Photo of the week

I have three recent photos that I like or that I think are funny.

1. The expression on Mr Red's face.

2. Follow the leader off the teeter.

3. Ying and Yang (Mr Black on the L and Miss Yellow on the R).

Mr Blue meets his new family

Mr Blue is now known as "Blaze". He has been a fabulous puppy from the moment he was born and I had a lot of difficulty giving him up. But sadly I can't keep all the puppies we breed.

Blaze was scheduled to fly to Calgary, Alberta to his new home on August 15. I got to the airport cargo area at 6:30 AM for his 8:45 AM flight & after cuddles, kisses and tears, I had to say goodbye to him at 7:30. I hadn't been home 10 minutes when I got a call to say the 8:45 flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems and he was being put on the 11:30 flight. I quickly calculated that it would mean he'd be crated without water and food for over 8 hours and there's no way I wanted that to happen. So I booked him on the 3:15 PM flight and headed back to the airport to pick him up. He wasn't brought back to the cargo area until almost 10:45 AM.

I never thought I'd be seeing him again so soon but I was thrilled! I took him outdoors to pee and then packed him into the van to return home for a short while. But by the time I got home - after being delayed by yet another accident on the highway (3 that day that affected me) - I realized we'd only be home for about 20 minutes before having to take him back (cargo requires that anything being shipped by freight be checked in 2 hours in advance of the departure time). So I decided to reschedule him to Saturday morning. Later I learned that the 3:15 flight was delayed by 45 minutes - probably due to yet more bad thunderstorms and torrential rain. So I was really glad that I rescheduled to the next day. Poor little guy would have been very traumatized.

It was a lot quieter on Saturday morning and for once, the weather was sunny and dry. So, once again, I had to say my goodbyes and shed more tears when Blaze was taken away. No cancellations, no delays, no bad weather - smooth flying. When I finally got the message that he had arrived and all was well, I was happy.

Blaze's family is now thoroughly delighted and have fallen in love with him. They will be showing him in conformation and also doing field work/hunting and perhaps obedience and maybe even agility. I'm sure I'll be hearing a lot more about him in future.

Bird work

I took a frozen quail out to our front field to see how the pups would respond to it. There was virtually no wind that day so none pointed. All were curious and eventually picked it up in their mouths. Blaze (Mr Blue) started to run off with it in his mouth; he definitely wanted it for himself.



Click on the album below for the same photos which you can download or print.

Bird work (Miska's pups)

5th Anniversary of the Big Black-out

It was five years ago today (August 14, 2003) that much of southern Ontario, parts of Quebec and some US states were plunged into darkness with a major electricity black-out. I remember it very, very well as I was returning home after getting Nova's 10 puppies in her first litter (see photo) tattooed. It was late afternoon and the only thing I noticed was that traffic lights were out but I didn't think too much of that. When I arrived home, Michael told me about the major black-out and the suspicion that it was another terrorist attack (i.e., 9-11, 2001). Well, that was a scary thought although it turned out not to be the case, TG.

Anyway, almost 50 million people were without power, some for a couple of days and some for a week. Our outage lasted about 2.5 days. With 10 puppies to care for, it wasn't fun having no electricty or running water for so long. Plus, it was hot as can be that summer. My biggest concern was letting the pups outdoors late at night, with coyotes in the woods, and trying to keep track of our little critters by flashlight. They were almost 7 weeks old then so they were motoring around.
Fortunately nothing bad happened to our puppies but it was a very stressful, hot and sweaty 2.5 days.

The biggest thing I missed was not being able to take a shower or bath, especially since it was so hot. Just made everyone realize how totally dependent we are on electricity for everything, including water too in our case. Since then, we try to ensure we keep candles, flashlights, batteries and bottled water on hand in case of an emergency. But really, it was a wakeup call but little is being done to lesson our dependency on electricity. Hopefully, nothing like this will happen again.

Pups rock climb

It's important to provide challenges to developing puppies. In our garden, we have several 'nature' challenges. The puppies learned that there's one way to climb up but different ways to get down. Enjoy!

Week 8

It's amazing how much development and growth has occured in the last week. Pups are going further afield, exploring more, being more adventurous and just plain growing. Michael's mom arrived from Europe the same day the pups turned 8 weeks of age. She's very good with our dogs and loves the puppies but of course, we have to be very careful to ensure she doesn't fall or trip when they are around. So, she's ordered to "sit, stay" and then we spray her feet and shoes with Bitter Apple so the little devils (darlings) don't bite her.

Rowan meets our puppies

Rowan is the 18 month-old son of Kristi & Michael who own Lloyd (CH Varazs Nyar Cigany), an uncle to our puppies. Lloyd is one of Nova's puppies from her last litter and that makes Lloyd a half-brother to our Miska. Lloyd is a full brother to our Tyro. Lloyd joined the family before Rowan and so guess what Rowan's first word was? It wasn't "mama" or "dada". It was, "WOOF!". How precious and wonderful is that?!

Kristi and Rowan came to visit our pups last week. The pups were exploring with their mouths so that didn't make Rowan all that happy and he cried a little but later Rowan splashed in the puppy wading pool and got all wet so that made up for those awful biting machines.

Rowan meets Vizsla puppies