Puppy Reunion 5th September 2010

What fun the puppies had this afternoon.
Daisy and I were joined in Eglinton Country Park by Jasper, Bunta, Brogan and Tilly along with their respective families.

The puppies are now 17 weeks old and full of energy. They seemed to pair up by colour for a bit of rough and tumble play on the grass, with Jasper and Brogan taking it in turn to pin each other to the ground, and Tilly and Bunta launching themselves at each other in a tangle of lead! We then took a walk down to the river and they all had a paddle (including Erin and Freya!) before wandering back for a coffee in the tea room.

It was lovely to see you all and to see how well all of the puppies are doing, and how happy and settled they all are with their families.

Caspar!

Caspar has settled in well to his new home. He went on his first holiday last week, all the way to Fort William! He stayed overnight in the caravan with his sisters Victoria and Ashleigh and their gran and grandad.

Caspar is full of character and keeps us on our toes. He enjoys his walks and also loves to dig in the garden (a family trait I think!). He has finished his puppy classes and now thinks every dog he sees is his best friend! He went to puppy class with Bunta - they were a pair! They really enjoyed playing together.

Daisy came to visit last week which was lovely. Daisy and Caspar ran around the garden and played for ages - Caspar slept for the rest of the day. It was lovely to see both Daisy and Debbie.

Bunta has settled into his new home absolutely great. He is my mum's dog, but I have been given the responsibility of letting everyone know how he is doing. He was at the vet today and my mum was told that his heart murmur has gone, which is really good news. Bunta loves playing with our 2 dogs and always goes home exhausted and sleeps for hours. He spends lots of time at our house and has become a real member of the pack.

11 weeks old already!

I can't beleive how quickly time has gone in since picking Coda up! She has now had all her jags (except kennel cough which she is having tomorrow) and today was her 1st official outing into the big world. She is indeed a "little princess", as you did warn us Debbie, but her training is going well and she has setttled well with her new family. She has become quite a football player too! We now have a new look to our garden - namely the "pot holed" look - though we have managed to confine her to her own area! She is a wonderfull little girl and has all the men in the house at her bidding so it is down to "mum" to be the ogre but it's not easy when she gives those sad woe begotten eyes. Goldie, our 10 year old cat, has accepted she's here to stay and is vey tolerent and so far she has backed off before pushing him too far. Hope you like the photos and look forward to meeting up soon.

The Final Farewell

The final puppy, with his new name, Bunta, headed off for his new home this evening. As I type Daisy is sniffing round the lounge, checking in the back of the armchairs wondering where he is.

There were inevitably a few more tears as I said goodbye to my last puppy, but I am happy in the knowledge that I have passed all eight puppies over to lovely homes.

So the crate can be dismantled and my now rather smelly lounge carpet can be shampoo'ed. But I miss them all and look forward to catching up with you all at various points of the next few months.

Yvonne & Bunta

And then there was One

Jasper headed off to his new home this morning leaving just Oscar (previously known as Buster) at home with Daisy. It is now very quiet indeed. I am contemplating reducing down to just one crate in the lounge for Oscar, pulling the dining table back out and hopefully getting my house back to normal. Just need to find a nice home for Oscar now.

Hope you have all had a good first week with your puppies.

Evelyn, Alan & Jasper

Lucy update.

Lucy has settled into her new home well, and is already causing havoc

Sharp teeth and loves chewing

Lucy thought you should see her latest photo, as it should serve as a warning to all rubber chickens

The New Families

** UPDATED** : Caspar went home Sunday 4th July. Additional family photo added to the end.

So, all change in the last 24 hours. The house seems so quiet. Only 3 boys here now with Jasper and Buster, and Caspar staying an extra day to make sure he is recovered from his wasp sting.

I hope that all of the puppies are settling well in their new homes and look forward to the photos and updates.

Steven, Derek & Lucy

Dorothy & Phoebe

Marian, Jane & Brogan

Sandra & Coda

Fiona, Erin & Tilly

Malcolm, Kimberley, Victoria, Ashleigh & Caspar

The Last Post

The puppies have had a change of sleeping arrangements. To be honest I am surprised that they remained in the whelping box as long as they did, but Monday night and Tuesday put an end to that. With the rain on Monday the puppies spend most of the time in the outside kennel and in their box in the house. Net result was 8 puppies overflowing with energy, like 8 toddlers who had eaten too many brightly coloured Smarties! They were just manic on Monday night, playing, fighting, howling and generally being very active puppies.




When I came downstairs on Tuesday morning the energy simply overflowed. The puppies were so pleased to see me that they all started scrambling over the walls of the box which simply folded in half. It was like a comedy and looked like rats scurrying off a sinking ship

So the trusty whelping box had to go in the bin and has been replaced by two large sized metal dog crates joined together. This is probably quite a good thing for those of you who have invested in a crate, as the puppies will be somewhat used to being in a crate when you take them home. For the moment the puppies are rather distracted by the fact that they can see what is going on outside the crate, which they couldn't really do in the whelping box. It is a bit more difficult working with the crate as it is not possible to lean in and lift the puppies out. It is necessary instead to open the door at the front of the crate and as you can imagine, when you do this 8 happy puppies pour out at once!

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Anyway, this is probably the last post before the majority of the puppies leave for their new homes, so it is really quite sad for me. I do hope that you will all contribute to keeping the blog active. As with the first post I have ended with an individual photo of each puppy. Hopefully you can recognise your own puppies by now (but as a clue, girls on the right, and boys on the left).

(Phoebe, Lucy, Tilly, Jasper, Brogan, Casper, Coda & Buster)

It's over to you - Continuing the Puppy Blog.........

A few of you have commented on how much you have enjoyed following all of the puppies' progress, not just your own, and that you feel that you have gotten to know all of the puppies.

I thought it would be nice if, once each of you has collected your puppy, you use this blog to post photos/videos and stories of your puppy as it develops. Each of you can then follow the other puppies as well, and compare to how your own puppy progresses.

I've checked how I do this and all I need is to have an e-mail address for each of you to send you the link, so could those of you who haven't been communicating with me by e-mail give me your e-mail address.

Thanks,
Debbie

7 weeks Old

It's the end of a busy day for the puppies, with lots of new families having visited throughout the day, and the end of a great fortnight for me.

I'm back at work from tomorrow and the puppies are hopefully now used to being in their kennel and so will be outside during the days this week. My neighbour and dog walker, Susanne, will be popping in through the day to let Daisy and the puppies out for a run round the garden at various points.

Photos are in order :

On the left :

• Coda, Casper & Lucy
• Buster
• Daisy being mauled by the hungry crew

On the right :

• A rather funky photo of Jasper which I played about with on the PC
• Daisy & Buster
• Buster & Casper