"Dals, Cows, and More ......": Milestones

I knew last night that we were close to a major milestone. The pups have made it clear for a while that they have an understanding of the way into and out of the whelping box but until yesterday none of them had made any attempts to climb. Yesterday evening two of them put front feet on the pig rails and did some pull up calisthenics but got no further ..... well that ended this morning. Red pulled up on the pigrail then pulled himself up to look over the side.... if I had not been there he probably would have been over and then fallen kerplunk on the other side. :-) So we are attempting to stop more of that for the near term by putting up the door to the eentrance. We'll see how long this will keep them in... LOL!

I have written about Kathy and her grand kids (Nati's human children) before. The picture above shows Nati with three of her friends in our field of yellow weeds earlier this summer. The kids have been with Nati on a regular basis since Nati arrived to live with us and she loves them as if they lived with us 24/7. Nati still gets regular visits from the kids even though she has her puppy family to attend to... Yesterday the kids got their first chance to sit with the pups; they have been asking regularly and we decided this was the right time. Each of them were instructed on proper puppy holding, keeping butts on the floor, etc. so it would be a very positive socialization experience for the pups and the kids.