Soooo. Apparently cats hate the cones of shame even more than the dogs do. We put the cones on the night of their surgery thinking we should put them on in case they decided to groom to aggressively. By the next morning, the cones were nowhere to be found. We managed to find them a while later, but after looking at the kitties, we decided to leave the cones off. Their incision sites didn't look irritated and their tummies looked normal. Their appetites have been really strong. We normally only give them wet food once a day, but we've made an exception the last couple of days just to make sure that they are eating enough to get well quickly.

The puppies seem to know that they are supposed to be a little gentle with the cats. Mr. M chased them a little, but he didn't stay interested in them very long. Miss B and Mr. C were napping on our bed this morning, and the kitties both jumped up on the bed. The puppies were so excited to see them. They smelled them and gave them kisses. Kitty P decided the puppies should be awake and started swatting Miss B in the face to get her to play. Of course Miss B is always willing to oblige when it comes to playtime. She was the main reason we got more puppies in the first place. She has a ton of energy and used to bother Mr. C when he was ready to take a nap. We decided she needed another puppy to play with to use up some of her energy without wearing out Mr. C.

On another topic, it's hard to believe it, but the puppies graduate from the intermediate level of puppy school next week. It seems like just last week that they were starting their first lesson. - sigh- They grow up so fast.
Today at puppy school, there were people everywhere. We saw a really cute little blue nose pit bull puppy. The puppies really wanted to meet him or her, but his/her parents were a little nervous about our big puppies. I always think it's funny when people are scared of our puppies around their dogs. Our puppies love other dogs. They are convinced that anything small is their puppy and needs to be licked. 
I didn't take any pictures in class, but here is one that we took on their first day of puppy school. We were just getting used to the tandem leashes and hadn't quite mastered the art of keeping them from getting tangled up together. Notice how small Miss M is standing behind Mr. C. She has even gone up a harness size since this was taken.

Today was the day that the kitties had their attitude adjustments. We dropped them off early in the morning and left them at the clinic all day. The puppies didn't really notice too much. Miss M glanced at the kitties' bathroom a couple of times to see if they were there. Most days, the cats find a nice cozy place to sleep for hours on end, so not seeing them isn't unusual.
As the afternoon progressed, the sky started getting darker and darker. We got a call around 4 letting us know that the cats were in recovery and would be ready soon. On the way to pick them up, the sky sprang a leak. Okay, really it opened up and was raining so hard that we could hardly see the road. There were deep puddles in the outer lanes of the road. Idiots in big pickup trucks kept flying through the puddles at normal speeds, sending huge waves of water flying. By the time we went 10 feet from the car to the door of the clinic, we were both soaked. The lightening was near constant and was so close, the thunder followed almost immediately. One of the vet techs at the front desk was visibly nervous and jumped several times with the thunder.
When we got home, we kept the puppies all in their crates until we could get the cats situated. The kitties kept to themselves for a while, sleeping in a nice safe hiding spot. Finally, Kitty S came slowly into the kitchen while Miss M was helping Mom get the puppies' dinner ready. Miss M whimpered a little and wagged her tail. We think she was worried about the cats and really wanted to play with them. Of course, playing was out of the question. 
Kitty P jumped up on our bed to take a nap for a while in the evening and was doing well until we noticed her aggressively pulling at the residue around the incision site. We were hoping to not have to use the cone of shame, but we couldn't have her messing with her incision. So on it went. She doesn't like it at all. Kitty S hasn't messed with hers too much so far. She has mostly been sleeping, only coming out to get a little something to eat in the kitchen and then going right back to her safe place. We hope that she won't have to go in the cone, but we will have to see how she does tonight. 
The puppies seem to know something is up with the kitties and were fairly nervous when we got home. I think the hardest part of the next week or two will be having to keep the kitties and puppies apart. 
We don't have any pictures of Kitty P in her cone yet. We will try to take some tomorrow to post.
On a different note, apparently, Kitty P had an infection in her uterus, Pyometra, that we didn't know about. This is a life threatening illness that is most commonly found in older animals. We had noticed that Kitty P was fairly small and not growing very quickly, but just thought she was a small type of cat. She didn't have any other symptoms that we could tell. She slept quite a bit, but all cats sleep a lot. She wasn't throwing up and all of their stools were normal. Had we not gotten her spayed when we did, we wouldn't have even known about the infection. We were glad they caught it. We have to give her antibiotic drops for the next week as a precaution.

It's always been rough finding good quality cold weather gear here in Texas- especially along the coast. Before the internet was what it is today, you really couldn't find any decent cold weather stuff even for people, much less dogs. Thanks to the technology we have now, you can order just about anything from anywhere and have it shipped in, but if you need something right away, it becomes an issue. 
Our puppies get cold very easily, and we finally decided that since this weird cold, wet weather that we have been having lately doesn't look like it really wants to go anywhere any time soon, we need some sweaters for our poor freezing puppies to wear when we take them outside. What we are discovering however is that there isn't much of a selection in sizes that will fit our puppies. We found some purple ones in medium and large that we hoped would fit the littles at least, but as I discovered when we got home, the medium only just barely fit Miss M- like a stuffed sausage- and the large wouldn't fit Miss S or Mr. M. That is odd sizing. We tried the large on Miss M and it fits very nicely. Seriously? I know that Miss M is growing fast, but large?

Just to try it, we also bought a men's size medium sweatshirt to try on Mr. C. We wanted small so that it would fit Miss B too, but they were out of small. I need to shorten the arms and hem it up a little so that he can wear it on potty breaks, but he LOVED it. He protested and grabbed my hand gently when I tried to take it off to let me know that he wanted to keep it on. He was so proud of his new sweatshirt. I think I need to check the kids section to see if they have some sweatshirts that would work for the other three.

The two of them felt quite at home in their new clothes and proceeded to show their appreciation by playing with each other while wearing them. They definitely feel right at home in them. Neither of them was very happy when I took them off. We also decided to raise the temperature on the thermostat until we get sweatshirts for the others so that they aren't too cold.

Sound the trumpets! Bring out the DJ! The cones are off!!
We were supposed to keep the cones on until next Tuesday, but yesterday when we were putting the cream on their ears, we noticed that both of the littles had red, irrated skin under the edge of their cones where the cones were rubbing them raw under their chins. They have grown quite a bit in the nearly three weeks since we had their ears done, and I think they simply outgrew their cones. We took the cones off to see if we could adjust them and to put A&D ointment on their poor little necks, and called the vet. He gave us the go ahead to take the cones off. He told us that the ears were most likely finished and set already but to just keep an eye on it. The basic idea was that if they took the tape off that was fine but otherwise try to keep it on until Tuesday.

Mr. M's tape had been loose on one ear for a few days already anyway. We had used the little tape in our camping first aid kit to keep it in place. So within a few minutes of having the cones off, the tape on his left ear was pulled off the rest of the way- it was a joint effort between the two of them.

Miss S and Mr. M were soooo happy to have the cones off! She immediately started rolling around on the floor making the funniest noises ever while we took his cone off. As soon as his was off, he started scratching at the tape that was still on at that point. Then the two of them looked like they had gotten a turbo boost. They ran circles around the dining room table at top speed- happy to be able to run without bumping things with the cones. They both drank out of the water dish at the same time, and then wrestled with each other, chewing each other's collars and chasing each other around. We were a little cautious about bringing the big puppies out at first. We were afraid they would mess with the ears too much or try to chew on them. We let Mr. C out first because he is calmer than Miss B. He went straight over to them- he had a serious look of concern on his face. He smelled their ears  and then smelled the other end. He didn't try to lick the ears at all. After that went so well, we let Miss B out, and she did the same thing.
Once the tape was off of Mr. M's ears, Mr. C and Miss S both tried to lick his ears where there was still adhesive stuck to the fur. Google says that we should try olive oil or peanut butter to loosen the adhesive. Seeing as how all four of them go nuts when there's peanut butter around, I think it may be safer to try the olive oil first. I will post an update on how that goes.

So far, Mr. M's ears are looking good. They are standing up nicely and he hasn't been scratching at the adhesive. Mr. M sat very still and let Mr. C lick his ears for quite a while this morning. He seems to have gotten some of the adhesive off, but we will still try the olive oil thing too. Miss S's tape seems to be holiding really well, so we don't want to mess with it, but I will be glad when we can take that off too.
UPDATE: Miss S's tape on one side was a little loose, and we were worried about the plastic form being pushed into her ear during playtime without the cone to deflect the other puppies. So we used a little bit of olive oil and gently took hers off as well. There was still quite a bit of adhesive left, but it was easier to take off with the olive oil on the tape.

The littles were supposed to have their stitches removed tomorrow, but we finished all of our Saturday errands early and decided to take them in today instead. As luck would have it, there was another dog about their same size having his stitches removed as well. We got to talking with his person, and his person said Mr. M looked familiar and asked us where we got Mr. M and Miss S. As it turns out, the other cute little puppy (Mr. B) was their littermate! He had opted to have his ears cropped as well but like us, had wanted to make sure that he took him to an actual vet. We couldn't let them play because our puppies aren't quite finished with their puppy shots, but Mr. M was very interested in him and was wagging his tail. Miss S was already in the back getting her stitches out and didn't get to see Mr. B. We were relieved to see that his cone of shame is flower shaped now too. So our puppies are not the only ones who are hard on their cones! Mr. B has a human baby to play with, and we were very glad to hear that he watches out for his two-legged baby, even checking on him when he cries.
Hopefully as they get bigger, we can get together with Mr. B and his family to let the puppies play. Mr. B's parents were telling us that he had had the same worm problem our two had in the beginning. His mom told us that he is a big fan of nibbling on sandals and toes- just like our two.
We were glad that we decided to take them in today. If we had waited until tomorrow, we wouldn't have met Mr.B and his people.
On a side note, it's funny how when you have dogs and meet other people with dogs, you forget to ask the people their names. We only know the puppy's name, so we only know the people as Mr. B's people.

So lately, we've just been hanging out at home, waiting for the cones to come off. The littles get their stitches out this weekend; then we just have to wait a little bit longer. We are definitely ready for these stupid cones to come off. I mean seriously, they are at that stage where you just want to play with them and kiss them on their cute little heads, but we can't because the cones are in the way!! I get that they are necessary, but enough already!
In the meantime, they have been growing and playing. We have been starting to work with the little ones on their leashes. They are so used to following us around, that so far they just walk with us wherever we go without noticing that the leash is there. Hopefully we can keep this up. It's so much more enjoyable when they don't pull on the leash! Miss B and Mr. C aren't quite there yet, but I kind of think it was harder with them because they were older when we got them. Plus Miss B's hyper and gets distracted easily.
Here are some random cute pictures from the yard.

Apparently, the cones of shame are supposed to last for at leat 10-14 days until the littles have their stitches removed. We are only 5 days in, and already the cones look like they've been run over by a monster truck. Mr. M somehow removed the staple in the top part of his. They are no longer cone shaped but rather resemble a translucent flower. The vet said to let them play with each other and take them outside to play for a little while each day. They stay inside almost all of the time (hence the newspapers in all of the pictures) in an attempt to keep the cones clean, but even from the few minutes of supervised play in the yard, they have dirt down in the adjustable notches. It is wedged in between the pieces of plastic, and I can't seem to get it clean.
I think the vet underestimated just how active these two are. Add to that two very rambunctious and curious older siblings, and I'm not sure the cones stand a chance. We were going to take them in at 14 days to have the stitches removed but may end up taking them at 10 or 11 days just so that we can get new cones.
Thankfully, the littles are doing better than their cones. They have been flying around the house at top speed, chewing on Mr. C and Miss B and eating whatever they can con us into giving them. All four of them love when it's time to put the antibiotics on their ears because it means that the peanut butter jar comes out. They sit really still for us as long as we keep the peanut butter coming.