The great escape

I have been fretting this week when to move the pups from the pool to the pen.  The pups had been spending part time in the pen when I was home, but seemed a bit stressed and cold.  But they were also rapidly outgrowing the pool.  Finally on Friday AM, they looked very relaxed in the pen, and I almost left them out when I went to work, but figured best play it safe and wait until the weekend to make sure Bridget was OK with the new open living arrangement.  Nancy came over midday to feed, and she took Bridget and the small pups to the pen for a private nursing session.  When she went back to collect the other pups, 5 had climbed out of the pool and were wandering around my bedroom!  So the pups moved into the puppy pen Friday afternoon and did great last night.  They are already champs about using the litter box.  You will see a pup purposely get up from a nap, march down to the litter box and take care of business.  Although it is common to see the pups only make it half way, a pup will get its front into the litter box, but forget about the backend.  So I have a "buffer zone" of newspaper between the bedding and the litter box.  In the litter box, I use shredded office paper.  Works great - clean, absorbant, easy for baby pups to walk on, and OK if ingested.