Dachshund Diaries day 4

Good evening all: day 4 draws into night and all is well in the dachshund world in my home at least. Above is Lucy practicing her best ''swimming'' action to get back onto a teat for her next meal. She's put on an extra 21% of yesterday's body weight and has clearly been sleeping and feeding all day long.

If you look very closely you can see the markings of a ruler I borrowed from my kids so you can see how big she is now- well over 18 cm.


This is Lucy also -but being so large, quite strong and extremely wriggly I was not quite able to get a good shot of her with camera in one hand and this mass of silky slippery writhing wriggling puppy in my left hand.....

''No , NO!Not yet and definately NOT from THAT angle, it's not my best side you see, away with AWAY I say''- paws akimbo she waves her front paws frantically.....

Such vanity at such a tender young age.

The boys on the other hand: MUCH more laid back about the whole thing and by now I had also roped in the aid of my youngest - while Pippa was doing her essentials in the back garden we snook in and took these 2 photos:

Here's tiny TOM in the tender hands of my daughter , I'm behind the camera.

And here's Jack junior cradled in my hands , protesting mildly while A takes the photo.

If you look carefully you can see he has a white line on his chest. Can you see it? Would you believe my ''beloved'' told me off for putting tippex on him so I could tell the boys apart!!!!

AS IF I WOULD! ''NO it wasn't me ''I cried defiantly and yet he carried on about the toxic qualities of tippex and the possible harm done to the puppies and what could I be thinking of and so on - I'll not bore you with his rantings....

He'd ''found'' a stripe on Jack and a dot or spot under Tom's chin :purest white it is and of course it was all my fault and the white stuff used to cover up one's little mistakes.

Hours later he gave in that maybe just maybe I HAD NOT actually done anything and these were natural markings which we had not noticed on day 1 due to the stresses of the day and the exhaustion prevailing.

This evolved into a yummy bag of Doritos and a bottle of champers to celebrate the puppies birth, toast to their health and happiness and also celebrate my eldest getting a place in her chosen - all time favourite- grammar school!!!! HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!

ps I did get my apology as well but best to ensure the treats were for those reasons above than to dent that fragile male pride?

ROLL ON DAY 5!!! See you tomorrow ? I'm off to bed as it's JJ 's turn to mind the pups tonight- I've done 4 nights in a row.

( one night with half hourly observations, 2 nights with hourly checks and last night it started at 2 hourly and lengthened to 2.5 hourly- ie 3 checks when one should have been sleeping on)