This weekend was non-stop vet visits. We started off by getting the second round of puppy shots for the littles. Miss B and Mr. C got to come along to get weighed so that they could get the right dosage for their heart worm prevention. It was very exciting. They got to visit with the office staff at the vet's office, where they are always super popular. Then they got to visit with Grandma and Grandpa. Miss B still wants to make friends with their cat- the cat still disagrees with that idea. Mr. C tried getting close to the cat, and the cat swatted at him. After that, Mr. C rolled on his back, trying to make friends with the cat. He swatted at the littles, who yelped and started shaking. Keep in mind, that the cat doesn't have any claws...
Mr. M found a nice basket to chew on.

I'm not sure where he learned to chew on baskets.....

Sunday was a very difficult day for Mom. Dad had already decided before bring the littles home that he wanted their ears cropped, and today was the day. We took a long time researching the best place to have their ears done. Unfortunately, there are a lot of underground operations out there who are not qualified to crop ears. Ear cropping is fairly serious. It's surgery, which means that the puppies are under anesthesia when having it done. The main problem with this is that if a person is doing this who is not a licensed vet, it is really easy to mess up on the dosage of the anesthesia. I didn't realize how much of a problem this was until I started researching it. Apparently, quite a few puppies die every year having their ears cropped because the people doing it are not legally licensed to do so and mess up on the anesthesia.
I wasn't totally gung ho on this whole thing anyway, but if the puppies were going to have their ears done, there was no way I was going to put them into the hands of an underground cropper. We settled on a place and took them in. Miss S and Mr. M were not used to going anywhere without the big puppies, and got nervous stomachs in the car on the way over. (You should read that as: the car smelled really bad by the time we got there.) We filled out the paper work, chose the ear shape we wanted and left our puppies in the hands of total strangers. It really hit home when they handed us their collars. I may or may not have cried in the car when we left them there. It was going to be a few hours, so we went to eat lunch and get our grocery shopping out of the way while we were waiting. We didn't want to have to leave them alone to go grocery shopping after we got home. When we got back to the clinic, they were just waking up so we had to wait for a little while longer. I may or may not have cried again. (Twice). They brought Mr. M out first, and handed him to Mom, who immediately cuddled him. He licked her face and perked right up. The vet told us that they had been the best patients that they had had all day. They had been really quiet and calm. But as soon as Mr. M had Mom to back him up, he decided he was done with that place. When the vet assistant came to take off the material that was holding his cone of shame in place and put his regular collar back on, he growled at him. He then growled at the vet when he took off the bandage on his leg. Miss S wasn't quite as vocal as Mr. M, but she didn't want to hold still for them to put her regular collar back on. They were both ready to go home.
When we got back, Miss B and Mr. C were very concerned with the littles being in cones. They were so preoccupied with checking on them, they wouldn't even go outside to go to the bathroom without them coming along too, despite having been in the crates all day. After some investigation, it was playtime as usual. All of them were happy to be back together again and calmed down quite a bit.

Before getting Miss B and Mr. C spayed and neutered respectively, we did quite a bit of reading on Google to find out what we could expect during their recovery. The internet told us all kinds of horror stories about how they were going to be groggy and probably have no control over their bladders for a couple of days. Nothing we read about on Google really applied. They were not really groggy when we brought them home- only a little tired. They are normally high energy, and the evening after the surgery they were more like normal (non high) energy dogs. The next morning though, they were pretty much back to normal. There were no losses of bladder function or anything like that.
What Google did not prepare us for was how hard it is to keep the cones of shame on and how determined our dogs would be to mess with their incisions- especially Mr. C. The vet gave us a heads up that we would have to watch him closely because boy dogs have more of a tendency to lick their nether regions, and he was right.
As is turns out, both of our big puppies are escape artists when they want to be. We tried the Kong inflatable collars first. Those lasted about a day and a half. Next we went to the cones of shame. By the end of the week, Miss B's was mostly duck tape and was only being held in place by one set of clasps instead of two. Mom went to the Petco near her office on her way home the first day to find a better solution for Mr. C, and the cashier recommended using toddler diapers with tape on the sides. He didn't like it too much, but it was better than the cone. So for the next few days, he alternated between the diapers in the evening and at night, and the cone during the day.
A note about the cones of shame: they are a pain in the behind. I think we hated them as much as the dogs did. The cones are wider than they are and they bumped into everything! Legs, window blinds, little puppies, each other, the door of the crate... everything.  I know they serve a purpose, and it is better than going back to the vet with stitches that have been torn open, but I can honestly say that we almost threw a party when it was time for the cones to come off.

One thing we have noticed since their attitude adjustment is that they are both a little more mellow. Miss B has been playing with the littles more, but in a more relaxed and natural play mood- not the jealous, dominant way they were doing before. Mr. C is still trying to be dominant, but he is also playing a little more and is more relaxed with them sometimes- except when he goes into hyper puppy mode.
When it was time to take the cones off, everybody was happy and Dad got kisses from all of the dogs. At the same time.

This weekend, Miss B and Mr. C got their attitude adjustments. While they were busy at the vet, we visited Grandma and Grandpa's house. Miss S and Mr. M enjoyed the visit and got to meet all kinds of people. Miss S discovered that she could fit under the coffee table.
After the vet visit, Miss B and Mr. C needed time to recuperate, so we finally had an excuse not to go anywhere for the weekend and just chilled out at home. This is mostly a picture post.