3 Days Old

Hi,

Today I am 3 days old. Mummy decided to post a photo of me cuddling with my siblings. There are a total of 9 of us, small black and tan looking rats. Yup, rats, baby airedales look like rats. Right now, we sleep a lot, and we love to keep ourselves warm, by sleeping in a "puppy pile". Do you know why? Newborn puppies like us have no temperature control, but luckily, our facial nerve is mature and we use our heads like a probe, avoiding cold hard surfaces and liking soft warm ones. That's when many brothers and sisters come in handy. Although we can't see yet, because our eyes are not opened, our sense of smell is strong, and our sense of touch too, and finding our doggie mum's teat comes naturally to us. Did I mention my favourite food is milk? Yummmy.

I hear a rumour going around, someone mentioned "tail docking and dewclaw removal". I wonder what this is all about. Will it hurt?

Mummy told me in a dream last night, it won't hurt too much. Wow, I feel so much better after she told me that. She told me that a very smart man once wrote in a book, that our puppy brains are so undeveloped at this point, that our nerves are slow, and this causes our response to any type of stimuli to be slow. This is why my brothers, sisters and I will have less pain sensation, and this is the reason that tails are docked when we are less than 3 days old. I guess this means this "tail docking and dewclaw removal" thing must be happening quite soon. Oops

Love,

Kimi

(notes extracted from "The Dog's Mind, by Bruce Fogle")