Avishkaar (Discovery)

It would appear that the expression on Halo's face says "Ouch!" but actually this is her reaction to me telling her to stay put and not move a *&^$%#@* millimetre. We have this discussion every single time. The same facial expression occurs every single time. Halo can now stand to feed them which she seems to prefer - probably because it doesn't involve any effort on her part. They sort of hang there and use each other to brace against and suck away.

The puppies are discovering themselves; they now know they have tongues, legs, feet, and tails. They have also realized that not only do they have feet, tails etc but their siblings do too.

This has resulted in an explosion of play. There is a lot of paw waving and staring at each other to judge distance for paw waving. Normally they misjudge the distance when a puppy walks by and it results in a failed tackle. Generally there's a lot of falling sideways and knocking each other over. They are kind of like bowling pins with a chain reaction affect.

A popular item seems to be feet. Red boy was particularly interested in his feet yesterday and thought they might taste good. I suspect not as they have been walking through a lot of runny poo and I'm no expert but runny poo never struck me as palatable. He eventually gave up on his examination but I think it was more lack of interest than taste. Light Wheaton girl also gave one of her front feet a good going over but there seemed to be more of a removal process than anything else - perhaps there was something stuck to her foot - along the lines of runny poo maybe.

Siblings hold significant interest - when they are tired and don't really want to expend energy running around and toppling over, they lay in a big pile on the comfy bed and mouth at eat other. This holds true into adulthood as Halo and her friend Zoe would play for an hour at the park running and then when they were tired they would lie down in the grass and knash teeth and wave their feet in play. Must be a lazy Ridgeback thing.

The other thing, of course, that holds boundless interest is me. According to Puppy I am made up of hands, feet and a face to lick. All else is superfluous. My hands are of most interest because often they are the provider of things that are edible, my fingers are not but it's always worth a try.

It seems to be an instinct that puppies recognize cheeks as supremely lickable because the second you put a puppy face to your cheek they lick like mad. Noses count too but the cheek and chin are the preferred location for puppy kisses. And boy do I love those kisses.