Pups out of the whelping box

Henry trying to sleep, gets some company

Smudge at 19 days after her nine pups with Henry coming into the world

Henry's and Smudge's nine pups are developing fast now and although a little wobbly at times, all of them are up and about and wanting to explore their surroundings and beyond.

 The first slideshow is of the pups yesterday at 18 days old and still stationed in the whelping box.

This morning it became clear that the pups wanted to come out of the whelping box, as getting up with my husband David who was going of to work, we found three of Smudge's pups out of the whelping box snuggled up with Mum on the floor in the pen. So today the whelping box was removed and the pups have the run of the whole pen, which they have taken to showing very little stress and they are already getting up walking off their bedding area and peeing and pooping away from their sleeping area. Thankfully Smudge is still taking care of the pups poop and should do, for around another week or so.  
So the next slideshow is from today with the pups out of the whelping box and the pups are now 19 days old. There are some photos of the pups with our children, as now the access to them is easier being out of the whelping box. Our daughter Florrie was lying with the pups and I thought that it would make for some lovely photos, which I think they are, but to have permission to use them, my daughter has asked me to explain that her ears are not that big in real life, as for some reason her ears do look very defined in the photos. I told her, "There is nothing wrong with a well defined ear and I suspect if they are making a remake of 'Lord Of the Rings', we might get a phone call. You know those ear prosthetics they use don't come cheap." You got to laugh because when it comes down to it, having big ears or ears that look big in a photo, on the scale of the things others have to struggle with, is a pretty minor affliction.

Next is a slideshow of the pups suckling their mum today after coming out of the whelping box. Looking at them, unless being told, at this age they all but look like a pure litter of Cavaliers.

Primrose is coming up to five weeks pregnant to Toby. She is looking very tidy still, but her tummy has a most definite filling to it.

Primrose nearly 5 weeks pregnant

Toby snoozing, the father of the litter Primrose is carrying

The last slideshow is a few photos of the pack. A couple nice ones of Primrose with her Mum Ysobel. Ysobel is booked in to be spayed next Wednesday with her other daughter Belle. Ysobel is eight years old now and spaying at this age for me takes away the risk of one of the males getting her pregnant and that she does not have to kennel out at all, because when on heat the bitches are kenneled to keep the boys from fretting. 
Belle is three years old and we have decided that we will not breed from her because honestly, we don't consider her of the right temperament to breed from. Belle injured her leg as a pup and had to be crated for sometime on restricted exercise. I think the whole experience of being in the vets as a pup, having surgery and then being crated on restricted exercise at an important time of socializing outside of the pack, lead to her having separation anxiety at a level that we consider her not to be ideal to breed from. She is a lovely dog, but just not a breeding dog.