Save Rainbow Ark Animal Sanctuary

When browsing the daily mail on my lunch break today for my daily celebrity gossip fix, I came across something a lot more worthwhile reading than an article about which celebrity recently got a haircut. I found this extremely upsetting article about Rainbow Ark Animal Sanctuary:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2548723/Distraught-animal-sanctuary-owner-collapses-mud-bailiffs-arrive-evict-following-legal-battle.html

The owner of the Sanctuary, Paula, has dedicated her life to rescuing and caring for animals, only to have her home and animal sanctuary taken away from her by bailiffs. I immediately started to think of ways we could help her and the animals who are now in desperate need of a place to live. The puppies decided to put their thinking hats on to help us come up with ideas of how to fundraise.

On checking her Sanctuary's website when I got home from work, I was moved to tears when I saw what all of the kind animal lovers out there had already achieved in 1 day. As at the time of writing this post, over £25,000 has been raised for the charity! How amazing is that?! We immediately got involved and made a donation to help this inspirational woman save her Animal Sanctuary, and if you would like to help too, here's where you can donate:
http://www.gofundme.com/6ju9ow

I am so happy to think how many kind people are out there. Sending lots of loves from all of the angels with paws, and hoping that Paula, and the Animal Sanctuary are back on their paws soon xx

"Please Poppy, can we have some more?"

This weekend the puppies had a very exciting experience, their first meal!! As they seem to be getting almost as big as Poppy, and their tiny little teeth are starting to come through, we decided to give them their first taste of real food, in the form of puppy biscuits melted in high protein puppy milk... Mmm yummy!

My mum read that it is a good idea to get the mummy dog to eat the food at the same time to encourage the puppies. We decided to try this, but soon discovered that, Poppy is similar to Joey from FRIENDS, in that 'Poppy doesn't share food'!! Recently, she has an insatiable appetite despite having around 6 meals a day, so she quickly hoovered all the food up before the puppies even had a chance to sniff it, leaving them disappointed.

On second attempt, we tried a new strategy. I fed Poppy chicken whilst the puppies ate their meal. Then, as a compromise, once she'd devoured the whole packet of chicken, she acted as dishwasher for the puppies' plates! They all seemed a little unsure of what to do with their food, a lot of the time just flicking it out of the bowl, or treading in it! However, judging by the leftovers on this little guy's nose, I think he really enjoyed his meal. So much so, that he decided to save some for later!

On top of their first taste of yummy gruel, there has been another big change in the puppies' lives this week. Since the ginger puppy's great escape, they have been unstoppable. Every time we leave the room and come back in, they are all over the room, so we decided it was time to get them a play pen!! The Houdini-like Puppy was not impressed, and has already started trying to chew her way out!

♫ My first kiss went a little like this ♫

The puppies are learning to run around, and have been playing with each other non-stop. When someone knocks at the door, they have even started trying to join in barking with the older dogs. However, some of them seem to be having a bit of an identity crisis, as when trying to bark, a kind of purring noise comes out instead!


As well as playing, and making some questionable noises, they are learning to run around, even if it is, in the case of the big black puppy, only backwards!

When we come into the room and say hey to them, they immediately waddle over for a cuddle and a kiss, and who could resist these cuties!? Auntie Pam and Lesley definitely couldn't when they met the puppies this week for a day full of cuddles.

After a long play session, nibbling each others' faces or their own paws, the puppies are always looking for a big cuddle.

I often start off cuddling one, and before I know it, I have all 5 of them and sometimes Panda, Pops & Teds too! I'm starting to feel like some kind of Cockapoo whisperer!

Who let the Cockapoos out?!

At almost 3 weeks old, the puppies are growing up so fast!

On top of their eyes opening more and more each day, they have started to take their first, albeit very shaky steps, as well as wagging their tails when we come into the room!

As the first puppy to open her eyes, this little ginger girl has started to find the other puppies pretty boring, what with all the sleeping and whining. So, one afternoon, whilst they were all having a little nap, she decided to go on a BIG adventure!

After clambering outside of her box onto a comfy duvet, she found that the excitement was all too much. She curled up into a little ball and fell asleep within seconds. I don't think we need to worry about her getting too far any time soon!!

To top off this, oh so exciting day; the puppies had their first visit from auntie Alfia. Poppy was extremely proud to introduce Alfia to her babies, and Alfia fell in love straight away.

After Alfia seemed to be getting a little too attached to this sleepy puppy, Poppy decided she had better keep an eye on her to ensure she didn't try to slip her up her jumper!

Much to Poppy's relief, when Alfia left we still had 5 gorgeous puppies as she'd managed to resist the temptation of sneaking one of them home with her!

If you have been enjoying following the adventures of our cockapoos, you can subscribe to email updates which let you know when there's a new post. All you need to do is enter your email address in the box at the top right hand side of the page. The puppies would love you to follow their journey and promise lots more cute pictures like this one...

Cockapoo close ups

The two ginger puppies' eyes are starting to properly open up, whilst the black puppies have decided they're not quite ready to give up sleeping all day yet. The little ginger girl is very excited about opening her eyes, and wanted to show off her new waving skills and say HEY WORLD!
She decided that it would be a good time to get some cute selfies. Mainly because she wanted to show off how advanced she is compared to her brothers and sisters; so here they are...

Finally, after posing for the adorable pictures, this little guy decided he had simply had enough and would not pose for any more. What a little diva!

The little ginger puppy was very pleased with herself & her selfie idea, and wanted to remind you that whatever life throws at you, whether it be living in a cardboard box in someone's kitchen, or being a model for countless crazy photo shoots, always remember to SMILE!

Perm anyone?

Today was a day for new hairstyles all round...

When I got home from work, I was greeted by a big surprise: curly-haired puppies!! They look as though my mum has taken them to the hair salon to get a perm, and to be honest, I'm not sure how else their hair could have got so curly all of a sudden! Whatever the explanation, they are starting to look cuter and cuter and more like Cockapoos each day.

On top of developing their retro new hairstyles, the puppies are going through another extremely exciting development. A couple of them have decided it may be time to start opening their eyes! At the moment, they have more of a squinty-look going on, but they are definitely getting there! Maybe they wanted to check out how good their new fur looks...

Panda and Teddy went through a restyle today too, except theirs came in the form of a hair cut.

As Panda has been feeling a little left out, wishing that she had her own puppies, she saw the hair cut as an opportunity to make some puppies of her own. Meet Panda's fur babies... who are almost the same size as her! Very realistic Panda! How can one little dog produce so much fur such big puppies!? After bursting out laughing when receiving this picture from my mum at work, I showed my colleagues. I got a couple of 'Aaaas', a couple of nervous laughs, but my favourite comment was: 'Oh wow, that's weird!' Well, at least Panda is happy that she finally has her own puppies, who cares if they are made of her and Teddy's fur cuttings!

Honey, I blew up the dogs!

Every night when I get home from work, it seems like the puppies have got even bigger. At this rate, they're going to bigger than Poppy soon.

The only puppy that isn't getting huge, is the smallest one who a week and a half later, has just about reached the same size as the other puppies when they were born!





As the puppies are getting bigger, Poppy is getting increasingly relaxed with letting Panda & Teddy near them. However, the silver line dividing the kitchen and dining room (where the puppies are) is like the yellow line at the train station: DO NOT CROSS FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY.



Panda is finding this out the hard way, when she sneakily attempts to edge across the line. It always ends with her rolling over & submitting to Poppy, then 5 minutes later, with her goldfish memory, she tries again!

As for Teddy, after a week and a half of protesting, he finally got to see his puppies. Albeit for about 10 seconds, from a distance, before Poppy gave him an earful about how if she didn't need him for the past week & a half, she didn't need him now and she'd be fine as a single mum. Teddy skulked away wondering if they were even his anyway, as he didn't see a single brown Puppy! He decided to go and eat his edible christmas card from Accessorise that mummy bought in the sale. Who needs puppies when you have yummy treats anyway?!

Where are the Sesame Street auditions?

Now that the puppies are just over a week old, Poppy & the puppies have decided to step out of their snuggling comfort zone and explore the puppies' creative talents.

We went through all of the famous dogs to consider if the puppies could follow in their paw steps:
First we considered Lassie; however, finding their way around the box is hard enough, let alone navigating their way across the country.
Next, we considered BGT star Pudsey; but decided that maybe we should master walking before considering dancing.
Finally, we found the perfect role-models: the Sesame Street Dogs. Geting 5 puppies to lay down & spell out letters - how hard can it be?! How wrong can I be?! 

After half an hour, lots of wriggling, and A LOT of failed photo attempts; we finally managed to capture something that faintly resembled a word. Here's our attempt at spelling out LOVE...

...It helps if you squint. And tilt your head to the left. And yes, that is an E at the end.

After that interesting experience; I have a major new found respect for the Sesame Street dogs & their photographers, the puppies decided that this modelling malarkey was too much hard work, Poppy concluded that the pushy show mum role wasn't for her, and they all decided to have a little snuggle instead!

The pitter patter of not so tiny paws

It has been a week since NYE celebrations, meaning that for most people the fun of the festive season is starting to feel like a distant memory. For us, however, it means that it has been a week since the puppies were born, and the fun is just beginning.

The puppies are starting to move around and soon should be walking, their fur is starting to get curly, and some of them have even been trying to make a run crawl for it! In a week most of the puppies have doubled in weight!! Being the born accountant that I am, I have been keeping a detailed spreadsheet with their weights and the puppies have been having daily weigh-ins.

As you can see from below, we have thought of VERY imaginative names for the puppies...





Name: Big black girl puppy
Colour: Solid black
Sex: Girl
Starting weight: 275g
Weight after 1 week: 566g

Name: Dark ginger girl puppy

Colour: Ginger

Sex: Girl

Starting Weight: 251g

Weight after 1 week: 494g

Name: Tiny black & white puppy

Colour: Black & White

Sex: Girl

Starting weight: 129g

Weight after 1 week: 269g

Name: Light ginger boy puppy

Colour: Ginger

Sex: Boy

Starting Weight: 220g

Weight after 1 week: 462g   

Name: Black & tan puppy

Colour: Black & tan
Sex: Boy
Starting weight: 250g
Weight after 1 week: 496g

As the puppies are getting bigger, Panda & Teddy are getting increasingly curious. They keep trying to have a sneaky peak but are careful not to come too close for fear of feeling the wrath of Poppy!

As well as some attempted canine visitors, we had a human visitor yesterday.

Poppy was very pleased to see her auntie Maria but tried to trick her into thinking this little reindeer was one of her puppies... Maybe next time Pops.

Back to work blues

Today for me, as it did for many, meant the first day back to work; and that means Christmas is officially over for another year. This would normally be hard enough, but having to leave 5 gorgeous puppies behind made it even harder (don't worry, my mum and Poppy were with them all day!)

Back to work also meant that yesterday, Matt had to go back to Birmingham. There were emotional goodbyes all round...mainly from the dogs. Poppy tried to persuade him to stay with a big hug.


Panda tried to get him to take her with him, but decided against it when she realised how little leg room there is in the Audi A1!

Teddy tried to dazzle him with his good looks whilst on a final christmas walk - how could anyone leave that gorgeous face?!

But despite their best attempts, Matt had to go back to Birmingham; and today, I had to go back to work.

One major perk that retirees and dogs share, is the opportunity to fill your day with chilling out at home and going for long walks. Instead, my day consisted of catching an early morning train into Central London with sniffling, depressed commuters; followed by sitting behind a desk, staring at a screen. However, my day ended better than most, as I got to come home to this... how lucky am I?!

Puppy Love

Yesterday, Poppy had to go to the vets and was very upset to leave her puppies, even for an hour. However, she is doing great now, and her and the pups have been making up for the short time spent apart by having a day full of cuddles.


From a 5-way spoon between all the puppies; which, from the yawning, the black & tan puppy evidently found pretty boring in comparison to his previous attempted bundle...





To 2 of the bigger puppies forming a doggy blanket for the smallest pup...

To these 2 puppies sharing a sneaky lil kiss when they thought no one was looking...

To a big cuddle with Poppy for all the puppies...

Even us humans couldn't resist getting in on the action, having a cuddle in my mum's temporary bed next to Poppy's!


Finally, this little puppy with a kind of love heart on its chest (maybe i've just been staring at puppies for too long!), wanted to end the post with the important message that, all you really need is LOVE!