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.

In honor of the New Year, Mr. C tried to put on his happy face.

This New Year's Eve, we decided to shake things up a bit...just kidding. We took Miss M to have her stitches out. That means we are one step closer to being cone-free! The vet was very pleased with how her ears are looking so far, so we can't wait to see how they look. We've noticed a difference with her ears as compared to when Miss S and Mr. M had their's done. The vet recommended that we let them play together to keep their attention off of their ears. I think where we messed up was that we still let them sleep in the same room- not separated. We noticed that Miss M's ears looked a lot less raw at the base than the other two did. We've come to the conclusion that at night while they were supposed to be sleeping, the other two were licking the antibiotic gel off of each others' ears. Since Miss M sleeps where we can see her but separated from the other puppies, her ears are nice and dry. So a word of caution if you are contemplating have two puppies' ears cropped at the same time, it's a good idea to separate them at night so that they don't lick each others' ears.
On the way back from the vet, we noticed that she started out calmly sitting on Dad's lap but then got restless. We couldn't figure out what was wrong and thought it might still be the anesthetic wearing off. She kept trying to climb into the back seat. On a whim, Mom turned the heater down slightly just to see what would happen, and she curled up and went back to sleep. Apparently, Miss M is fairly particular about temperature. She was restless because it was a little too warm to sleep. We've decided that she is the princess of the bunch. We haven't taken any new pictures in the last couple of days. So here are a few of our previous favorites.

And just like that, the holidays were over and it became 2015! Happy New Year!

What is a girl to do when the Christmas songs are right and the weather outside is frightful? Dress for the part of course!

We found these cute little jackets the other day and got small and medium for the littles. Much to our surprise, Miss M didn't fit the small and Miss S and Mr. M didn't fit the medium. So only Miss M ended up with a jacket. We are going to have to find a different kind of jacket. I mean seriously, it was like 50 degrees outside. It's practically cruelty to animals to not have a jacket in those kinds of frigid temperatures.
Luckily, the puppies all have plenty of treats to keep them warm.

This past Sunday, we took Miss M to have her ears cropped as well despite Mom's protests. This time though, Mom didn't cry. The ear vet's office was packed. When it was time to pick her up, there were several other dog owners there to pick up their dogs as well. Miss M behaved so well that the vet used her as an example to show everyone else how to put on the antibiotic gel and drops. That meant that we got to leave first, which was good for us. Most of the people there this weekend had dobermans and cane corsos. The vet was explaining to them that pit bulls have higher tolerances for pain genetically and return to their normal selves quicker than most other breeds. So the pit bulls only get 3 days worth of pain medicine, where all of the other breeds have to take the pain medicine for 8 days instead. I was proud of our little Miss S. She was the smallest one there but was one of the toughest.  

After being gone with Miss M all day, the other puppies were extremely upset when we got home. Miss B and Mr. C were practically in a frenzy. We let the littles out to go to the bathroom first and then Dad took them into our bedroom with Miss M so that they could check her out without big puppies jumping all over the place. Mom sat with Miss B and Mr. C and calmed them down before letting them out of their crates to go outside one at a time. Mr. C was so worked up that he was literally beside himself. Mom walked with him around the yard, spoke quietly to him and made him sit often to get him back focused again. He was extremely concerned about Miss M and his whole body wagged along with his tail when we finally took him back to the bedroom to see her. After a few minutes, everyone was happy and calm again and we let them all out to play. Miss M was very happy to see everyone and went to chewing on them immediately. 
By this afternoon, all was back to normal. Miss M is back to chewing on everything and everybody and back to barking at the other puppies to play. 
On a more Christmas-y note, we decided that it would be wise of us not to put Christmas presents under the tree this year. All of our dogs love boxes and love ripping up paper. Not too good for Christmas presents. We are very surprised that our live tree- deemed "awesome" by one of Dad's students- is still standing despite having 5 pit bulls flying around the room at top speed knocking chairs out of place. So far, we have only had one ornament casualty- and that was only a plastic ball ornament. Mom decided that it would be smart to put all of the glass ornaments up high, well out of reach of curious puppy noses- a system that seems to be working so far.

It's the middle of the week, and it's been a few days since the last post. So here is an update on how everything is going. It's been almost a week since the cones came off, and Miss S and Mr. M's ears are healing nicely. The adhesive is mostly off- with the exception of a few spots that don't seem to want to come off yet. They are doing well and terrorizing the big puppies again like normal. They are finally getting big enough to almost keep up with Miss B and Mr. C in the yard when they are playing at normal speed. They can't keep up with them when they do their turbo charged zoomies around the yard yet, but that understandable- you almost need instant replay with slow motion to catch in action when they go into turbo mode.

Mr. M discovered that he can bark back and forth with the dog in the yard behind ours and runs to the fence whenever the other dog is out in the yard. We are glad that he likes other dogs but are glad that there is a fence because I don't think the other dog could handle rough play. He's big and tough behind the fence and talks smack to Mr. C and Miss B, but I'm pretty sure the littles already outweigh him...Miss S doesn't bark at him but is very interested in what he and his little buddies are doing on the other side of the fence.

We are constantly reminded of how observant Miss B and Mr. C are. They like the neighbors beside us (the lady looks a lot like Grandma) and know what their cars look like. In the picture below, Miss B is watching as one of them pulls up. Whenever they have company over and there are different cars in the driveway, they get very concerned and head directly for that side of the yard to make sure everything is OK. They do the same thing when we rearrange the pillows on the couch or put something there that isn't usually there. They have to smell it and make sure it's supposed to be there.

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.

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.

I am constantly reminded how resilient pitbulls are. It was only three days ago that the littles had their ears cropped, but aside from an occasional attempt at scratching their cones of shame to get to their ears, you wouldn't even know anything happened. The evening after their surgeries, they had fairly loose bowels and pooped a lot. Our entire floor looked like we lived in a print shop because we plastered almost all of it in newspaper. I thought that they probably wouldn't really like us anymore for taking off part of their ears. If I were a dog, I don't think I would like my owner anymore if they did that to me, but the littles still go crazy and give me kisses all over my face when I come home from work.
I thought that the cones would slow them down a little, but they are as fast as ever and have been jumping like crazy- jumping when they hear the treat bag, jumping trying to get on the furniture and even jumping on the big puppies. I thought that their appetites might be affected by the pain medicine or the anesthesia, but I was wrong on that count too. They are eating as much as ever. The only difference is that we have to tilt the bowl a little so that they can eat the last little bit because the cones get in the way.

I thought that Miss B and Mr. C wouldn't care if the littles were there or not, but last night, I had them on the bed with me while I was doing some work on the computer while the littles slept in their room (aka the guest bathroom with plenty of space for their bed and a tile floor that is easy to clean up in case of accidents). Mr. C was super restless. He kept looking around the bed, under the covers, under my lap desk, and he kept making a little quiet wimper. I couldn't figure out what was wrong at first. Finally, I asked them if they were looking for Miss S and Mr. M. Instantly, they began wagging their tails. So I went and got the littles and put them up on the bed with us. Mr. C and Miss B calmed down right away and went to sleep. They actually like the littles. They haven't even tried messing with their ears too much. They smell their cones and kind of check things out, but then they back off right away.
I was worried when we first brought them back from getting their ears done that I wouldn't be able to get them to hold still long enough to put the anitbiotic drops on or masage the antibiotic gel onto the bottoms of their ears. As it turns out, as long as we keep the peanut butter coming, they don't mind at all.
Pitbulls are amazing at not showing it when they are in pain. I know their ears must hurt, but there is absolutely no difference in their mood or behavior. The more time I spend with these four dogs, the more I realize that I don't think I will ever be interested in a non-pitbull again. Other breeds are ok too, but pitbulls are where it's at in my book.

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.