R.I.P Betty 19.07.2005 - 21.07.2014

I don't know where to start in summing up Betty, she truely was a dog in a million. I bought her Mum, Daphne, bred by Anita Bax, because I loved the sound temperament  in her line. Daphne was a bold dog who had no idea she was small, never yappy or nervy she lived life to the full. Betty was one of two pups in Daphne' last litter, I knew I had to keep one of these little crackers, but had slight reservations because they were both really tiny pups, I kept Betty purely because she was the bigger of the two and I knew I would want her to have puppies at some point.
Betty was, if anything, bolder than her Mum, she was the happiest girl you could wish for, always delighted to meet everyone and was adept at sneaking on any available lap, pretty much unnoticed. She remained tiny, maturing at approx 9" and most of her adult life she weighed just 1.65kg. Despite her size she had true determination and insisted she was never left out of anything, she happily accompanied me on treks across Dartmoor and always drew a crowd in the pub afterwards. At home she kept the big dogs in check, using them as a very comfortable bed on a cold evening or humping their heads when she was in season!!
Last year she started to have problems with her knees, they became very unstable and would give way on her with no warning, she never complained and it didn't stop her wanting to do things. It did however reach a stage that she just couldn't physically undertake a proper walk so towards the end of last year her walks were substituted with outings, a car ride, a trip to the pub, a picnic on Dartmoor etc etc. About a month ago she suddenly became very lame on her right front leg, she was put on pain killers but these did nothing to alleviate her discomfort, different pain killers were tried, still she remained very lame. Xray's revealed significant arthritis in both her shoulder and elbow, and also showed the start of arthritis on the joints of her left front leg. A last attempt at controlling the pain was made with huge doses of pain killers to no effect. She still remained bright and cheerful, she was still excited to go out in the car, she still was determined to spend every evening curled up on Grahams lap (she adored Graham, a feeling that was mutual) but when she span round in excitement her knees would give way and we had to help her back up and all the time her front leg was being held out, a decision had to be made.
Today was that day, both Graham and I are so upset, I now understand why people say they won't get another dog of the same breed, I will never find such a sound little dog as she was and I will never get another toy poodle, she will never be replaced. She left us with a degree of dignity, it would have been so easy to look at her waggy tail and think she was fine, but she wasn't, and her bravery did not make her enduring a life of pain the right thing to do. R.I.P little lady.

Growing Fast

Tibb's kittens had their 1st vaccinations and health checks yesterday, as usual the only problem encountered was getting them to stop purring long enough for the vet to listen to their hearts :-) Despite it being very warm here they still insist on sleeping in a pile!

Dimes pups are gaining stamina at an alarming rate, we have gone from 10 mins activity and 4 hrs sleeping to what feels like the reverse! The cam is only on in the evening now as the pups are needing more space than just our lounge, so through the day they have the run of the house and access to an outside area. There have been no poos overnight (approx 11pm to 7:30am) for about 10 days now, and only a couple of wees. On the whole they now make their way outside to go to the toilet, though sometimes they are too excited/involved in a game, and forget. All leave for their new homes in the next week, I just know that they are going to be lovely confident pets.

Nina has just 8 days to go, she is under strict orders not to have her babies early as it will be much easier if Dimes babies have flown the nest :-) She has quite a tummy on her now, my guess is 9, Grahams is 8, as usual we have a bet on this and I really don't want to have to pay up on this one, so please have 9 Nina! (the picture was taken a couple of days ago)

Webcam, calander and reunion

Some of you may have been struggling with JTV for watching the pups, especially where the chat is concerned, so I am trying out Ustream (thank you for sorting this Rosie) and there is a new link to this on the right of the page. I have left the link to JTV on here and my website as currently I am just using their free trial period and will have to make a decision about whether it is good enough to warrant paying for or going back to JTV, opinions on both are very welcome. Of course, regardless of the quality of the streaming, I cannot keep the pups in front of the camera for long, they are all over the place so unfortunately there will still be long periods of empty floor! Ustream does have the added advantage of being able to record footage, which means that if something particularly interesting occurs I can try to remember to record it. So when Nina has her pups in a couple of weeks, which will almost certainly be at an unsociable hour, I can record it for you.

Pups are grand, can't believe we only have them for another fortnight. 5 have already got names, just waiting to hear what grey collar will be. Pink is Alice, Yellow is Sacha, Purple is Margo, Red is Gerry and Blue is Codie.

Nina has a lovely round tum on her now, will be guessing numbers next week :-)

Tibb's kittens are little monkeys and super fast, struggling to get good pictures of them, will have another go this week.

I have had a few people ask about another reunion, much as I would have loved to have held one this year it just hasn't been possible with Dimes pups, shortly to be followed by Nina's. However I will organise one for next year, again I would welcome thoughts on a venue (localish to me), was Parke worth repeating or should I look for somewhere else, what facilities, if any do we need?

Lastly, I have had a fair amount of interest in my poodle photography, and am currently looking into having an Itzapromise Calendar made, this would require a significant up front investment by myself, o I would like to know how much, if any, interest there would be. These would be high quality calanders retailing at about £17 plus p&p, size is likely to be A3 unless I have significant input requesting a smaller size, again, thoughts/suggestions would be welcomed. If you want to look at the type of photos I take, click on the Flickr link on the right of this page.

The boys got a haircut!

Today the boys had their first encounter with the clippers, Clipping them proved much easier than holding them still for photos afterwards!!

The girls will visit the hairdressers in a couple of days.

Puppies are like busses.....

You don't have any for ages, then suddenly two litters come along almost together :-) This week Nina was scanned and is confirmed pregnant. Should everything go to plan (stop laughing!) Nina should have her pups a couple of days after Dimes pups set off for their new homes, which is the end of July.

Cecil and Liberty (Custard) leave for pastures new this week, we are going to miss these affectionate babies.

Tibb's kittens are growing at a pace now, they are really enjoying their food and are fast becoming little tearaways.

Margo, Sybil's kitten that we kept last year, is off on her honeymoon. She is visiting a rather handsome black smoke boy, so very excited to see kittens from this mating, just got to keep fingers crossed that she starts calling again as unfortunately the long (5hr) journey stressed her out and she came off call on arrival, thankfully she is being allowed to stay for a few weeks to maximise her chances of pregnancy.

3 Weeks old, and they're out

Puppies are now starting to be a bit more entertaining (though they still sleep/eat 95% of the time), I now let them toddle around the lounge whilst I clean their pen in the morning, and then again for a few minutes at other times during the day. They are finding the slippery floor a bit of a challenge, but are certainly enjoying being out. They are quite a vocal litter, and their growls and barks are just so funny, though I'm not so sure that I will be quite so amused when they start doing it at 5am.
Normally I would start them on solids at this stage, but they have had a few days of upset tummies, which we now appear to have sorted with a bit of protexin, so I will just give them another 48 hrs before giving their tummies any further work. They have remained very bright and well despite their loose tummies.
I have attached a few pics taken today, as always there are many more pics from the last week on flickr.com (link on the right of this page) including both litters of kittens

2 weeks today

As the title suggests, the pups are two weeks old today, and they are coming along in leaps and bounds. Pink collar was the first to open her eyes, with most of the others following suit the next day, yellow girl is the last to open her with just a small quint visible this morning. Of course now that they have some vision (it will still be very blurry at this point) they can now gauge where the milk bar is, and have already started to realise that there is life beyond the box, as others have already predicted, I think red boy will be the first to breach the walls! I have one boy who is not yet spoken for.

It has been a bit of a juggling game this week, Dime is still not entirely comfortable with the other dogs being in the lounge with her pups, so at the moment we are only allowing a couple in at a time in a shift pattern, Miss Tibb's kittens (Ron, Harry and Hermione) are also in the lounge and they are just starting to want to explore, which means further juggling, on top of this Tiffany is in season so has to be kept separate from the main pack. Oh well, it keeps things interesting :-)