Happy Halloween

from Pirate Ash and his little puppy pirate crew!!

Black Male Pup Available for Show Home

If you are interested in showing a black male standard schnauzer to an American Kennel Club or Canadian Kennel Club Championship, contact us and we can discuss if one of Ash and Mira's pups might be right for you.

Green Boy, Red Boy ... Red/Green Boy????

Bet you can see what happened here when Green Boy had his head paint retouched tonight.

Yes, brother Red Boy could not resist checking it out and ended up with a green nose and mustache.

Good thing it's non-toxic, water-soluble fabric paint, so the worst thing that can happen to Red/Green Boy is the embarrassment of wearing a green nose and mustache!

Super Cute Green Boy at 3 Weeks

Am I laughing?? Ha, ha, ha!!! I'm just so cute, I have to laugh at myself!!!

Looks Comfortable, Gold Boy!

Hard Being Stuck in the Whelping Box

Such a sad face. Soooo hard being a little pup and stuck in the whelping box. All the fun things must be happening outside!

Dinner, pt. I

Pups are now learning to eat goats milk mixed with baby cereal. As you can see, they wear lots of their meal, sometimes don't know which end goes where (!!), and like to eat off of each other.

Lots of fun for everyone.

Dinner, pt. II

3 Week Shots

Pups say, "We are very hungry!" in this last shot. Good thing they are about to eat!

3 Week Weigh In

Pups are now three weeks old. They can climb out of the whelping box and explore the room to find Mira if I do not have the whelping box door in. They have had their three week worming and each declared the worming medication (supposedly tastes like caramel) delicious! They spent a lot of time cleaning each others faces afterwards to be sure to get all the tasty, sticky stuff.

Here are their weights:

Purple Boy: 3 lbs, 2 oz
Red Boy: 3 lbs, 5 oz
Green Boy: 3 lbs, 15 oz
Blue Boy: 4 lbs, 1 oz
Gold Boy: 4 lbs, 1 oz

The photos above give you an idea how they got soooo big so fast!!

Day 20: Overnight, Big Changes

The pups have developed so much just overnight. Note the same blanket in these morning photos as in the photos from late last night.

Overnight, they developed the ability to combine figuring out climbing out of the box and the physicality to achieve this feat of coordination at one time. Watch out world!! Pups on the loose before we know it! Red Boy (aka Chili, Paprika or Radish--no one nickname has really taken yet) seems to be winking at the camera as if to say, "Here I come!," while his brothers look on.

Day 19: Pups Growing Up

You can see the pups' eyes are now open and they are discovering their world and each other. They now have toys, respond to sounds, make little barks and growls while playing and complain bitterly when they feel that Mira is not giving them enough attention!

Pups are learning to play with each other, especially by "tasting" parts of each other. They also have discovered the Thermawhelp, a temperature-regulated heating plate that is now in their whelping box since the weather has just turned cold.

Day 19: Nursing is Now Mostly Upright

Day 18: Pups are Huge!

I am shocked to see how enormous the pups have become in my absence. They are 2.5 weeks old and all pups are over 3 lbs now. Mira is clearly a very attentive mother!

After pups are 3 weeks, they will begin weaning and I am sure that Mira will be relieved since they can drain her completely of milk now in a matter of minutes.

Thinking of Mira and her Pups in China

Just back from China where I took a lot of photos of a the female half of the Guardian Lion pair that is outside many buildings and gateways. The Lion pair often has a male with a globe and a female with a cub. Sometimes the lions look very much like dogs and they are often called Lion Dogs because of this.

The female and cub remind me of Mira and a pup. I hope you enjoy the following photos of the Lion-Mira and cub-pup.

Lion Dog at the Forbidden City