Having been pleased with the poem I decided last night to post a slide show of the two days missing, but it was not to be I could not work out how to get it exactly as I wanted. 

Never one to give up entirely I have had another go..... 

The puppies redesign work continues the holes being dug in the lawn will soon be big enough for the much desired swimming hole.

Alice likes to come out into the garden in the evenings and play with the puppies, up to this point she has been the Mummy dog with all the worries and responsibilites, far too serious about puppy rearing to play daft games with them.

Finally a pool! With a tiny drop of water in when it was very hot mid day and later with no water it made a great little fort to be defended and finally to curl up in.

Today we have a slight technical hitch..... Stupidly I forgot to charge my camera, so although loads of photos were taken none can be uploaded until the camera is charged up and rarin' to go!

So I thought I'd do something a bit different now and tomorrow upload two blog posts to make up for tonights blunder.

So I present a poem called Nine Little Puppy Dogs by P D Booth. 

Nine little puppy dogs,
Each one dressed in black,
Tumble out like nuggets
From a grimy coalman's sack.

Spill out through the kitchen door,
Stampede across the lawn,
Now all me lovely flower beds
Lie battered, bruised and torn.

Funny little puppy dogs,
With clownish, baby faces,
Tugging at me heart strings
As they chew me old boot laces.

Happy little puppy dogs,
Playing through the day,
Thrills and spills, they've wrecked me house
And turned me hair quite grey.

Nine little puppy dogs,
Now eight weeks have passed
And off to nice, new homes you'll go,
While I get peace at last!
 
p.d.b. (28.7.14)

The first out the door this morning. 

Today was a lot cooler we didn;t have the rain that we thought we might get. The puppies have wolfed down more food today than the last few days due to the cooler weather.

A good appetite is always helpful when combined with some pate as a bribe to get the puppies on the scale to weigh them before they were wormed again.

Worming was much easier and we didn't have the struggles we have had in the past. Pate is the answer to the worming puzzle! Simply hide the worming tablet in the pate.

In the last two weeks the puppies have on average doubled their weights! Paul worked out the percentage of weight gain for each puppy, and the least percentage of weight gain was 86% and the heaviest was 112%.

It is interesting to see how one week one puppy is the heaviest and the next it is a different puppy. The smallest two puppies made more weight gain than a couple of the mid range ones who scored the lowest % of weight gain.

After breakfast the pups decided they needed to be working on the garden.... as usual, but then they discovered the new fold up chair and decided it needed the flatcoat seal of approval.

Little tail spot in the chair is the first puppy to be able to scramble up onto the chair. I had not left them for more than two minutes and walking from the back door to the kitchen and he was on the chair! So I grabbed the camera to photograph the little hair inspector.

Paul decided to try to find a way of stopping the puppies tipping over their water the moment we put it down. The solution he came up with was to cut a round hole in the bottom of a seed tray. 

Naturally the puppies wanted to help and advise him on how to get the job done properly. They are good at designing things and better at testing them.

The final testing before the seal of approval....

The hole cut in the seed tray had to be examined thoroughly, one puppy was very hard to impress!

Now on to the next task of the day... 

A puppy's work is never done!

Today has been  day of 'oh my dog' and Argh!!!!!

We started well everyone was fed and off the pups went into the garden. 

Then small puppy (same one again) was spotted sitting in the middle of the lawn doing some weird form of Ti Chi. Lifting his left front leg high in the air was moving it out to the side. 'Oh my dog'......!

A quick examination and I discovered another tick! This year has been great for ticks, a mild winter followed by a cool wet spring and now a hot dry summer.

Could my pigeon pest here be responsible? Did he bring ticks to my garden? Or was it Mrs Tiggywinkle on her nightly prowl?

So tick removed and indoor pen cleaned, a trip to the local tip to get rid of today's soiled paper, and I thought I could come home to a peaceful hour before work.

It was not to be!

As we walked into the house a well known smell greeted us.... Poo! The pups had obviously eaten something which disagreed with them and we had explosive jet propelled poo squirting out their backsides. 

Another trip to the vets. Ian Paine senior partner of Hampden Vets was on duty, I think he thinks I am the doggy equivalent to the 'Crazy Cat Lady', not by numbers but by bizarre things that happen here!

Cleaning the garden up I had several helpers.... or was that hindering mischievous puppies? 

They are still bright, clever and inquisitive puppies despite the exploding bottoms.

Hope you like Monty's selfie taken when sat on my lap and trying to get hold of the camera.

Having spent quite a bit of time digging and eating through the stems of yet more of our garden plants they are finally settling down to go to sleep. 

Are these two trying to tell me they would like to sleep in their mothers wicker basket?

 
"Bloomin' photographers always sticking their cameras in our faces, because we are mini celebrities!" A do not disturb sign would be very useful, this pup thinks.

Any shady cool place is much sought after, under the deckchair is just fine.

The view from this angle, 

And one from this angle.....

This evening's outside play was good fun, they played tuggy with a plaited rope, found a yogurt pot left by Alice in the garden and had a great time playing chase with Alice. However being a fairly rubbish photographer I didn't get any good pictures of Alice and the puppies playing to post tonight. :(

The puppies had a visitor today. Our friend Sue Clarke came over to see the babies. They tried hard to impress her, undoing shoes laces....

Moving heavy weights, (it is a globe on a rope).....

but finally cuddles cracked her stern dog training manner. Loads of giggles and cuddles later...

They think she will crack and share her tea and cake with them. They certainly tied to get hold of it off the bench. Their little noses leading them into trouble.

Tired out they finally drifted off to various corners of the garden to sleep, having managed to get some pieces of cheese off us.

Yesterday they had four visitors, our friends Sheila and Andrew in the morning and Rona and Shirley in the afternoon. It's been a busy couple of days. 

Busy playing and chewing everything in sight.... everything looks calm and gentile, but if you could see the rest of the garden... 

This is todays trail of toys and wreckage left behind once they have gone to bed! Naughty puppies.

Bringing out the toys. Every day they bring out the toys to play with, but Alice has not taught them to put some away before they get more out!

Having watched Paul mow the grass they have now decided to help him out with this task. Their solution to having to mow grass is to dig it up.

The evidence is plain to see both on the ground and in his mouth!

Being the good puppy he is he decides to go to sleep and lay on the evidence, and wait until the canera is pointing elsewhere before resuming his helpful gardening technique which will solve the whole 'Lawn Mowing Question'.

To end todays blog here is a picture of a good little puppy...

This little chap has had a very busy day, sleeping, eating and playiing. He is the expert when it comes to climbing, and he certainly doesn't think any obstacle should stop him getting where he wants to be.

When they are outside in the evening he climbs up onto the box and is definitely the King of the castle. When he gets sleepy he will climb onto the box and go to sleep.

This evening Alice was outside playing with the pups, they were pulling her tail, and when she was laying down scrambling all over her, tugging her ears and tail.

Alice checks on the puppies digging progress and checks the clematis that was there is well and truly nothing more than three stumps about an inch in length.

We are wondering if it will ever grow back?

The small gardeners examine the paving outside the greenhouse for weeds.

They are often found under the wheel barrow trying to break into the greenhouse. Alice likes being in the greenhouse.

The gardeners.

Looking for back up? no not really he is thinking of running back down the garden to pounce one of his brothers.

Here is the puppy with his tennis ball toy about to be pounced on by his brother... He is not watching his rear, instead looking over to the gardener puppies.

Back indoors after running riot in the garden they play in their tunnel and some how two puppies have squeezed together in the tunnel and are playing bitey face.

As the weather was much cooler today the puppies were very active. Racing up and down the garden, in and out of their tunnel and carrying toys all over the garden.

Lucky puppies were given three new toys today by Alice and Sarah on their way home from the CLA Game Fair. 

This picture of innocence was lying in wait to pounce at one of his siblings. lol

So far only one puppy has learnt how to get on top of the crate which is much narrower and smaller on top than it appears to be. Others have got part of the way up and either 'chickened out' or have not got all the way up, which is odd considering they have no worries about scaling or scrambling over much bigger barriers we build.

A challenger to this little 'King of the Castle'.

The winner! The King retains his hold on his fortress.

A new challenger tries his luck.

He remains undefeated! 

This pup is in training to defeat his brother, he lifts the ball, half carrying it and half dragging it around by the red cord. It is actually quite a heavy toy, made of a thick and chunky rubber.

Checking out the bucket, it smells nice as it is the one used for the disinfectant for cleaning the puppy pen.

After all the racing up and down, in and out, challenging each other to scramble of the fences, and plying King of the Castle, a quick nap under the plum tree is a good way to end playtime today.