July 30, 2006
Lizzy won't quit
Little Lizzy Lineout, Jeffrey's "girlfriend" and young leader, is showing her ancestry just now. We used to call her dear departed sire SEPALLOP "Bonehead" sometimes, for his sheer bullheaded determination. It looks like Lizzy got a big helping of that, too.
She had trouble feeding her litter at first -- just didn't seem to have enough milk to keep seven puppies growing very fast, and she didn't seem all that thrilled with the motherhood thing. Once the pups learned to eat from a dish at three weeks of age, they were out of the woods though, and started gaining well. Lizzy kept at it, with a serious and at times doleful mien. She seemed relieved when I put them outside in the puppy pen at four weeks of age and later, around five weeks, allowed her to start going around with me again in the daytime. I thought she'd get them weaned and be rid of them just as soon as she decently could.
Wrong. I reckoned without the "Bonehead" factor! Hanging in there like grim death, Little Lizzy Lineout is STILL nursing her litter twice daily at over eight weeks of age. Whether she actually still has any milk or not, I'm not sure -- two or three days ago I'm fairly sure she did -- but she lets them nurse for four or five minutes anyway. They are suddenly getting BIG and she can hardly stand up when they all go for her -- she staggers repeatedly as they nurse. Well, to be fair, her mother KOLYMA OF SEPPALA has been known to do the same thing, so between Momma and Daddy I guess poor Lizzy hasn't much chance of making up her own mind about these things...
