Fern has spent a busy day feeding her puppies almost non-stop and also eating and drinking lots herself to keep her strength up.  She has  ventured out briefly a few times but is anxious to return to her little ones as the noise of their mewing pulls at her heart strings as she can hear them through the door.  Once back inside she gives them all a quick check and lick all over and settles down very carefully so as not to squash any of them. The puppies are all varying shades of cream with four of them being paler whilst the other four are slightly darker so it will be interesting to see if they retain this colouring as the weeks progress.