Writing the blog yesterday reminded me of how close Miikka and Darbi actually are.
When Darbi had her pups in 2006, we kept mom and babes pretty isolated for the first week. Miikka was desperate to know what was going on (Little Miss Nosey), but we never let Miikka in the room where Darbi was to give Darbi her privacy as a new mom.
When Darbi started to spend a bit of time away from the pups, we let Miikka in the room one day to show her what the little guys were. Darbi didn't seem to care and we watched Miikka very closely to gauge her reaction. Miikka was obsessed with the little pups and right away wanted to mother them. From then on, Miikka and Darbi "tag-teamed" the litter of puppies. When Darbi was away from the pups, Miikka would baby-sit them. She would go so far as to lick bums and clean them off.
I spoke with Darbi and Miikka's breeder about this and he said it was safe to let Miikka be around the pups as long as she was always supervised. It became clear over the following weeks that she was as much a mother to them as their own mother.
What was amazing is that the puppies NEVER tried to nurse off Miikka. Usually pups have a very strong nursing instinct to nurse off everything that walks by...but they seemed to know that Miikka was "Auntie" and not Mommy.
Here are some old pics I found of Miikka checking to be sure bums are clean and playing with the pups and Darbi in Spring 2006.
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