Paternity Suits?

Having thought that we'd narrowed the pups' father down to 2 dogs, I went to tell Craig ~ Arthur's person ~ the good news that Arthur was off the hook. Only he isn't: true, Arthur is a strange black & brown dog with Alsation in him, but Arthur's dad was black with a white chest flash & white paws.... Pups all have chest flashes & white paws. One has a white tip to his tail, just like Jukkel. None seem to have Collie nor Beddy type coats, but they are only 4 days old.

Piri is torn between wanting to tell me that she still loves me & needing to be with her babies, so every now & again I get a visit from a very loving girly dog. Piri was always fairly aloof, but since her pregnancy & birthing, she's so much more affectionate & asks for love ~ something she never did before.

Jukkel, the stray, seems to have decided that he's the protector of ALL my girly dogs: he & Tara disappeared yesterday when I took water up to J (I had some intersting information for him) & neither of them came back until I was away hunting for them, back up Curreeny Hill & later at Site. I was starting to panic as Tara is never away that long & surely Juke would have come back, unless something had happened to my Wolfie ~ Juke knows his way to & fro Curreeny from when he was looking after J. Jukkel is away again now, looking after the Spaniels who have decided to take advantage of the moon to go hunting. He knows that Piri & Tara are safe home ~ Tara's flaked out on my bed. We think that Juke is the same age as Tara ~ 18 months ~ as he was only a young dog when he turned up in my yard & yet he has a maturity about him. He's been road training the Lurcher pup & it's a pleasure to take the youngster out as he flattens himself into the side when traffic passes. Piri challenges the cars, lorries & tractors ~ truly a lion in lamb's form as she stands no more than 18 inches high; the Spaniels are torn between racing back to my protection & trying to get past the traffic & Tara stands with her bum poking out& usually me hanging on to her.

Whoever the father turns out to be of the puppies, I'm proud of the way Piri is behaving. She has the freedom I didn't allow Mindy (I didn't trust Mindy anyway as she wanted to get back into my bed as soon as possible), but that Tashka had with her pups to start with. 4 pups is a much more manageable number than 11 (Mindy) & 8 (Tashka) & at the moment she's being very responsible. She doesn't leave them for long & today walked outside, sniffed the air & came straight back in to be with her pups. It does mean that I have puddles to deal with, but that's a small price to pay & as she feels she can leave the pups for longer periods, she will go back outside. I have a bucket of water & a mop on hand at all times in the kitchen.

No editing tools still, so no pictures. Time to join the Wolfie on my bed, having turfed the puppy OFF my pillow nest ~ he can curl up next to me ~ really he ought to be with missy in her bed, but he abandons her when she goes to sleep