Parti poodles come to Itzapromise!

Well I have finally done it, I have wanted a Parti for years. I was very close to getting a standard parti last year but having kept Martha the timing wasn't right, so when I saw an advert fot a parti toy a few weeks ago, I couldn't help myself!!
She comes from Wales so I had to make arrangement for a sitter for my daughter and my dogs as this was to be about a 3.5 hour drive each way. All was well, we left on time (about 1:30pm) but after about 40 minutes driving we started getting engine management warning lights and various other lights coming up on the dashboard and cruise control stopped working so we decided that we better go home and swap vehicles. So now instead of doing a long journey in a comfortable and economical car, with sat nav we now had to take the not very comfortable and very noisy van with no sat nav.
The first hour or so there were no traffic problems but at junction 24 on the M5 the traffic slowed to a crawl. This continued until we left the motorway at junction 18. Then we hit similar traffic as soon as we hit the M4. It turns out that not only was there all the expected holiday traffic, but U2 were in concert in Cardiff so the roads were heaving. We eventually arrived at her breeders after 8pm. We then didn't leave until 9:30 and after stopping for a quick bite to eat got home at 1am, by which time Graham was telling me that this pup had better poo (he used a different word) gold to make her worth the journey!Fortunately she travels beautifully.
The poor pup - Dilligaf or Dilli for short- had a very quick garden outing and was quickly settled for the night, not the ideal way to introduce a pup to it's new home but bless her, she accepted all this and we didn't hear a peep out of her.
The following day she had a bath and a haircut and has started to settle in. She is quieter than the rest of my girls, but doesn't appear to be worried by anything. She has shown no interest in the chickens and has given the cats a bit of a woof, which Sybil didn't even dignify with a response. She is a very good eater and fortunately had already been started on a raw food diet, so no worries about changing her diet. We took her for her first walk this morning and she didn't put a paw wrong, as with all my pups on their first outing she was off lead in the woods straight away and as Emily and I were the only things she knew we had no problems keeping her with us and coming when called.

On a different note, I am pleased to say that Miss Tibbs has pinked up so we are expecting her first litter of kittens in a few week. Watch this space as they say.

Billy

Billys' owner has kindly resent photos (see previous entry), so here is Marthas brother, Billy.

A Belated Happy Birthday.

Martha is now a year old (and 1 month).I have just cut her puppy coat off, as a combination of almost constant rain, Audrey playing with Martha and Martha being in season meant that the coat was in constant need of attention and due to recent foot surgery (on myself, not the dog), i was finding the grooming hard work So I thought I would put a couple of picture up to show how she has come on and what an amazing colour she has. I also received a couple of photos of her brother, Billy (thank you Natalie, always love updated and piccies), but unfortunatly I can't find the file I downloaded them too. If I find them I,ll publish them.
On a different note, Graham has gone soft. He is normally my voice of reason and is the practical one. But on a recent visit to a friends chicken farm we were standing in the chick room chatting and I spotted a sad, odd looking chick all on it's own. I asked what it was and was informed that it was a 3 week old turkey who had been bullied by the rest of it's group and as a result had lost an eye- Graham brought him home and christened him 'one eyed Willie' from the film 'the goonies', he is currently sharing accommodation with some chicks we recently hatched. I haven't a clue what we will do with him when he is grown up- we don't have the space to keep him. But I think we can safely say that the nearest he'll get to a Christmas dinner, is sharing our leftovers!
I have today put my blue devon rex girl 'Miss Tibbs' in with Manuel, I was planning to wait until August but she has been calling almost constantly for the last 3 months and I don't want her ending up with a pyometra. This will be her 1st litter and I'm hoping to have some lovely kittens in a variety of colours later this year.

Mini Reunion

Just a couple of pictures of Audrey and Charley taken after a beautiful riverside walk. It was great to meet up with Ciel and Thorsten and to see how the puppies compare, Charley is a fair bit bigger.
I also took Rhonda with me, surprizingly there was very little interaction between the three of them, but Rhonda acted quite out of character and decide that she wanted to fetch sticks out of the river- previously the idea of getting even her toes wet was totaly out of the question, so perhaps she was showing off to her family?

My little ginger and white moggy kitten has now found a lovely home so just my very naughty devon boy still looking, hopefully he will win someones heart soon as Graham is making noises about keeping him and has started thinking of names!!

Kittens

My devon rex kitten has suddenly become the most affectionate demanding boy, at about 6 weeks old I had to go away for a few days and this unfortunatly meant that he had to go into a pen in the garden (with his mum) and therefore missed out on all the usual handling and noise etc that he had become used to prior to this. Once back indoors he was a bit of a scardy cat and didn't want to be handled. Obviously this was quite upsetting as my babies are normaly so people orientated. I took a step back from him to allow him to find his feet, didn't try to pick him up and avoided situations where he felt trapped.
I am pleased to say that this approach has definatly worked as he is now what I would call a typical devon kitten - totally in your face. If you sit down he's on your lap, if you get a toy out he turns into a tiger and god help you if you try to eat something and don't share it!
He came to work with me last Saturday for his 1st vaccination and health check but unfortunatly the vet couldn't listen to his heart and lungs because he refused to stop purring.
He is still looking for the right home, I have had numerous enquiries wanting to know if he can be registered on the active list and the answer is no, he will make the most affectionate pet (poss show cat) and he would be miserable shut out in a cattery.
I also have a delightful ginger and white male moggy kitten looking for a home for a nominal price.

Chickens, kittens and Jack

I'll start with the chickens(and Audrey). We have several big friendly chickens in the garden, that are generally no bother to the dogs and the dogs are no bother to them, until now. The poor old chickens have acquired some new house mates- mites. Obviously we had to deal with this, so I ordered some stuff to treat the house. This arrived and we gave the chicken house a very thorough clean and sprayed the birds with frontline. The infested chippings were carefully bagged awaiting a bonfire to destroy them later that evening. When I looked out of the kitchen window and saw Audrey pulling all the contents of the bag over the garden. I called her in and set about clearing up her mess, and gave the matter no more thought.
That night we settled all the dogs as usual but Audrey became very agitated, barking and howling (something she has never done, even as a tiny pup), so after checking her we decided to ignore the behaviour as we didn't want to reward it by letting her out, so we went to bed. This continued on and off until after midnight and by then Graham decided he better let her out incase she needed the toilet, she didn't but he called me down as she was constantly scratching. Then the penny dropped- she was crawling with mites!! I immediately sprayed her with frontline and gave her some piriton. This had little or no effect and she continued creating a fuss until at 3am I ended up having to bath and dry her which I am pleased to say worked very well. Needless to say if we ever have the same problem with the chickens again i shall make sure that the dogs have NO access to the contaminated shavings.

Jack, Cinders pup has found a lovely home and will no doubt soon be spoiled rotten by his new mum and her two children. He will be ready to go in a fortnight. He was out and about in the garden today so have added a couple of photos.

Sybil and Manuel have 1 very handsome cream and white Devon boy looking for a home, he will be ready at the beginning of July and having been brought up alongside all the dogs and handled by my 5 year old daughter and her friends he will hopefully be like his mum, a very sociable cat.

What a differnce 3.5 weeks make.

Betty's little girl has gone off to start her new life today, so I took a couple of pictures of her before she went (as she was so cute and fluffy), then I took some photos of Cinders pup who is approx 3.5 weeks younger. Whereas Miluki (Betty's pup) doesn't stop, is very vocal and very nimble, Cinders baby is still quite unsure on his legs and thankfully not as demanding as Miluki. Obviously the age is the main reason he is not as well advanced, but I do wonder if being an "only Child" means that he hasn't had to fight for anything and consequently is a bit more of a laid back character, time will tell.
It will be interesting to see how he reacts to Sybils kittens now that he is coming out to learn about his surroundings, I have a feeling they will teach him a thing or two as they are a couple of weeks older than him.