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.

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.