem. They have already been to the shopping center, the dog run-off forest (where we unfortunately did not encounter any strange dogs) and to the horses that are in our neighbourhood. To get here we have to pass a bunch of terrible barking dogs and this was of course terrifying. They also didn’t really like the horses yet. So it was a stressful walk, but once at home the tent made sure that everything was quickly forgotten.

Tomorrow Cranston will undergo a little surgery. He has a slight upper bite and his lower teeth prick his palate. These are therefore removed so that the lower jaw has free rein to grow. I am confident that it will come all right.