Silk has settled in - her puppies are due next week!

Good Morning CRM. I know I have been amiss giving updates on Silk, but life gets busy this time of year for me with kid's sports. With football season over, I have more free time, which is a good thing, as Silk is due sometime next week! Silk is an 8-year-old wheaten cairn that has lived her entire life in a commercial breeding facility. She is my first older foster, and the first week I had her, she learned to go through both the front door and back glass sliding doors. She also mastered a full set of outside deck steps. Above is a picture of Silk in her whelping box. She is a sweet, wonderful cairn, we've fallen in love with this one; it's going to be hard to let her go.

She never messes her whelping box, and only messes her xpen overnight. She walks on a leash cautiously, but I'm not pressing that right now, after she has her pups we'll work more with her. I have never heard her bark, I have a hunch she might have been debarked. In the middle of the night she will try to howl, when I rush downstairs to see what is wrong, I find her sound asleep. I believe she is dreaming! Her howl is gooselike, low, but honky.

I've had Silk with me for 3 weeks. Silk smiles, mostly when she's with my pack, she'll look back at me, and give me the biggest grin you've ever seen on a cairn. It's like she's saying, this place just might be ok! She will go to the gate on her room and wait for me to put her leash on to go outside. When it's time to go back in her xpen, she scoots right in. However, she does not want to be held.

She does not like to be on my lap. She does not want close contact with any human. Over the past few weeks I've gotten her used to being beside me, on the floor. She tolerates that for 10 mins at most. She allows me to do anything to her, petting her, grooming her or taking her temp. She gets free time in the house while I'm making her meals. For three weeks she nervously investigated every part of my first floor. Just this week she calmed down enough to lay on the big dog bed with McKenzie, my senior lab. It's so heartwarming to see her relax in a family atmosphere. Her tummy is getting quite large, those pups must be pressing on her bladder. She also flattens to the ground less when approached, and lets me kiss her sweet face without pulling away. Yesterday we had a breakthrough with her trusting me. My neighbor started up his tractor, and the noise scared her. She ran straight for me, and hid behind my legs. I almost cried!

She is wonderful with my pack, and they are with her. She tries to run with them, it'ss more like loping, and it only lasts a few widths of my yard. Then she walks slowly over to where I am, staying close till we go in. She tries to play with them, and once actually stole a toy from Izzy. She wasn't sure what to do with it, and it was quickly stolen back, but it's a start.

Silk had a vet appointment last week. The vet confirmed she had grade three, approaching grade four, luxating patellas on her back legs. They don't seem to bother her, but she is an older girl, and slow moving. I'm hoping once we have those pups, I can get her out to exercise more, strengthening her muscles can only help. The xray showed two pups, but there could be more. The vet thinks Silk's pups will be born the week of Thanksgiving. Lucky me! I'm just hoping I won't be basting a turkey and whelping pups at the same time. She has another xray scheduled for this Friday. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't show more pups. Two is enough for her last litter.

Silk has learned to use the doggy door, all by herself. Normally she follows my 2 in the door, but today Silk decided she wanted to go in the house all by herself. Of course, I couldn't allow that. She's been such a good girl about doing her business outside, I didn't want to give her the chance to make a mistake. She wasn't very happy with me when I made her go out back again, but that's ok, I'm sure it won't be the last time. I took some pics of Silk's tummy today, below are the pics. Poor baby, she's so short legged, her tummy is about 2" from touching the ground. She's starting to eat more, 4 meals one day, 3 meals the next day. If that tummy of her's grows much more, she's gonna be swimming through my house.