Teething Terrors

I finally put my ad in the paper! Matt will be taking many calls every day, repeating the same information about puppies again and again, answering the most standard to the most random of questions. This is why I make him do the talking, plus he is a really good salesman and has an extremely polite and pleasing phone voice.

We actually already got a deposit on one of the puppies before we even advertised, when they were barely four weeks old. The dog groomer that I have been using since Layla was six months old will occasionally give people my phone number if they ask about yorkie breeders in the area. I live about half a mile away from her shop, so it’s pretty close by. She breeds Shih-Tzus and has eight of them! I would definitely need my own dog salon if I had eight Yorkies.

So this woman called and talked to Matt, and he said she asked if there was a runt, and he said yes, and she asked if it was a female, and he said yes, and she wanted to come over as soon as possible to put down a deposit. When she came the next day, she told me stories about her Yorkies who lived to be 16 and 17 years old.

My ad has been in the paper since Thursday, and it is only Saturday and already we have had many calls and several people stop by. One woman wanted a girl but didn’t want the big one, one couple wanted a boy but didn’t want to put down a non-refundable deposit; and one family came and put down a deposit on the other girl! So now I have two little girls who will be leaving December 15^th, and two handsome boys who still need to find their forever families. I’m sure it will be no problem! Sometimes I wish I could sell them in pairs so they never have to be alone.

I expanded their cardboard box using another large box and a door cutout so they can pass between the two. One is lined with puppy pads, the other has their blankets and food and water dishes in it, so they have plenty of room to run around and play and can still eliminate away from their bed area. Layla enters the box from the brick hearth; she can jump up onto it and then down into their box.

They are becoming super clever now. Unfortunately the puppies have discovered the magical art of climbing, and can get out of their box when they want to. Layla doesn’t like to go in there as much to feed them so they are often climbing out or whining to be picked up when they are awake. This can be really annoying when I’m trying to meet deadlines, but it is easy to get them to shut up; I just have to get someone to sit with them. They just want some interaction from a human or another dog, really.

I don’t like that they can get out of their box because I don’t know what they’ll try to get into while I’m in school or something. Luckily the semester is ending because these pups should all be named Trouble. In the first litter we had, we came back from grocery shopping to discover Gus, the giant puppy that was bigger than his dad at 10 weeks of age and we’re pretty sure is some kind of genetic anomaly, had somehow busted past the puppy gate and went digging in the bottom of the closet for something to chew on. When we walked in he was crying because his claw was stuck in a water shoe that Matt wears when he floats the Broad River. It took us almost an hour to remove his claw from that shoe, but the experience taught me the importance of constant supervision.

I feel bad thinking about this already, but I can’t wait to steam clean everything once they’re gone, get rid of those pee pads and the pee smell that comes with them, not worry about picking up tiny poops and putting them in the wastepaper basket. The puppies are so adorable and it is hard to let them go but I am a clean freak. I do not like urine or poop smell. I do not like having to light candles every day. I do not it when sneaky puppies go poop somewhere not on their pad. I do not like that every puppy thinks that playing with their poop is the most fun activity ever. I miss when the puppies didn’t poop, before I would give them their puppy mush and they were only breastfed. They really love their puppy mush, but I think their teeth have come in enough where they can eat the real stuff now.