All the gang at the beach again

Following several months of house arrest then a gentle reintroduction to walks Tiffany is now completely sound, and apart from ball games, is back to completely normal walks and associated activities. That said, the walk was not without problems, over the last week or so every single vehicle I have access too has been out of action so this beach trip was reliant on a friend giving us a lift, but it appears that I managed to jinx her car too as we broke down as we arrived at the beach!! It could have been worse, we could have been stranded on one of the approaching lanes and had to do the 5 1/2 hr wait for recovery in a car full of dogs that were excited for their trip out and would need to pee! Anyway, all the dogs had a blast and we all slept very well that night :) 

After 4 years of doing nothing more than getting her feet wet, in the last couple of weeks Florin has realised that poodles are actually a water dog and has started to swim, I wish I had videoed the first couple of attempts as she tentatively edged forward with her front legs leaving the floor and then letting her back legs float out, froggy style behind her, just sort of hanging there, but here she is a few swims in. 

Kenji is currently out with Fawlty, so hopefully we will have some positive news re kittens very soon :) 

 

A bit of drama

 Yesterday we managed to lose Kenji, at first there was no real panic as she is very adept at hiding away, but eventually it became obvious that she must have somehow got outside. With this in mind the rest of the evening involved knocking on neighbours doors, going out in the rain with torches looking for her and generally getting increasingly stressed about her location and welfare. 

The only diversion we had from looking for her was dropping my van to a garage 8 miles away, leaving it outside their premises so they could carry out some work on it today. 

After a broken night involving more searches we had a phone call at about 8am today from our mechanic asking if we were missing a cat as he had driven the van into his workshop, lifted the bonnet to have the life scared out of him by finding a freaky looking cat staring out at him! 

After a drive that may have involved breaking a speed limit or two we got to the garage and found a not terribly distressed Kenji still in the vans engine bay, from which she was unceremoniously removed and safely contained in a cat basket. She was so lucky, she could have been killed or seriously hurt if she had sat in the wrong past of the engine bay, she could have fallen out on the drive to the garage, or she could have simply left the van overnight and got lost in a totally unfamiliar area (I think it was a blessing that it rained last night as her spot in the van would have been warm and dry). 

She is now back home and you wouldn't know anything had happened. She has never wanted to go out before and I suspect that she won't be overly keen to repeat the experience!

Whoopi and kittens

 As most know Whoopi had an accident as a puppy that has left her with some minor disabilities. Since she had her puppies she had become much quieter on walks and just in general, I had put this down to recovering from rearing such a large litter, but then I noted that she wasn't extending fully on the move and at this point I decided to take her to a McTimoney chiropractor. She had her 1^st session a couple of weeks ago and I have to admit I was sceptical that the barely perceptible tweaks given as treatment would do anything, but how wrong I was. Since the treatment her gait has improved as has her general demeanour, she is back to behaving like the 3 year old dog she is, rather than a late middle aged dog. Yesterday she had another session, which will hopefully further improve her comfort (I have to stress that she was not lame, she just wasn't right), this time the chiropractor also concentrated on her jaw and neck, Whoopi has always had an odd way of eating she sort of picks the food up with her front teeth and then swallows it almost in the way a person would swallow a tablet and is very slow by comparison to the other dogs, this morning she easily finished her breakfast before the other dogs, something that has never happened in her lifetime. I guess I'm putting this post up for anyone who thinks their dog may have a physical problem as I would certainly recommend this form of chiropractor. I hadn't realised that the little things I saw as just being a part of Whoopi post accident could be helped. 

This year I am planning on 2 litters of kittens, one each from Bernard and Kenji. Both will be visiting Fawlty this month meaning we should have some fab kittens sometime in june. 

All back to normal now that the pups have gone.

 The puppies have all been in their new homes for a few weeks now, so far all the reports are very positive, well, apart from their gardening skills which are apparantly not so desirable :) 

We've had a couple of beach trips this month, Voodoo is loving all her walks. Tiffany appears to be recovering from her suspected partial cruciate tear, 10 weeks on from her accident she is able to go on reasonable walks and have a bit of a run, but her style of play at the beach would undoubtedly undo all the healing that she has managed, so for now she can't accompany us there. 

I hope to have some kittens later this year, a litter from Bernard and a litter from Kenji. Neither have been mated yet so I will update once that changes, probably in a month or so. 

In other news, those that know me know that showing is absolutely not my thing, but that said I do appreciate all the effort put in by those who do show their dogs, especially poodles as they are probably one of the highest maintenance dogs you could own if you want to show. I am also incredibly proud in the fact that several of Cash's pups (some bred by me, some not) have been shown and whilst they may not be champions they have done very well for their owners, he has been represented at Crufts every year for the last 7 years, the 1st year was when he qualified and was shown there by myself (hated it, lol). This year was no exception, 2 of his daughters were there, and several of his grandchildren. Margo in veteran and Drama in Yearling bitch. Whilst Margo wasn't placed she constantly had a crowd of people around her admiring her and just being a great ambassador for the breed. Drama took reserve in her class (4th), a fab achievement in a class with top quality dogs competing. The photos are not great as the light at the NEC is awful, but here are a couple of snaps from the day of his girls.