The Facts of Life

Now that the puppies are solely on solid (but soft) food and their mother is no longer in the picture(until she has dried up anyway), Cora is stepping in to mother the little angels and teach them the facts of life. Given that Cora is the mental equivalent of an 15 year old human I'm not sure that's such a good idea but let's think of her as the reliable babysitter from next door. She and Kota certainly had a heart to heart - girl talk, you know.

As often happens when the parents are away there is some sibling rivalry and a bit of noise created. Just because there's no 'adult supervision' they think they can get out of control. Cora had a handle on it, with a little back up from me, and these two worked out their differences in a non-combative way.  I swear.

There's always one child who is never any trouble. Look at how nice Kenzi sits and behaves herself. It's just as well that you and I both know it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for - don't let that little angelic face fool you.

Cora was doing some arts and crafts with the kids using bits of stick found on the deck, leftover relics from when I cleared out the garden and Cora dragged some lumps of dirt and weeds onto the deck. She spent quite some time demonstrating how to tear the stick into a trillion pieces and distribute it evenly throughout my house.

One on one lessons work well too, Tezlin got a private session which Cora was kind enough to offer. That or everyone else lost interest. It's hit or miss with youngsters these days - they do say if your lesson can sink into one pupil then your efforts are not wasted.

Tezlin was also interested in a bone lesson but this one was a little higher grade of learning than Tezlin was prepared for. Cora found this bone in the house somewhere and brought it out to the deck to chew on in the sun. I was pretty sure this wasn't going to end well.

She took it to the couch to try and get away from prying noses but Emma tracked her down to see what it was that Cora was coveting so much. You may not be able to tell but the look on Cora's face is the one which prompts me to say 'NO!" and take the bone away. Cora was a little too possessive of the bone and the puppies are a little too naive about dog body language to understand that a warning look like this from Cora should be strongly heeded. I am all for puppies learning lessons and social ques from other dogs but not when the learning involves the potential for damage by a greedy 10 month old and an innocent Baby Booble. There endeth the lesson.