Tag Archives: Maremma

Our friend Lisa, of Flying Goat Farm, came by with her husband the other day.

They were here to pick out not one, but TWO lovely puppies.

It warms my heart to think that two mini-Cinis are now happily in place at a new home, that they’ll grow up to serve other shepherds as wonderful LGDs, and that they’ll learn to work around the clock to protect another flock.

The other four puppies will be staying a while longer with us– they’ll be getting a chance to spend some quality time training with their father before they head off into the big world. So, don’t fret– the puppy pictures are going to keep coming.

The puppies had a wonderful time outdoors today.

It seems like they get more and more active by the day. All they want to do is tussle with each other,

and run around,

and roll around (this is Orzo, with his still-pink nose),

and pal around with us,

and one another.

It is the greatest.

I know I keep mentioning how shocked I am at the number of puppies we have (six!), but, as the puppies get older, bigger, and more rambunctious, they become more of a handful. They wanted to explore everything outside, and took off in all different directions. It took a bit of effort to keep them all in relatively the same place!

The Gnocci Gallery (we call him– no kidding– Gnocc-Gnocc. It rhymes with joke-joke.)

In my head, I’ve started calling all four of the other unnamed pups Magnus.

It’s not really a name, but more of a hopeful honorific that one day, they’ll grow to be just as great and wise and gentle

as their magnificent father, Cini.

Happy Father’s Day to all fathers, human and animal alike!

and, a Tangentially Related Bonus Question: Which wonderful children’s book features a loving father named Magnus?

We took Lucy’s puppies out on an exploration this morning. At four weeks old, they may have reached their peak of cuteness.

Me and Gnocchi

A couple of you have asked if we’re naming all the puppies. We’re not because we want their new owners to have that privilege. Amy is taking one of the pups for her farm. They have named him Orzo.

I may be biased, but I think Gnocchi is the cutest. The rest of these are all of him:

I took my 50mm lens out to the barn yesterday during the golden hour, that time before sunset when everything seems to glow.   I may have overdone it a bit but I truly can’t get enough of Lucy’s pups. Three or four times a day, I find myself sitting on the floor, covered in puppies. It’s absolute heaven!

The pups are only three weeks old but it feels like they’ve been with us forever. Oh how lucky we are!

Today was the puppies’ first day on solid food and it was hilarious.

At first, they had no idea what that mushy stuff in the bowl was but once one or two of them caught on, it was pandemonium.

The pups will be three weeks old on Saturday and they are already enormous!

This is Gnocchi. He’s the runt of the litter and our hands-down favorite.

He seemed to be heading down hill last weekend, so I brought him in the house overnight and supplemented him with a few bottles of puppy milk replacer. By morning he was doing just fine!  He’s back out with his brothers and he is THRIVING! He was the first to understand that the stuff in the bowl was for eating.

Part of our adoration for Gnocchi comes from the fact that he is the only one of the pups that’s recognizable at this stage. The other 5 boys are completely interchangeable but Gnocchi is Mister Personality.

We may have one or two pups for sale when they get to be 8-weeks-old. Three (possibly four) have already been spoken for and will be going to live a sheep and goat farms. I was planning to keep only one but I’m leaning towards keeping two for Juniper Moon Farm. The truth is, I wish I could keep them all!

If you have a working farm and are looking for a livestock guardian dog, email me at susie at fiberfarm dot com.