Not long before we play guess how many!

The girls are getting closer to their due dates and their waistlines are rapidly expanding, I think its safe to say that they are both going to have large litters. Spirit has become very sedentary since she became pregnant and is pretty ploddy on our walks, Audrey on the other hand has yet to acknowledge that she is pregnant and is still making the most of our walks. Spirit will be 7 weeks pregnant on Monday and Audrey will be 6 weeks tomorrow.

Last week a friend and I had a fabulous walk on a North Devon beach, it was vast and despite the fact that it was a glorious sunny day, we only met up with two lots of walkers. here are a couple of pics from the day. As always there are many more on Flickr.com. It makes a refreshing change to bring clean, even if rather sandy, dogs home instead of the mud magnets that I have on our regular walks.

Gypsie has made a wonderful recovery and is now a complete pain in the neck :-) We have reverted to plan 'A'  and she is going to the family who have ridden the rollercoaster with me over the last few weeks, her new mum paid her a brief visit this afternoon and the plan is that, assuming she remains fit and well, they will collect her next Friday.

Crufts is looming and this week Cash will be off to see my lovely groomer friend who will be putting some shape back into my shaggy dog. Showing is not my thing and I have to confess that I am not looking forward to showing him, in fact I am hoping that I have found someone with more handling experience than I have to take him in the ring, as I don't want my nerves to rub off on him, though he is a very self assured boy so I think he will be just fine if I do end up having to take him in myself. Pictures, and hopefully video, will be posted as soon as I can . His class is on Sunday the 8th

Rollercoaster ride with Gypsie

Gypsie has been poorly, up until a few days before she was due to set off for her new home she was tickety boo, but she suddenly started a nasty bout of vomiting and diarrhea. She was taken to the vets where she was prescribed antibiotics, painkillers and an injection to stop her vomiting. This helped to some extent, but unfortunately the vomiting continued, although it was less often.
She then had a 2nd visit where she had blood tests which showed that her liver and kidney function were fine but she was fighting an infection, so she had a change of antibiotics. This time they really seemed to help and we thought we had cracked it, but on Thursday night she was sick again, this time it was accompanied by a swollen tummy, indicating a significant build up of gas (which reduced when she was sick). By the time we got her to the vets on Friday she was much happier and hungry so was sent home to see what happened. Throughout her illness she has remained bright and essentially well, and is super affectionate.

This morning I came downstairs to find she had been sick again, and her stomach was slightly distended, so back to the vets. She had a series of xrays which showed that there is no blockage and although there is a lot of gas in her intestines, everything appears to be working through her system in a normal fashion.
We are now trying a 3rd type of antibiotic, along with a 3 day course of panacur wormer (she has previously been wormed with Milbemax). We remain hopeful that she just needs more time and support, the vets still feel she will eventually make a full recovery.

The family who were going to have her have now decided that they don't feel able to take her on, a decision which I fully understand and support, so she will stay here until she is completely fit and well before we make any further decisions about keeping her or finding her another family. She is an absolute delight so keeping her would be no great hardship!

It is 3rd time lucky

Today Audrey and Spirit were both scanned for pregnancy and both are pregnant :-)  This is Audrey's 3rd litter and this is the 3rd time that Spirit has been mated. I have to be honest and say that I was not confident that Spirit would conceive, given her previous history, which is why I mated Audrey at the same time. Of course I should have realised that mating the two girls together would ensure Spirit would become pregnant! So it looks like we will have a delightfully busy few months coming up.

Puppies are expected mid March.

Quietly confident :-)

Just back from a flying visit to see my bestest friend in Surrey. I took Spirit and Tiffany with me and we were lucky enough to be able to walk at Virginia Water after a light snowfall. This was the first snow the girls had experienced, and they loved it.

It is now just over 3 weeks since Spirit was mated, and almost 3 weeks since Audrey was mated, and although I have yet to get them scanned (will be scanning mid week next week) I am almost 100% sure that both are pregnant. I'm so excited!!