Well, they arrived a week after I was expecting, but Polly has done a grand job delivering 6 strapping kittens in the space of just 2 hours this afternoon. I suspect she is very pleased she is no longer carrying them as she looked incredibly uncomfortable towards the end. I haven't had a chance to sex them yet but it looks like we have 2 colourpoints, 2 tabby and whites, 1 black and white and 1 chocolate. For those of you on facebook, there are videos of some of the kittens being born if you want to take a look. I will try and get them on here later. Please fill out a kitten application form if you think you may be interested in a kitten.
All the poodles were bathed and groomed on Monday, on Tuesday I just couldn't bring myself to take them to the mud swamp which was formerly fields, so I opted for a lead walk. Lead walking is something I very rarely do with my girls and this was the first time all 6 had been lead walked together, so I was pleasantly surprised with how well they walked, I wasn't so surprised by the attention we attracted when we got into town. As this was a new experience for them they were actually pretty tired on our return and settled for the rest of the day.
The next day we went to the beach, today we were back to the mud.
I will start with a moan, I'm so fed up with rain and mud. But that said, I count myself lucky that it is only my dog walking that has been severely affected, unlike so many that have lost homes and businesses. Anyway, life goes on, and on the whole the dogs don't worry to much about getting wet and filthy, and we are lucky enough to be in reasonable driving distance of a nice beach :)
The view from our house
Florin is continuing her trick training classes whilst we wait for her to come into season, she loves them :)
Tried some portrait photography with some of the cats, this is out of my comfort zone, but I'm pretty pleased with the results. It is hopefully evident that Polly is due kittens in a couple of weeks, but I have to stress that Margo is just fat!
Setting a tentative date for a 2020 Itzapromise reunion, Sat 20th June at Saunton Sands, Devon. Would love to see as many Itzapromise poodles (and any dogs they live with) with their families as possible. Get it in your diary and start practicing those sit/stays for the group pictures :)
I forgot to post this before Christmas. Florin has been attending trick training classes this year, whilst we are far from perfect we both have fun doing this :)
I am also very pleased to announce that Florins DNA testing for vWD, DM, NE and prcd-PRA have all come back clear, she has been hip scored 3:6, so, subject to a clear BVA examination for HC we hope to mate her next year :)
The last of this years kittens are now in their new homes, reports are that all are doing very well. This leaves us with probably the smallest amount of pets here in decades, just 7 dogs and 6 cats. Much as I miss those animals that are no longer with us, I have to say that it is quite nice having less animals all vying for my attention and it means that the cats and dogs can share the space together and I am now able to focus more on Whoopi and Florins training over the winter.
We are hoping to have a litter of puppies from Florin in the spring, which I am really excited about, especially as our last litter was in 2018 so it's been quite a while since we have had puppies in the house.
We also hope to have more kittens next year, don't tell Fawlty but he won't be the father of all of next years litters!
Most of those that read my blog will be aware of Whoopi's accident when she was just 15 weeks old, she suffered a sub luxation of the spine and massive brain haemorrhage which left a large clot on her brain. Quite simply she should have died at the time of the accident, but not only did she survive, with fantastic veterinary treatment and round the clock nursing and physio from myself, she has made a close to full recovery and now lives her life to the full making the most of everything. She celebrated her 1st birthday last week so here are a few recent pics and video clips of her.
The kittens will start to leave us in about 10 days time, going to be very odd having no babies in the house, but I get a lot of pleasure knowing the joy they bring to their new families.
