Friday, November 27, 2009

Sunshine Day


Today is the day after Thanksgiving Day and it's sunny! That's a good thing. It has been raining so much the last couple of weeks that the dogs haven't wanted to spend much time outside. Not only that, my backyard has turned into some kind of mud pit. Any area that doesn't have cement or pavers has now become slimy, stinky mud. Our soil is very heavy clay that doesn't drain, so when it rains, the water stays on the surface. The worse part of this is that the dogs walk, run thru this mud and churn it up. If they poop in the mud, it gets added to the mixture. Gross I know. Solutions to the problem: Sod? No, Sod or replanting grass won't work since well one thing, it won't grow this time of year and it would just get trampled back down and into mud again. Gravel? No, gravel is gritty and comes into the home on the dogs feet and it will after time get absorbed back in to the ground and have to be reapplied every year or so. Pavers? Yes! Pavers won't do what the other options will. They won't add to the mud problems and they will allow rain water to pass thru to the ground underneath. We already do have a good portion of the yard covered with pavers. But the dogs don't care if they step on pavers or mud. Strange I know. You'd think that they would care to keep their paws all nice and clean. So great news! My son, my Fav, is going to help me get more pavers to finish. Isn't that wonderful? Well I'm excited because once we get the project done, the dogs can be bathed, the floors mopped, walls washed off, and the slider window cleaned from muddy paw prints. Right now the slider looks like they have been finger painting and being short I have a hard time peering thru the art work to check on the dogs outside. So today I'm going to take advantage of the sun pouring done from the blue sky and do some poop clean up and a little bit of straightening up. Hope that where ever you are, you have a sunny day too and get to enjoy it, even if you are just picking up after two or four legged beings.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

We are expecting!

So once again the anticipation of new puppies have entered our minds. We are excitedly awaiting three, yes three, litters of puppies. Not only that, we are finally going to see what having gone thru the trouble of finding, purchasing and raising a new stud will produce for our breeding program. Also, Emma is going to be a mom for the first time.

The first litter is expected to arrive on Christmas Day, these are from our lovely standard poodle mom Mercedes. These are going to be a surprise. Mercedes bred with both of our studs, Fritz and Dutch. Though to be honest I am only expecting another litter of black and chocolate puppies.

The second litter is due to arrive on the fourth day of the new year. This is Hiedi's second litter and she has been bred to Dutch. Hiedi is cream and Dutch is Carmel. Sounds sweet doesn't it? Anyways we really are hoping that the mix between these two will give us some lighter color puppies for a change. Which was the whole reason for getting Dutch.

The third litter is due to arrive January 15th. Emma is medium sized and chocolate, bred with Dutch we should be seeing mostly chocolate puppies. We are hoping for a true red. According to breed standards; reds are very close in tone to chocolate but they have to have a black nose. Otherwise they will be considered chocolate.

Do we have worries? Well we have the usual birth and delivery worries. We will also be concentrating most worrying on producing fat healthy puppies. A lot of care and research will be spent on all these puppies. Then the hope that Emma is a good mom and doesn't have a puppy that is too big for her to pass.