April tomorrow, but not quite warm enough to let the fire out just yet.

Henry enjoying the heat of the fire last night.

So it's really how long is a piece of string, to how long it will be before this effects her health to an extent that surgery is not an option again, and it would be kinder to release her from this mortal coil. She is seemingly happy and pretty healthy at this time. Due to be 10 years old in August, and does not look or act her age. So it's just getting on with it, and playing it by ear. 

Our two youngest at Primary school, break up for the Easter holidays today. So last evening was spent with them, making biscuits and decorating eggs for the last day of term.

Ernest's 3/4 Cavalier, 1/4 Poodle sister Lily, for a little dog she has a lot of speed.  I will try to get some footage of her in the future, running with her brother. They play real rough together, and run around and around our property.

Sasha is a Brittany/Cavalier, and she was born last Summertime. Her Mum is Primrose and Dad is Henry.

Over at the CavalierHealth.org website they report that Japan's Masami Uechi reports 92% success rate in 600+ open heart surgeries for MVD. Really good to hear that there may be a viable surgical help for dogs struck down early in life with MVD, but one worries that as these surgeries become more refined and more widely available, breeders may feel less and less inclined to try to breed healthier dogs from the start. They can focus solely on aesthetics thinking the only moral obligation to the puppy and puppy buying public, is to tell you to make sure your pup is insured well, and thus washing their hands of the matter(puppy).

L to R: Millie and her daughter Smudge. Then Dolly and her daughter Treacle. Lastly Primrose alongside her Mum Ysobel.

I just done this little bit of video this morning, to show how well Dolly is recovering from her surgery that she had on Friday Dolly home from the vets

David after two glasses of mead, fast asleep last night. The dogs were soon taking advantage of the situation. Who was David kidding when he once said, "When we get a new sofa. Will we keep the dogs off of it?" 

Husband David came home last night with a funny old "Tale from the Parlour."  A neighbouring farmer to one of the farms he works for, had been tending a cow down with milk fever, and as the cow was attempting to get up, she swung her head back, catching the arm of the farmer. He had his hand against a RSJ beam. The force the cow hit his arm took off the end of one of his fingers.
He went off to Accident and Emergency at the nearest hospital, and was asked if he had the piece of detached finger, as they might be able to re-attach it. His reply was bluntly, "The dog eat it." I asked David, "Did the dog eat it?" "No," David said, "He said, "I saw where the bit of finger landed. I did not want them trying to put that back on my hand."" As the old adage says, "First loss is more often than not, the best loss. 

Don't often get the chance to get many photos of Smudge. She's normally to busy inside a hedge or bush when outside to be clearly caught on camera, but this evening in the Spring sunshine I got the chance to get a few of her. She will soon be 7 years old.

Now it's just getting her over the operation. She has had her lymph node gland removed as well. So we might see a bit of fluid build up in that area for a day or two. Also waiting to see what the lump is, that was removed from her throat. We should know what it is by the end of next week. Fingers crossed. She is bright, and eat well when she got home. She is now sleeping. 

An Unexpected New Lung Function Has Been Found - They Make Blood "Researchers have discovered that the lungs play a far more complex role in mammalian bodies than we thought, with new evidence revealing that they don't just facilitate respiration - they also play a key role in blood production"

Amazing discovery. This makes Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS), which causes compromised lung function all the more of a problem for dogs like French Bulldogs, Pugs, Bulldogs and Cavaliers bred with Brachycephaly. It turns out lungs also produce blood platelets. As retired vet Peter Lundin says on the  CRUFFA Public Group , Facebook page, "This would be a good explanation why BOAS dogs often are low on platelets."

L to R: Henry, Toby, Reggie and Ernest

I've been thinking about getting another male Cavalier. This is because the Brittany/Cavalier girls I have, I think it might be interesting to get a cross back on the Cavalier, and then that offspring brought together with Ernest, our 3/4 Cavalier, 1/4 poodle boy. I would love another tricolour, and would be interested to hear from any one who knows of one for sale or for stud, that is appropriately health tested. 
So I've been looking around the internet for Cavaliers, and looking on the Find a Puppy - The Kennel Club (KC) service, and found it interesting to see how many litters of Cavaliers being sold through this KC service are from breeders on their haloed Assured Breeder Scheme (ABS), or not as the case seems.
I took a snapshot of the information, and at the time I done it, there was 21 Cavalier litters on there. 16 of those litters are not being bred on the scheme, so the KC does not know anything about the rearing of those pups and only 5 litters are being bred under the ABS. So from this snapshot of Cavaliers being sold through the KC Find a Puppy service, we can see that only 24%, less than 1 in every 4 Cavalier litters are actually being bred through a scheme that has been running for over 10 years now. 
The inspection dates of breeders on the ABS was also interesting with two breeders advertising a litter at this time, and both of them have not been inspected since the Summer 2014. One was inspected 31 months ago, and the other 32 months ago. The average for inspections prior to the litters advertised on their site today was 21.6 months, nearly 2 years. Even council licensing should be an annual check of premises.
I have looked through a few other breeds on the  Find a Puppy service, and these stats are pretty much indicative of most the breeds registering with them. I looked at a couple extreme brachycephalic breeds on the service. French Bulldogs, there were 170 litters registered on it with 31 from ABS breeders, with 139 being bred from breeders the KC know nothing about. So only a paltry 18% of French Bulldogs on this service are being bred through the ABS. That's less than 1 litter in every 5 registered with the KC coming through the ABS. Plenty of those ABS breeders also have not had premises inspected for over 2 years, one nearly 3 years. 
The Pug has 80 litters registered on the service. 19 of those are from ABS breeders, and 61 are from breeders the KC know nothing about. So only 24% of Pug litters registered on this service are through the ABS. That's less than 1 in every 4 litters. Again some have not been inspected for two or more years.
The Bulldog has 84 litters registered on the service. 15 of those are from ABS breeders, and 69 are from breeders the KC know nothing about. Only 18% of breeders using the KC  Find a Puppy service with Bulldogs are with the ABS, so less than 1 in 4 litters on this service are from breeders on the ABS. Yet again a significant amount of Bulldog breeders on the ABS using the  Find a Puppy service showing they have not been inspected for 2 years or more.

​So if you add the number of breeders over those four extreme brachycephalic breeds Cavaliers, French Bulldogs, Pugs and Bulldogs with litters today advertised on the KC  Find a Puppy service, it comes to 365 litters, and out of those 365 litters only 69 are breeders on the KC Assured Breeder Scheme (ABS). So we are looking at over those 4 breeds only 19% of those litters will be coming from a breeder that is breeding through the KC ABS. So I think we could say with responsible confidence that the KC are only registering about 1 in every 4 litters that they actually have any idea of where the pup came from, and how it was reared (if you can say inspecting someones premises just once every 3 years, with the appointment being made as the KC tell us, "is mutually convenient to both." is really enough to warrant that you know how the pup was reared).
The laugh is that this scheme is also UKAS accredited. Which makes the UKAS a joke. How did it get accredited? I suspect, because the people looking at the scheme know nothing about breeding dogs. Nothing about the health issues in individual breeds. I suspect the accreditation went something like this. "There's lots of paper work with it (always good)." "The KC do have offices in Clarges, impressive." "They do say on their website, "We are the UK’s largest organisation dedicated to protecting and promoting the health and welfare of all dogs." Must be all good then,"  "And you know, they know, you know who." Tick.
The KC do seem so hypocritical to on one hand promote the ABS saying, "The Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme promotes good breeding practice and aims to work together with breeders and buyers to force irresponsible breeders, or puppy farmers out of business." But on the other hand over 80% of their revenue from puppy registering they happily take from breeders who are not on the ABS, and seem happy to even advertise the pups for them on their own website, keeping "irresponsible breeders, or puppy farmers in business." So what are they? They are still the largest orginisation in the UK for the registration of purebreed puppy farmed puppies