Saturday, July 16, 2016

Summertime

What a nice day it is!  The three girls are out in the front yard chasing each other and eating the plums that fall on the ground. Kat used to fish them off the tree herself, but these three wait for them to fall.  I take the puppy out sometimes and put him down when Myshka is not right there.  She is so exuberant that I'm afraid that she will harm him.  I usually throw a ball and she goes off to chase it and I can let the puppy explore or snuggle up to Coug who likes to use him as a cuddle toy.  She is a very sweet dog.

We did not go to the dog shows this weekend. I would have liked to do that, but Myshka now has kennel cough and the puppy has a goopy nose discharge.  Yuck!  Poor boy.  He seems to be doing quite well in spite of the nose discharge. While Kathleen and I were in California, Woody sprouted teeth.  He likes to chew on my toes, as all puppies seem to.  I am playing with him with a tug toy and he is learning.  Four weeks and two days old. Anne may have to decide to do Agility with him if she is the prize winner!!! He started eating "real" food on Thursday when I arrived home also.  He is growing up! Doesn't take them long.

So, where did Kathleen and I go, you might ask.  We flew to San Jose and attended a Teah Anders seminar she taught with her husband, Chuck.  Mental Management a la Lanny Bassham. It was fantastic.  It will change our lives.  After that, we drove down to Santa Barbara to visit with Kathleen's boy and my grandson, Bryce, and his partner, Jack.  We had lots of fun with the boys and got lots of hugs and love.  We may even do it again someday!  Crazy thing was, we had to drive back to San Jose to drop off the car.  If we had turned it in down south, it would have cost over $800 instead of $300. We actually enjoyed our ride.  We both came home with no suntan. We spent one day at the Santa Barbara Zoo and enjoyed it immensely.  We had great tour guides!

Bryce and Jack are coming up to Bellingham tomorrow to celebrate Bryce's birthday with his family. The dogs and I will go to Bellingham tomorrow and show off the puppy to the boys. Bryce took me to the Aeroflot cargo to pick up Myshka when I flew to LAX to pick her up, so he gets to see her again.  She will like that.  I think that the boys want to come out to the farm to visit while they are in Washington, but theirs is kind of a quick trip and they may not get the chance.

We cannot go to NoseWork classes for a few more weeks since the dogs have kennel cough, so we are practicing daily.  Poor kids.  That is the highlight of their week.  They are a happy crew.

Remember to wear your hats on these beautiful, summer days.  Sunscreen also!

The Curmudgeon has struck again!

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Changes and more changes

OK.  Where to start?

Muppy went to her new home two days ago. She is a character and they will have their hands full down there in Vancouver, WA.  Some of you may someday see her in a conformation ring with her new mom or her very sweet and cute son.  I don't think that dad is interested in showing the dog.  Sounds as if she may go to the 2018 National Specialty.  Mom is a vet and gives talks on genetic diversity.  I'm hoping that she will send me some of the literature she reads so that I can better understand what she is doing.  She said that she would test Muppy, whose name is now Nibs.  (They play cribbage.  Can you tell?!!!)

Kathleen and I traveled to Ohio for the 2016 National Specialty July 14th in the middle of the night.  We spent the first day finding Wilmington, Ohio and getting health tests on Coug and Myshka, including Doppler ultrasounds.  They passed with flying colors.  The second day we were there we walked around the ring for Sweepstakes.  Coug's brother, Rugby, who lives on Long Island, NY, won first in his 9-12 month old puppy class and then went on to be named BOS to Best Junior puppy in Sweeps.  Phil Klosinski had fun showing him.  I showed Coug and Myshka.  Coug came in second in her 9-12 month bitch puppy class.  We were happy as ANYtime one takes a ribbon home from the National Specialty it is something very special.  I have been told that since I attended my very first National Specialty.  So, we were very happy our second day there.  (It is 60 degrees and drizzling here today, as an aside.)

Now, to go back just a little.  I almost didn't go to the Specialty.  Timing is always essential and I had bred Pip to Rennick two months before the Specialty.  I thought that she was going to have the puppy before we left.  (That's another story.)  For a long time, I thought that the breeding just hadn't taken because she showed no signs of being pregnant.  Then, about a week before we left, I started to see nipples enlarging and milk if I squeezed one.  OK, maybe she has a puppy in there.  X-Ray.  Yep, one puppy.  Surely it will come any day now.  To the vet in Poulsbo.  She is fine, no need for a c-section.  Just wait.  Shoulders in knots.  Should I stay home??????  Shoulders in worse knots.  Chris Harrington said she'd whelp the litter.  I go, but the shoulders were in worse knots.  Left poor Chris with all kinds of instructions, books, paraphernalia, etc.  She read everything.  Had numbers for vets, found friends who would help, etc.  So, on the 16th, during the first day of the regular classes, in spite of tight, knotted shoulders, I watched the boys show.  Rugby only came in second that day in his 9-12 month class.  He was giving Phil K a pretty hard time in the ring.  I guess that we should be happy that he even came in second!!!!  Then the phone rang.  Pip had had her one puppy, no problem, all by herself, and it was a BOY.  Eight ounces of boy.  Thank goodness Chris didn't have to worry about a 2 ounce baby!!!!  Whew!!!!  So, seeing that the white spot on his chest looks like a woodpecker, we seem to be calling him "Woody" fairly often.  I call him "Fats" a lot too.  He is three weeks old today and is growling like a real terrier, is cutting teeth right on time, is getting up on all fours and starting to walk and is producing that famous puppy breath that I love.  He is about as fat as any baby BT you'd like to see without being a swimmer.  He can and does stand on his four legs!  So, yippee, we have a boy.  I'm hoping that he is good enough for me to keep, but Anne is hoping against me, that she gets him.  He will be perfect in her eyes even if he isn't in mine, she says.  I'm rooting for both of us, because I know how much she wants her first dog ever.  These singleton litters are for the birds!!! Too many people are disappionted!

So, back to the Specialty.  My shoulders relaxed and Coug went in the ring and came out with second place in the Bitch Bred By Class.  Seeing that there were 19 or 20 girls in the class, I cannot be at all disappointed.  In fact, I'm elated.  Star Ott, that wonderful person, took Myshka into the Open Class ring and came out with a 4th place ribbon which, when you see Myshka in any Conformation ring, you will wonder how she gets any placements because you might wonder how the judge even could see her!!!  She is wild and I think that Star took pity on me knowing that she could show her to much better end than I could.  Whew!!!  People love Myshka.  She is a SWEET, crazy girl, very animated.  Bard, now called Bud, took 4th in the Working dog class, from which BOB dog came.  Another ribbon.  Dusty and Karla Quinn finished Dusty's SE title one of the first days.  Coug's half sister was Winners Bitch.  Pretty nice.  Marg Pough bred her and she lives with Phil Klosinski.

The next day, after BOB, on the 17th, Elwha took 1st in the Breeders Class.  Again I was elated.  Myshka made a few cuts, down to the end, in Best Otter Head.  I think that there were only seven dogs left in the ring when he chose BOH and she was one of them.  Elwha did respectfully at the Nationals!!!!

When we got home, the following weekend, we went to Kent for helping get the tunnels ready for Earthdog and Earthdog practice.  That was fun.  Doris brought Bryce to me and I put Bryce on a plane to Montana on my way home.  He now lives with Rick and Donna Lewis in Superior and may be the luckiest boy in the world.  They love him and are trying their darnedest to spoil him!  It was love at first sight.

Zinger went to Vancouver, BC to her forever home yesterday.  She, Reese, Coug, Pip, and Ellie all have kennel cough.  That means we are all quaranteened for two weeks from when the last one clears.  Must have picked it up at Earthdog.  Can't figure out where else it could have been.  I'm hoping that Muppy/Nibs and Woody don't come down with it.  Myshka, so far, hasn't shown any signs of getting it.  She maybe didn't hold still long enough to let it catch her!  The dogs sound awful, but are playing ball as if nothing were happening out of the ordinary, thank goodness.

Tired of this yet?  I'll put some pictures of Woody on here if I can get that to work.  Couldn't get any to show up.  I will be happy when I have my computer back when we get to Hawaii.  I can't even back this up to fix some of the typos I see on reviewing this.  Rats!!!

The Tired, Old Curmudgeon will sign off....

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Myshka

I imported a girl from Russia in November. She is a blue and a very wild, funny girl. I took her and Coug to four days of shows in Spokane and Couer d'Alene.  We arrived home last night. My intent was to get the girls ready to go into the show ring for the National Specialty coming up in a few days, June 12-17. My plans were perfect for Coug. She became more and more sure of herself daily. Myshka on the other hand never calmed down. BUT, she earned a point her first day, her first dog show. She went on to take Reserve the next day and the last day, but also earned her first major on Sarurday!!!!  I think it was a 5 point major too!  Wow!  I surely hope that she can calm down for the Specialty though. The judge may not be as forgiving!

Can't seem to get the iPad to work getting pictures. Sorry.

Muppy weighs almost two pounds, is trucking around on the slippery floor, bringing me toys for playing tug, and growling plenty when I pick her up.  She does fall asleep in my lap after crawling up my legs. She eats some slurry and seems to like that and her teeth are coming in!  Hard to get anything else done for watching her!

Later,

The Char Curmudgen

Friday, May 6, 2016

Muppy

Well, you know the story of Muppy's litter.  She and her sister weighed just 2.2 oz.  I was a coward and didn't have the heart to put on here that Squirt died after just a few days.  I kind of wonder if mom lay on her and smothered her, but one can't ever tell.  It is just a darn sad thing....

On the other hand, Cake, now Muppy, for Miracle Puppy, is feisty and fighting to make it.  She has gained weight and is now hovering around 5 oz.  She went to dog class today, even though she didn't go in.  I want to make it so that she never gets car sick, so she is going to start taking trips here and there.  She was a trooper.

If Muppy is well conformed, she will be my puppy, after all, that is what breeders breed for, ourselves.  If she isn't up to my high standards, she has a home.  She could still be a show dog and I might not want her.  They are still perfectly fine, even if they aren't show dogs.  Breeders have to look for the very best to breed so that we weed out the genes we don't want.  Doesn't mean the puppy is bad, just not great.

I have a boy I co-bred, seventeen weeks old, that needs a great home.  I am getting a girl back that has been bred and I will have her litter to place if the breeding took and then there is Pip and her litter, if that litter took.  It will be a few weeks before I am sure if those girls pregnancies took.  So, you can see that delay is the word, but not depression.  You who are on the list are going to get a puppy!!!  I will not believe it if there are two such disaster litters in a row!!!  It could happen, but itsn't likely to.

It is very hot here in the Pacific NW today.  Whew!  Muppy and Zinger, her mother, were in the shade the entire time they were at dog class.  No melted puppies here!

Believe it or not, I took pictures of Muppy minutes ago with my iPad on which I am typing this blog entry.  I cannot make the pictures come onto the screen.  This picture has nothing to do with Muppy, besides being a close relative, i.e. a sibling from another litter, but the iPad will not let me use any of the pictures I picked.  Sorry.  I need the computer set up.  Maybe soon, for sure when I get to Hawaii.....  The second picture below is of Zinger.  See how pretty she is?

So, I will leave you with the thought that you can beg for a picture over the phone and over the phone give me your email address, or come fix this silly machine that won't do as I ask!!!  360-477-1869

Later,
Curmudgeonly Charlotte

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Three days old

The two miracle babies are doing fine.  Of course I was worried until this morning.  They were either losing weight or staying the same weight and, even though I know that is normal for newborns, because they were sooooo small, I worried, big time.  Anyway, this morning they had both gained tenths of an ounce.  Cake is 2.5 oz and Squirt got back to her birth weight of 2.2 oz.  Thank heavens.  That being said, Kathleen and I are still staying up all night long hooking them on to the nipples, etc. It is paying off!!!!  Thank goodness.

The babies, when they were born, had ribs that were quite visible.  I knew they were doing better when the ribs started disappearing.  That happened before the weight went up, so I knew they were improving.  It is still worrisome watching these babies and it will carry on for a bit.  They aren't out of the woods yet, not by any means.  We'll be up many nights to come, but, of course, it is worth it.

I figure that these two babies, being held and handled as much as they are being held, etc., are going to be the sweetest things in the world.

Today we start the neurological stimulation exercises, days 3 to 16.  This includes the smell stimulation.  Watch out!  Smart puppies being raised!

For now, the blog will continue some other day, from the hopeful curmudgeon

Friday, April 29, 2016

Zinger's new puppies

Well, Zinger did have puppies.  April 27th.  She was bred to Bravo, a beautifully made boy in Toledo, Ohio and the progesterone levels said that the babies would be due April 25th.  My reconing was April 26.  Those days came and went and I was worried.  I wasn't worried because she was "late," but because Zinger's girth kept getting smaller over the last one to two weeks.  I was afraid that she was resorbing puppies, some or all.  I took her in for an x-ray on the 26th and there were pictures of two or three puppies and a bunch of "stuff" that the vet could not identify.  Hmmmmmm.  Next morning, there was black, wet stuff on one of her bedding blankets.  Muconium, so, where was the puppy/!!!!  On the floor, a tiny, black thing.  Sad.  A mostly resorbed puppy.  Two more came out over the next hour and I decided to take her in to the vet as she was NOT having contractions that I could feel and I could not feel kicking babies.  Had only felt one baby kick one time during this entire pregnancy.  Not good.

The cesarian section showed lots of "stuff" in her uterus, BUT, two live babies, both girls.  They each weighed 2.2 ounces when we got them home, we being myself and Chris Harrington who had come out to see babies be born.  Instead she went through this ordeal with me and has steadfastly held on and is helping put and keep these babies on the nipples day and night.  They still haven't achieved a weight over their birth weight, but are maintaining.  Amazingly tiny baby girls, one has a white spot on her chest that looks like a crab, so she is Crabcakes, Cake for short and the other has a spouting whale as her white spot, so she is Squirt.  They are beautiful, but TINY and lots of work.

Kathleen and Kate arrived last night and will spend the weekend and help me keep them eating.  Chris must go home this morning.  We'll miss her, but she may come back to see babies be born when Pip has her litter, IF her breeding took.  One can never tell.

This disaster and miracle, that we even have two alive, means that many people on my list will either have to wait for a puppy from Pip or onward down the line, or find a puppy somewhere else and the ones to whom I have spoken so far are crushed, but understand.  Nature rules.

We will never know why this happened.  Nature doesn't always tell us those things.  Sad but true.

Hugs to all on the list, to Chris for all her help, to Kathleen and Kate for their help and to luck that we have two sweet, TINY girls so save.

More later,
The ever hopeful curmudgeon, Charlotte

Friday, March 4, 2016

Chaos

So, the house is a mess, boxes and clutter everywhere.  Leaving for Hawaii in September, after I get to see my friend from England.  Yes, the dogs will go with me.  Meanwhile, we will have puppies at the end of April.  Zinger's last litter.  Maybe we'll have a Pip litter too.  We'll see about that one.

Pip is doing well in NoseWork as are Zinger, Myshka, and Coug.  Pip is ready for NW3 (and I wish I were,) Zinger is ready for NW2, and Myshka and Coug are ready to be introduced to scent.  Myshka is going to be another crazy Pip, and Coug is going to be another careful, or more careful, Jeri.  Can't get enough, none of us.  We will practice with Sherilyn and Nancy this afternoon, even though we are supposed to get up to five inches of rain today!!!!!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Pip gets into one of two NW3 trials coming up.

I just got a new car for Hawaii, a white Prius, like millions of other Priuses out there.  I will enjoy the good gasoline mileage I'll get and I will like all the "apps" the car has, like telling me if there is a car in my blind spot, etc.  Don't want any accidents with my precious babies in the car!!!

So, no pictures today, unless you want old ones.  "Soon" I'll put up pictures of PUPPIES!!!

Don't get too wet and stay warmtoday!

Best,
The Curmudgeon