Fingers crossed for puppies

 Florin has been mated this week. As you are likely aware she has not been the most productive girl (missed mating and 2 puppies) so we have done everything we can this time to optimise her chances. I chose a different boy for this mating, a youngster whose semen count was excellent with all swimmers strong and healthy with their sat nav in full working order and Florin was progesterone tested daily to establish the absolute best time to mate her. Now I sit and stare at her tummy for the next few weeks and constantly look for any hints of whether or not it has worked until she gets to about 30 days when I can get her scanned.

Voodoo now has all her health testing in place and hopefully she will be mated sometime in 2024.

Time has flown with the kittens, they are now 8 weeks old so only another 4 weeks before they leave for their new homes. They have been an absolute delight so far, all so confident and friendly, their new owners will be thrilled with them I'm sure. 

Kenji has kittens

 Kenji's kittens have arrived after an easy labour and fairly quick delivery on Sunday morning (17.04.2023). She has 4 beautiful babies, 1st born was a tabby girl followed by a cream/colourpoint boy, then two blue torti girls. The tabby girl gave me slight cause for concern as after an initial good start with latching on she then slipped backwards a bit (with newborns this sort of slip can very quickly become life threatening) so later that evening I gave her a bottle feed which she was very keen for. I offered her feeds every couple of hours for the next 12 hours but by the following morning she had regained her vigour and was feeding well from her mum and was far less willing to take a supplementary feed so I stopped them. She made a good weight gain in that period going from 67gms to 74gms so I am happy that she is now thriving. There is some availability for these babies so please email or phone me directly rather than using the kitten application forms if you are interested in them.  Just a few quick phone pics of the kittens, I will take some better pictures in a few days. There will be lots of quick updates on facebook if you would like to follow their progress more closely. 

Communication problems, Crufts and kittens.

 I'm currently having problems with my email account (hopefully will be sorted shortly) but it transpires that not only am I not getting notifications to tell me that someone has completed a puppy/kitten application form, I am now unable to send or receive any emails. This is obviously very frustrating for me, but even more for anyone that thinks I am ignoring them. Please accept my apologies and if you have tried to contact me over the past couple of months, please try emailing me next week, contact my by pm on facebook or give me a ring :)

Last week was Crufts, those that know me know that showing is not my thing, but my dogs were represented by others with their offspring, both that I bred (or were sired by Cash) and the next generation down. The direct descendants achieved a 4th out of 10 dogs, a 5th out of 21 dogs and Florins older sister Margo came 4th in veteran and got her picture in the paper, again! Last time it was the Guardian, this time the Daily Mail.

In other news, Kenji is confirmed pregnant and should have her kittens in about 4 weeks time. There is likely to be some availability on this, the final Itzapromise litter of kittens for the foreseeable future, so give me a shout (tech problems allowing) if you would like to register interest.

No pups this time :(

 I haven't updated as I have been watching Florins tummy and hoping against hope that she had at least one pup in there (her nipples are big and her behaviour slightly different to normal), but I have now got to admit to myself that I think she is just having a mild phantom pregnancy. I am very disappointed as I had wanted to keep the bitch pup from her last litter, but as I knew Whoopi was only having one litter and Florin is able to have further litters I chose to keep Voodoo instead (no regrets there as she is just perfect and wicked). 

I don't know if the issue lies with Florin or the stud dog or is simply that the pair aren't suited to each other (sometimes fertility is non existent with a pair of dogs but when they are given different partners both parties have excellent fertility), so reluctantly I have decided to try a different dog on her next season. I am hoping to use a very nice white boy, but have yet to confirm this.

As there are no puppies on their way we will be having a litter of kittens instead, just waiting for Kenji to start calling and then she can spend a bit of time with Fawlty ;) 

 

The dogs have been enjoying some lovely walks whilst the ground was frozen and now that it has largely dried out and we managed a fab day in North Devon with a friend and her 5 standards a couple of weeks ago.

I have also been bugging a friend who knows Dartmoor like the back of his hand to take me on some hikes, done a couple now, the last one being 9 miles, and it is just wonderful to get out there again. I just take Voodoo with me as all my others cannot be trusted with sheep and the walk becomes stressful (with me constantly looking out for any white blobs on the horizon ) instead of pleasurable. No action shots as only take my phone with me :)