My mornings start at about 6AM, this is about an hour before anyone else in my house is awake. So for this hour it's just me and the dogs. After I've brushed my teeth, done my business, and said a little prayer for my sanity I head off to the dog room. I'm immediately welcomed by at least 3 or 4 yapping babies ready to be fed! I let my girls out of their crates and they head out in their way. Then it's time for me to wrangle 5 yes 5 wiggly bouncy puppies into a tall laundry basket (how else do you expect me to get them all outside in one trip??) and out into the back yard we go. I take them out one by one and they scatter like silly little tornadoes off to do their business and then get down to the business of morning battles.
While they are outside I rush in and clean up any accidents that may have happened during the night. open the window to let in a little fresh air...Pour my girls their food, then it's off to the kitchen to prepare the food for the babies. At first this took FOREVER but I have devised a little system to move things along.. Everything I need to prepare food is prepped and ready to go. Dry food is blended dry so that it makes an almost powder and stored in a container, milk replacer powder, and canned puppy food. So I lay out my bowls and start chucking it all in... each bowl gets: 2 tsp of milk replacer powder, 3tbsp of the powdered dry food, and enough hot water to hydrate the milk replacer and turn it all into a paste. Then I add some canned puppy food to each bowl and heat in the microwave just until it's slightly warm.
Load all the bowls onto the tray and head off to the room, lay out the food mat arrange the bowls and head off to wrangle the pups yet again.
Catching them this time is pretty easy. It's early and they are all hungry by this point so a whistle and most of them come running, except for Jorge who is usually off digging a hole deep enough to lose a house in!! Puppies all in the basket, lug em inside! Place every one in front of their bowl and take a second to breathe while they eat..Ahhhhhh.... Spend the next 15 min trying to keep everyone from stealing everyone else's food!!! As soon as they are finished I load them back into the basket and back outside they go! The mornings are cool and this is the best time for them to really get some outside time!
Back in I go to pick up bowls, put out the bowl of dry food for them to munch on throughout the day, fill up the water bowl, vacuum the area rug, and mop the floor and replace the piddle pad and check all the bedding for any wet spots or anything else gone awry! YES every morning!!!! Throw out toys here and there for them to explore and head off to wrangle them into the basket yet again! Catching them this time is a taddddd more difficult! They are all full of energy and have no intention of making my job easy!! Jorge is off digging an in ground pool to go with his new underground burrow, and as soon as he spots me he takes off!! UGH There's no use in chasing him, I'll grab him later! 15 min later I have them all in the basket with the exception of Jorge (little punk!!) after much chasing, which I'm sure is amusing to my neighbors, I catch the dirt covered little scraggle head and put him in with the others.
Once I get everyone back into the room I sit in the middle of the area rug and pet and play with each one as they wish..but without fail one by one little eyes get droopy and my pack of ruffians start to snuggle into tiny little heaps throughout the room and commence what will be the first of many daily naps! This is right about the time I sneak out and make a B-line for the coffee pot!! By this time my humans are waking and getting ready for their day and I get to go through the whole process with them now, minus the basket! :)
