Feeling broody

By the time Bob's kittens went to their new homes I was feeling in need of a break, but we are now a couple of months on and I'm really missing having puppies/kittens in the house. As Tibbs and Bobs were neutered most of the females I have will not be old enough to have kittens for a few months yet, so unless Mrs Miggins decides to call we won't have kittens until early summer. However the dogs are due in season around Dec/Jan and we are hoping to have puppies. After swearing I wouldn't do it again, the plan is to mate 2 of the girls. There are several reasons for this, but two of them in particular have decided me on this course of action, the first is because they are both 6 years old now and I would prefer them to have their last litters sooner rather than later, the second reason is simply that the timing will be better for me as I prefer not to have young kittens at the same time as puppies.

The plan is that Dime will be visiting a blue boy, he has not sired a litter before and will bring some new blood to the silver gene pool. Spirit is almost certainly going to visit a black boy from a strong show line, whilst this will not give me phantom puppies (though all will carry the phantom gene) what it will do is bring more refinement and type to the puppies. Spirit is a lovely dog but she has areas that could do with a bit of help, that is what I am hoping for here, on top of this it will expand the phantom gene pool, which is extremely limited and on the whole has very few good examples of the breed. I am planning on keeping a puppy from both these litters. 

The kittens continue to be a great source of entertainment, Beetle continues to be an absolute nut job. I visited a friend this week who breeds absolutely stunning  Ragdoll cats, I couldn't believe how chilled and calm her cats are, my lot are a completely different ball game, and not for the faint hearted, lol.

I had to add these pics as well, my friend Manda has photoshopped one of my pics, it really made me laugh.

Poodle fun on the beach

We didn't manage to sort a reunion out this year, but we have managed a couple of poodle meet ups, one of which was yesterday on our favourite beach, Saunton Sands. As it happens most of the dogs attending were bred by me, and one of the ones that wasn't is a Dollar Grandson. The weather was 'interesting' we had strong winds causing mini sandstorms, a heavy burst of rain/hail and some much appreciated sunshine. Here are some of the pics from today, as ever, more can be found on my Flickr.com account (link on the right of this page).

This week also saw my dogs suffering severe trauma, when I have young kittens I don't encourage contact between them and the dogs, unpredictable kittens with sharp claws running amok through a group of dogs who are essentially a hunting breed is just not a risk I want to take. The kittens that I have kept are now of a size where I feel the risk has pretty much passed (my dogs are fine with the adult cats) so this week saw their first evening all together. The dogs spent most of the evening grouped together and totally unable to relax, lol. The 2nd night was a lot more comfortable for all of my pets and now all are happy to chill together :)