Tessie's Puppies

Have you ever seen a picture of perfectly lined up golden retriever puppies where all of them are sleeping and looking adorable? Me too. It's great. Have you ever attempted to get a perfect picture of perfectly lined up golden retriever puppies where all of them are sleeping and looking adorable? I have. I'm now convinced that this is only achieved through a heavy sedative. Since we have not sedated our dogs, we spent too long attempting to get a picture of them. This was the best we got. They simply won't stay still for even a moment.

They are in order, however, which is a miracle in and of itself. That's Leia there on the far left end, Chewbacca is climbing on top of Leia. Skywalker is next up. Then Jyn is on top of Skywalker. Sabine is number five with Obi on top of her. The last two are Finn and Rey.

They still haven't opened their eyes but should start in the next few days. They're still deaf. Their sense of smell is still remarkable. Yesterday, I was sitting in the whelping box between the puppies and their mama. They were asleep. When they wanted to eat, one by one they crawled behind me and straight to their mother.

Their faces have filled out with fur and they are growing soooo fast. Our biggest puppy, Chewbacca, is 2 lbs 5 oz. Our smallest two (today that was Obi and Rey) are 1 lb 15 oz.

This puppy fell asleep in Garrett's arms and his mouth hung open like that for quite some time. It was so adorable.

Speaking of my children, this has been such an incredible experience for them. I can't imagine the amount of tears that will be shed when they go to their new homes. I may be inconsolable. The children, forget about it. But NINE full grown golden retrievers is INSANE and so, to new homes they must go.

Both older boys were part of Tessie's birthing experience and were amazing. We could totally live on a working farm and they'd be cool with it. We won't live on a farm, mind you. But we could. Now, they're helpful with puppy snuggle time, cleaning up messes, feeding Tessie 82,000 times a day because the puppies are eating all her calories, and making sure Tessie gets attention from us--not just the sometimes obnoxious attention of eight puppies.

Matthew loves them. This morning, I yelled down to make sure everyone was ready to leave for school. "Matthew, what are you doing right now?"

"Oh, I'm just sitting in the box with the puppies."

This kid loves them too. He likes to say, "Puppies!" and "Cute!" And, really, a litter of golden retriever puppies climbing on a toddler...

What could be cuter?

The puppies are ten days old today. They'll be ready for their forever homes on Memorial Day. That gives us 46 more days with them. What memories we must make in those days.