(This post was written through Gunner's eyes by Cheri Conway, founder of Thornwood Labradors)
In the next few days, I heard the lady say that I was a little smaller that the others, but that I was strong, and had probably been 'attached' to a spot that didn't have as good a blood supply as the others. I don't know why that mattered, but the lady thought that it did. The lady said I'd only been about 10 ounces when I was born, and the others were about 15 ounces. I made my mind up right then to catch up. She said I shouldn't worry about being pushed aside by the bigger guys at the milk bar. She said that she would come often, and see that I got my share, and she did. I made her happy by always being ready to crawl and try to push my way past the others. I'd never just lie there like a lump. They kept getting bigger... but the lady said I was getting bigger even faster than they were! My eyes were still closed, but I felt all this stuff going on. The TRUTH is, that I couldn't really HEAR either, but I just knew, you know how you can just KNOW stuff? Ok, well... and some of this my mommy told me later.
That 'mommy' was always there. I didn't know then that we kids couldn't pee and poop on our own for quite a few days, and that mommy had to lick us to make it happen (and then she would EAT it.. yuck!). I heard the lady tell someone that it was because in Nature, that kept the smell down, and bad guys who wanted to eat us would have a really hard time finding us. What a good mommy! Mommy was keeping us SAFE! The lady said that we couldn't regulate our own temperatures for quite a few days, too, and if mommy didn't curl up around us and keep us warm, it could be a very sad thing. She always did. In fact, the lady almost had to drag mommy out to go potty! Mommy loved us SOOooo much. I think the lady did, too, because she changed the blankets twice a day, and weighed us to be sure we were gaining enough, and made mommy special food to keep her eating.
Something awful happened today. We all had our dewclaws cut off. It really hurt, and I moaned for the rest of the day. It felt better the next day. The lady said that she didn't like the idea much, but that almost everybody who wanted to adopt us wanted it done, and it was much harder if we waited longer than a few days after we were born to do it.
There was a kitty. The kitty kept trying to come see us, but the lady wouldn't let her. My mommy didn't want here there, either, not at first. When I got bigger, mommy let her come play with us sometimes. Mommy said that kitty had been her friend since SHE was just a baby, and that some cats would EAT a puppy, but that our cat was weird, and just loved us like we were her own babies! Silly cat.
When I was about 12 days old, my EYES OPENED! Ok, everything was a little blurry, but since I didn't have anything to compare it to, I thought it was great! I don't like the light in my face much. When the lady takes our pictures every week to send to all of our families who are waiting for us, she takes us out in the sun and puts us in a special box with pretty backgrounds. She says the sunlight is better for the pictures than the camera flash, but I don't like it. I always try to turn around and get away from it. The lady says that's Nature in action again, and wanting to avoid the light keeps all of us safe in our 'nest' instead of crawling off to explore and getting lost (and eaten!). Guess Nature is a pretty good mommy, too.
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