Haiku's Poetry Club Opens Their Eyes

Haiku's pups are greeting the glorious morn with newly-open eyes...                            

 Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,

Beauty awake from rest!

Let Beauty awake

For Beauty's sake

In the hour when the birds awake in the brake

And the stars are bright in the west!

                               

                                 --Robert Louis Stevenson

The puppies get used to being handled (gently) by Haiku's human kids!

Haiku is relaxed knowing that her babies are well looked after! (And not just a little proud!"

Truffle's Chocolate Treasures

Truffle was very nervous about what was happening. She paced, and dug nests in all of the dogs' beds, finally settling on Cosmo's special bed--next to my bed.  Sorry Cosmo, but lucky for me, as in spite of labor signs from 7 PM onward, her first pup did not make her appearance until after 8:00 AM.

Truffle is alert and waiting...

...but for exactly what, she doesn't know!

And, after a long night, her curiosity is satisfied!

Truffle and her three newborns

 

Truffle is hoarding her pups, worried that someone might take her new treasures away from her!

"You mean I can keep them?!"

(Truffle is amazed by her own handiwork)

"Aren't they lovely?"

Red Alert!: Vixen's New Pups

Vixen lost no time in presenting us with her 6 beautiful red pups.  She "told" us that she was ready to go, and sure enough, five girls and one little boy were born late in the evening and right into the (very) early morning of her due date. An experienced mama, Vixen set right to work cleaning and feeding her new babies.

We work hard with warm towels to dry off the newborn pups...

...but mama does such a thorough washing-up, that we have to start all over again.

With three pups already born and nursing, Vixen takes a vanilla ice cream break! Ice cream provides, extra calcium, some sugar, and protein to mama and to the unborn pups too. 

Healthy puppies have a strong sucking instinct right from birth

5:00 AM -- I think that's all of them!

“My Little Dog—A Heartbeat At My Feet.” -- Haiku's Poetry Club

One of our best-loved quotes:

My little dog—a heartbeat at my feet.

                                 --Edith Wharton

At just 12 days old the pups have not opened their eyes...any day now though! Much of a young puppy's life at this point is sleep and lying in wait for Mama to come and feed them

 

Auntie "Brownie" has contributed this apropos eponymous Rossetti poem. Must be about Puppy Breath!:

Brownie, Brownie, let down your milk 

White as swansdown and smooth as silk, 

Fresh as dew and pure as snow: 

For I know where the cowslips blow, 

And you shall have a cowslip wreath 

No sweeter scented than your breath. 

                                  
                            -- Christina Georgina Rossetti

Nothing more precious than a sleeping puppy tummy!

Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, O'er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.
Where billow meets billow, there soft by the pillow.
Oh, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, no shark shall overtake thee
Asleep in the storm of slow-swinging seas. 

                                               
                                                   "Seal Lullaby"
                                                    --Rudyard Kipling

An Ode to Beauty: Haiku's Poetry Club

Welcome to the world new life and beauty!:   "Limerick", "Sonnet", "Pun", "Alexandrine", "Epic",  "Rondel", "Lyric", & "Doggerel" -- All fat'n'happy with tummyfuls of warm milk

 Haiku has a beautiful big litter of 8 shiny babies: 5 girls and 3 boys! Haiku is immensely proud of her handiwork!  So proud, that she actually takes her guardian family members by the hand when they come in and leads them in to view her new puppies. Then she looks at her pups, and back at her human family, straight in the eyes, as if to ask "Aren't they AMAZING?"

"She walks in beauty, like the night
   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;"  
                                                              --"She Walks in Beauty"
                                                                               By LORD BYRON(George Gordon)

Even though they are blind, their ears are sealed, and they can only drag themselves around the whelping box like fat seal pups, the puppies can locate their Mama in only seconds

Pups can't regulate their own body temperatures and rely on warm ambient environment.. and their furry brothers and sisters and Mama to satay warm. When they are not all huddled up in a pile, we know that the temperature is warm enough. 

I have no name 
I am but two days old.— 
What shall I call thee?
I happy am 
Joy is my name,— 
Sweet joy befall thee!

Pretty joy!
Sweet joy but two days old,
Sweet joy I call thee; 
Thou dost smile. 
I sing the while 
Sweet joy befall thee. 
                                 "Infant Joy"
                                                       --BY WILLIAM BLAKE

                                       Darkly brown thy body is,

Till the sunshine, striking this,

Alchemize its dulness, --

When the sleek curls manifold

Flash all over into gold,

   With a burnished fulness. 

                   --From "To Flush, My Dog"

                                                        BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Little "Pun" says: "My Mama got ARRESTED..."

"...for LITTER-ING!"

Pups first vet check-up--All doing great!