Smudge is now six days after having her c-section to produce her nine beautiful pups. She had her last antibiotic tablet this evening and her wound is looking very good and she is producing gallons of milk, as you will see from one of the photos below of one of her pups that had crawled up on to her back. The wet on the pup is Smudge's milk. As it sucked the milk flow was such at one stage, it came quicker than the pup could suckle it.
The pups are now six days old and seem to be thriving. You can see their noses are changing colour and it will be lovely to see their eyes open, which starts to happen from around 12 to 14 days old.

Primrose is now hopefully around three weeks pregnant after her romantic liaisons with Toby. From around three weeks pregnant you can feel the pups as small pea size shapes in the uterus on palpation of the stomach area. At the moment with Primrose being such a tidy bitch that holds her tummy up when examined, I would at this stage not be sure that I have felt what I think is a pregnancy or just wishful thinking. If I have felt a pregnancy, over the next few days they should become more easy to feel.
We will get her booked in at the vets for her scan next week around Thursday time to confirm for sure if she is pregnant and if so around how many she is carrying. 

Hi jane

Just a quick update from Meg who recently turned 3 at the beginning of April. She was from Reggie and Cleo's litter back in 2012. She's still totally gorgeous  and completely spoilt. Still after 3 years the cats often get a little chased, but now it really does look like the cats actually tease her into it because by the evening she's curled up on the bed with them. We have some news as our pack has expanded again with the arrival of baby Isaac in January. You may remember our chats about a dog that would be good with children and I was put at ease with your  family life and discussions about female dogs. I can only say that meg continues to be the perfect family dog. She has been very gentle and after lots of sound training before his arrival (crying noises on you tube etc), she doesn't bat an eyelid when isaacs in full scream! Before he was born I would get her to smell each of the baby clothes in the hope that she would recognise him as ours! 
She has just had her summer clip which has come in time for the hot weather. I have had lessons in how to clip her but with the baby life has been a little hectic so it was time for a professional hair cut. 
Here's a picture of Meg with her lovely (very short) coat, and also a very tired fuller family selfie from a few weeks ago. As megs black it's not that easy to spot her in the middle of it all, there was also a cat just behind me but sadly out of shot. Hope all at pound lane is well.

Sarah and Andrew  

A couple updates, with the first being for Meg, who is from the litter my Mum's Cavalier, Cleo had April 2012 with Reggie being the Dad.

Thanks Sarah for your lovely update. Congratulations on the new family member, Isaac. The photo of all of you together brings back memories of when my husband and me had our first baby. All the best and wishing you a lovely first summer with Isaac.

The next update is for Ollie, who is from Smudge's first ever litter and Reggie is his Dad as well. 

Hi Jane
Now that Ollie has reached the ripe old age of 3, I thought I would send a quick update to let you know he is well.  He is such a lovely dog, so friendly with everyone he meets, dogs and people alike.  
Congratulations on your 1st litter of cavalier x brittany spaniels. 

I have attached a recent picture of Ollie (just after his haircut)

Best wishes to you and your lovely family

Sharon Morris

Great to hear from you Sharon. Good to hear that Ollie is well and being a lovely boy. Thanks for the congratulations on our first litter of Cavalier x Brittany spaniels, which has reminded me to say, "Thanks everyone for the kind messages of support and congratulations on the arrival of Smudge's and Henry's litter. Very much appreciated." 

Finally got all the photos loaded of the pups from yesterday and today, along with a couple of Dad, Henry and a few of the children and me with the pups. Smudge and pups are all doing well. It's late so this is a quick blog. Enjoy !

Today when changing the bedding, I took the chance to get some photos of just the girls together and just the boys together. Also today after talking with my husband and knowing that we only want to retain girls from this litter, we decided that we will open a waiting list on the boys in Smudge's litter now. 
I am very sorry that I have yet to get back to people who have contacted me already about this litter and I will  drop you a line tomorrow. 
If interested in the boys from Smudge's litter please contact me first by email at [email protected] 

Smudge's pups are now three days old. Smudge is seemingly taking it all in her stride and her pups are thriving. 

I was driving the children to school this morning and suddenly thought today is the day three years ago Smudge had her first ever litter of pups, being a litter of nine pups, and then thought funny that her third and last litter of pups, being also a litter of nine pups are three days old today. 
Then I checked my emails on returning home and found this lovely email from Angie, who has Archie, who is from Smudge's first litter. He is a first cross Cavapoo and our Reggie is his father.

Thanks Angie for an update on Archie and a 3rd Birthday greeting to all his litter siblings. I also hope that Archie's litter siblings are doing well and had a lovely 3rd Birthday, so a Big Happy 3rd Birthday greeting from Poundlane to Lola, Ollie, Crumble, Tiggy, Darcey, Hunny, Millie, Dougal and of course Archie !
And for Angie and all the rest of the families that have one of Archie's litter siblings, here is the photo of them three years ago all in a row snuggled under the blanket at the vets, after eight of them had been delivered by c-section. 

And for comparison here is Smudge's second litter of nine pups, all in a row, snuggled up to mum at the milk bar at three days old, three years later.

Smudge's pups are now two days old and all are doing well. Smudge after having her c-section is also well and today back with a full appetite. She as usual is producing plenty of milk for her nine rapidly growing charges. It really helps if a bitch is a good grubber when they have pups, because they will recover from the birth quicker and most often are exceptional milk producers.
The slideshow below is of Smudge and her pups today at two days old and a couple show our two youngest children in the whelping box with the pups, whilst Smudge sleeps unconcerned just outside the whelping box. These photos are a testament to Smudge's wonderful temperament, as not many bitches would be happy to lie away from their pups at this age, let alone allow children near them happily when so young. 
Smudge just like her mother Millie, takes a very relaxed attitude to mothering, which seems to work. From day one, she will tend her pups and when all settled and sleeping will leave to eat, drink or go toilet and on returning if all peaceful, will sleep just outside the whelping box and before the pups start to wake, she will after a time get up and then go back in the whelping box and start licking and waking her pups to suckle them. She then just lies back and allows them easy access to all her teats. Often the first few days for most bitches, you can see causes them some degree of stress tending the pups, but not with Smudge. I'm pretty sure Smudge could rear her pups happily with her eyes closed and one paw tied behind her back.

Not that you might think I'm a bit obsessed by Smudge's pups, I thought I would load up a few more photos of day one in the whelping box with Smudge's litter of pups.
Really enjoying looking at all the different patternation of their coats. Noting the longer noses, seemingly longer necks and the ears are maybe not so rounded as a pure Cavalier pups, at this stage. Will be really interesting watching these pups grow. Some of their noses have already started to pigment. 
For those who might be wondering what the black bits are that you see on the bellies of the pups. That is their umbilical cord drying up and within the first few days of being born, should drop off.

Smudge's pups are now approaching a day old and Smudge is in her element as a mother. Smudge is a very laid back dog, which helps when rearing young. There is such a thing as being overly motherly and this can be detrimental for the pups. Mothers that stress a lot over their pups tend to be continually nudging and licking them and moving themselves around a lot, trying to help their pups and more than often this over motherly behaviour, can stop pups being able to latch on for any length of time to drink and full their bellies, so the pups squeak and the mum stresses more and her motherly behaviour increases. With a bitch like this, it pays to sit with them when she is feeding her pups, to distract her from this behaviour and to make sure the pups are getting full tummies at each feed time. Hand feeding a bitch with some tasty treats while she suckles, is often enough to distract or just talking to them and smoothing them. Often this overly motherly behaviour will dissipate after a few days, as mum relaxes more with her pups.  
As I told on my last blog, Smudge has had a c-section to bring her nine pups into the world and as promised, I will now tell how we came to Smudge having to have a c-section. On Tuesday evening I blogged thinking that within the next 24 hours Smudge would give birth and believe me as I wrote that blog, I was very excited at the prospect of seeing Smudge's litter come into the world, as this is our first time crossing the Cavalier with the Brittany.
Tuesday her temperature had dropped and by the evening when I blogged it had come back up again and this is as sure an indication that you can have, that pups will arrive soon. Wednesday came and went and nothing, but Smudge was showing moments of discomfort, so another all night vigil and then Thursday came and went and I was a little concerned and questioned whether her temperature drop I recorded Tuesday was a misreading, was my thermometer not working correctly ? Smudge though was well in herself and the pups were moving a lot and although she had a slight discharge, which is to be expected at this stage, it was clear and not smelly, so another all night vigil and I thought things were going to finally kick off. 
Friday came and I thought we were in business. Sometimes the first stage of labour to produce the first pup can be a slow process and finally at 6.50 pm Smudge strained and I could see a water bag appear, but then an hour passed and no more straining. Once a bitch starts to strain and you know the pup is in the birth canal, you should expect the pup to be born within an hour and if like Smudge the bitch has returned to the first stage of labour, you should call a vet, often as you talk to the vet, you hear a yelp and the pup is expelled. If more experienced in whelping, before ringing the vet, you can as I did, see if you can get the bitch to progress by breaking the water bag and giving the bitch an internal examination. This examination you can feel if the pup is presented okay and that the pup is not to big to be born naturally for the bitch, by moving your finger firmly around the head of the pup and if this is done correctly, sweeps the cervix and this can be enough stimulation for more oxytocin to be released, so increasing the strength of the contractions to expel the pup. If you have had a baby, you may be familiar with the term cervical sweep, before we had oxytocin to inject, this was the method used to try and increase contractions, before opting for a c-section and is still regularly used when examining woman when in labour, to help speed proceedings up, if they have slowed down.
I examined Smudge and often whilst doing the proceeder the bitch will get contractions and normally if this examination has helped, you would expect within 10 to 20 minutes to see the bitch having stronger contractions, but with Smudge there was no change, it was time to ring the vet at 8.30 pm. We got her to the vets and explained the chain of events and the vet, who is a young vet, new to the surgery gave us the option of injecting her with oxytocin and seeing if she got the first pup off or going straight away for a c-section. We opted for the c-section first as last. We left the vets at around 9 pm and got home to wait by the phone for news. Around 11 pm the vet rung us and Smudge was doing fine with nine very noisy active pups and we could pick her up. The vet told us that our choice to c-section first as last had been the right one, as on opening her they could see that two of the pups had already opened their bowels. This confirmed to me that I was not mad and on Tuesday I had recorded a drop in temperature correctly. These pups should of been born, I think at least 24 hours earlier and that Smudge had got stuck in stage one of labour and due to carrying such a huge litter, as she did with her first litter, the uterus had been stretched to such an extent it could not contract hard enough to expel her pups causing what is called uterine inertia. Thankfully Smudge and all pups are okay and as I said to the vet when we chose a c-section as the first course of action and I always say after a bitch having a c-section, "You never know if you have done a c-section to early, but you certainly will know when you have done a c-section to late."
This is Smudge's third litter and before she had a c-section for the second time, her last litter. Smudge's second litter of six pups, she gave birth to naturally, proving she can give birth easily.  Smudge having a c-section for her first and third litter, both being nine pups in each of those litters,  is unfortunately a victim of her own very good fertility.  
I have been asked what I'm going to call this cross and I have referred to them as Hudges, which is a joining of the parent's names Henry and Smudge. The name Brittalier has been suggested and I suppose gives a strong suggestion of what the mix is, but I might just stick with the Poundlane Spaniel. I can be a bit of a snob when it comes to names and I jokingly sometimes say, "I don't breed Cavapoos, I breed  Curly Coated Cavaliers." Maybe I should just call them that old chestnut breeders often use to sell pups, "Rare." Lol When someone is selling you something always beware, the using of the word, "Rare" 

The children have been nearly as excited as their old mum with the expected arrival of this litter and it's good to have pups in the home again. All our bitches are happy from day one for the children to be near their pups and the children often get employed to hand feed mum or make sure a pup stays on a teat suckling. 
After the weekend I will get up to date with my email inbox, and for those who have contacted me about this litter so far, I will be in touch and as I have said before, "We will not be offering these pups up for homes, until they are up on their feet and we have decided on the ones we are keeping." The time we pick the pups to keep, will probably be from around four weeks old.
I milked this morning and then had to get some grocery supplies in. Our oldest child, Bert came with me and thankfully reminded me he has his first cricket game of the season tomorrow pending weather, as it has rained quite heavily here this afternoon. Cricket baking season is here again !
It's a game with the seniors and as with all games players are asked to contribute to the tea during the match. As I'm milking tomorrow morning, when I got home from acquiring groceries, it was mixing bowl out and a slab of victoria sandwich and slab of coffee cake was made. I am offering up half of each slab of cake for the cricket match. My son, Bert did help as he is a keen cook, as are all our children. His little sister Tilly was helping him and he was getting a little ratty with her and I said, "You now know why I sometimes get annoyed with to many hands making more work."
Time to finish up now. Lately I have been inundated with emails telling me, "I need Search Engine Optimization (SEO)." Hilarious, how they tell me they have looked at my website, yet fail to address me by name and seem to think I want world domination. Yep, they may of  looked, but they certainly have not read it. Mind you I suspect, even if they read it, they still would not get the essence of this website. The fact that they bloody send me their irritating emails makes me think, "I'm already optimized to much for my liking." So if you have been lucky to find me, what with me being all under optimized, if you like puppies and watching them grow ? You have hopefully just hit the jackpot. So, strap yourself in for the highs and hopefully very few lows of rearing a litter of pups.

It's gone one o'clock on Saturday morning the 25th April as I blog this in the UK (my blog will state it is the 24th, as on Pacific time). I have not long got back from the vets with Smudge and her nine pups. Yes, Smudge has done it again and had nine pups for a second time, an amazing amount for a Cavalier. Henry our Brittany spaniel is the Dad. 
As you will of guessed she has had to have a c-section to deliver all the litter, due to uterine inertia, due to her womb being so stretched carrying such a big litter, it was unable to contract strong enough to expel the pups. 

After staying up three nights with Smudge I'm pretty done in and I will blog next time about the run up to and the decision to do a c-section.
We have got Smudge settled down with her pups, all have suckled, and she has just eat some scramble egg, like her life depended on it. So I'm off to catch a couple hours sleep before I get up to check over Smudge and pups, and then go milking. 
Nearly forgot to say, "There are four girls and five boys, all weighing around 8 ozs each." Smudge what a star you are.

Smudge has yet to give birth, although she has been keeping me on tenterhooks for the last couple days. Her temperature dropped two days ago and with her behaviour I thought by now the birth of her litter would be done and dusted.
Her temperature went down to around 37.2 C and has now come back up to 37.7 C. 
She is now around two days before her due date from her first mating. She is well, showing discomfort and signs she could whelp at any time, in between long sleeps. The pups are moving really strongly inside her and just watching her stomach it looks like they might be having a game of rugby. She has had some mucous discharge after peeing, which is the cervical plug coming away and although she has slowed up with carrying such a big pregnancy, she is bright and seemingly well. 
Smudge loves human contact and seems to really enjoy having her tummy rubbed as you can see in the photos tonight, which I hope helps her release oxytocin, which is the hormone that acts as a chemical messenger to make the uterus contract and to facilitate lactation. Her milk bars are already very full, ready for the arrival of her pups. 

I'm off now for another night of Smudge watching and I will end this blog with a photo I caught earlier of our son Alfie watching something with his brother Bert on the computer, and Ysobel decided that Alfie's backside made a comfortable place to sleep for the half hour he was watching the program. 

Smudge had a restless night last night and this morning has moments of obvious discomfort and then calm, she is sleeping now as I type this. 
Yesterday evening I blogged and I really hoped that last night we might of started to see the arrival of Smudge's litter, but the stage she is at now can last 24 hours and sometimes 48 hours. It's really when they start straining that you set the timer. The stage she is at now though, she could also just get up strain a couple times and you have a pup, so you really need to keep in ear shot of a bitch when they are at this stage, visually checking them often and trying to do this without them noticing you to much.
She is regularly going outside for her ablutions and the last few nights has had to go out a couple times during the night and early hours of the morning due to having little room inside her now, carrying such a large litter.
For all those partners out there that have done the vigil of waiting for their partner to give birth, I have every sympathy, even though I have been the partner giving birth six times whilst my husband David waited, as for me, I think waiting, especially when you're not sure when the main event is going to kick off, very arduous. 

Meant to blog yesterday evening, but time got the better of me and I thought I would get  back from milking this morning and do a quick blog. I though forgot about the letter last week informing us that the electric was being turned off today from 9am to 5 pm for repairs. 
I'm here now though, after milking this evening and just eat my supper.
Smudge is now eight weeks and three days pregnant from her first mating. Before the weekend I took a look at the information I have on her two other pregnancies. Her first litter she went into labour five days before her due date from her first mating and her second litter, she went into labour four days before her due date from her first mating. Each time although giving birth early, all pups lived and all were the size you would expect for full term pups.
With this information, instead of waiting until Monday to start taking her temperature, I started to take her temperature on Saturday. She is now four days before her due date, taken from her first mating. Yesterday into this morning her temperature dropped and now it has come right back up, which indicates that arrival of her pups could be anytime now in the next 24 hours. She is panting intermittently and although it is a little warm indoors, you can see the panting is more that she is having twinges. She is very uncomfortable now and looks to her back end and when getting up then sniffs where she was sat, as if looking for a pup. Smudge in the past has not been a bitch to dig and bed up that much, but she is occasionally going in the whelping box arranging the shredded newspaper in there.
The first slide show of photos are Smudge and some of Henry the father of the litter she is carrying, over the weekend up until yesterday.

Bit of a Smudge overload tonight with photos. The second slideshow below is Smudge today and some again feature Henry the father of the pups she is carrying.
So it's time to batten down the hatches, as the good ship Poundlane is about to set sail again. I suspect with Smudge as before, we are in for a long voyage and as Captain my job is to safely navigate Smudge and her precious cargo through what is one of the most precarious journeys in life, that we will of all taken, birth ! 

Smudge is now over seven weeks pregnant and looking very big. We know from her scan she is carrying around seven pups, which is a good size litter for a Cavalier. Smudge had nine pups with her first litter and six with her second, already proving she is a very fertile bitch and also each time a brilliant mother.
It has been glorious weather here in North Devon, UK for the first half of April and the warm Spring we are experiencing at the moment finds Smudge during the day keeping herself cool by lying on the ceramic floor of our kitchen. 
Smudge can still make the jump up on to our sofas, but she has started to slow up over the last couple days, when it comes to keeping up with the rest of the pack.
Her due date is around the 26th April, so will start taking her temperature beginning of next week, as the drop in temperature ,as they start to go into labour is one of the best indicators of the birth process starting. Very excited about this litter, but as always the excitement is mixed with concern for the bitch, getting her through the birth safely. 

Toby and Primrose have romanced last week away. Primrose is now far enough of heat to be back in the pack, along with Toby. Now it is just counting down the days to getting Primrose scanned, to confirm hopefully that she is pregnant and around how many pups she is carrying.
Hope to scan her around 28 days, so that will be near the 7th May.
This is Toby's first time being used as a stud dog, so let's hope he is fertile. 
This will be our first litter of pure Cavaliers since Primrose was born, as Primrose comes from the last litter of Cavaliers we bred back in 2010 from Ysobel with Charlie being their Dad. Looking forward to seeing what we get from this combination. I suspect that they may be very pretty. 
The photos of Primrose and me below, are me trying to get a nice photo with her, but Primrose just thinks it's a great opportunity to try and lick my face. 

I finish tonight's blog with a photo of Smudge's mum Millie relaxing with Reggie. The last couple days have been quite warm here, which sees the dogs in the daytime sensibly snoozing the warmest part of the day away. We have no mad dogs here.

Dottie is from Primrose's litter of Cavapoos born last year with Reggie the Dad. Sue just over a week ago sent me this update for Dottie.

"Hello Jane and family,    Please excuse the delay in updating you about Dottie's life, seem's to be so hectic here , plus I'm trying to get to grips with our new computer.
Dottie is a delight, and has brought us so much joy, she makes us laugh every day. Dotties favourite activity is pinching socks at every opportunity!
Dottie was never much of a barker until the foxes nearby decided to become amorous at the bottom of our garden! We have had quite a few disturbed nights with dottie, we now leave a light on low and the radio on in the back ground which seems to of helped.
Dottie has such a lovely personality, loves her cuddles,she gets lots of exercise, so I'm keeping fit. Dottie will eat everything, especially rabbit droppings, I'm sure she thinks they are treats that I have put down especially for her !
Dottie was spayed in early December and was soon back to her normal bouncy self. I enjoy reading your blog Jane, I notice that you get quite a few visitors from previous litters and their owners. Would you have time for one more? We have booked a cottage in Port Issac from May 10th, we would love to pop in and see you and your family with Dottie if it would be convenient. It happens to be Dottie's birthday, I thought it would be a lovely way to celebrate, just let us know if it would be possible. I know it will be a busy time for you with hopefully the little Hudges.
The photos show Dottie in her favourite pursuit of sock collecting, and a before and after at the groomers.

Kind regards Sue and Colin"

Thanks Sue for letting me know how things are going and I look forward to seeing you all on her 1st Birthday in May.

Toby last night finally got it together, or to be exact, he got it together with Primrose and I know about it. 
Toby is now three years and five months old. Primrose is his first ever time we have used him as a stud dog.  Our other two stud dogs are not to put to finer point on it in the wham bam thank you ma'am category, but Toby is not, probably partly because he has had to wait a little longer than Henry and Reggie before being used as a stud. Toby seems to like a longer courtship with his conquest. It seems he is not just a Cavalier by name only. Lol
On Wednesday, Primrose was ready to be mated and in the morning Toby and her were brought together, although Toby was very taken with her, happily doing what we call, "love dancing" together (This is a dance the bitch does with the dog, if allowed, to test him socially and figure out if she digs him and thinks him a good suitor) and was Primrose throwing him all her moves, he seemed a little shy to move it to the next step though. So I let him play a while and then removed him, to try them together again in the evening. Often if two dogs are not getting on with the business, a break can rise the level of amour in the male when put together again.
The evening arrived and my husband David came home from work and around 8 pm we put Toby and Primrose together again. Toby was more keen, but after an hour or so he still had not got close to doing the deed. So I could do one of three things, sit all night in the stable to make sure they mated, remove Toby again or leave him with her for the night and hopefully he would figure it out in his own time. I took the executive decision and left Toby with Primrose for the night. This option though, would mean that because I would not know if he had mated her or not, I could then not swap dogs and would just have to hope he mated her. 
The morning came and Toby and Primrose seemed happy and I then separated them for the daytime again. The evening came and I put Toby with Primrose again and watched for a while, then took a break to go indoors to start writing a blog last night and my son then came in from his bedroom saying, "I can hear some yelping coming from the stables and wondered if Toby has tied with Primrose ?" I jumped up went out and there they were, Toby and Primrose had got it together. They might of done the deed the night before, but at least I now know the deed has been done at least once, so far. 
Being with dogs when mated does stop potential for the bitch to harm herself or the dog, if she pulls away violently when they tie (When they tie the bitch contracts her vagina and holds the male and this can cause discomfort for the bitch for a couple minutes and some can become very distressed by this) and with some very aggressive breeds, they can actually try and kill each other at this juncture and is why often aggressive breeds, the female is restrained and both are muzzled when mated. Sad is it not, what we think acceptable to do to animals and that some dogs are so aggressive, they need restraints when mated.
When I mate dogs, I like it to be natural and I'm just there to check that the deed gets done and in some cases, just keep the bitch calm as they tie. Canines have been doing their thing for millions of years, so really if you need to be interfering to much to get two dogs to mate (You would not believe the weird shit some get up to, to get two dogs to mate and often now with the Kennel Club allowing Artificial Insemination (AI), some males amour is never tested with a bitch, but only by the hand of their owner), you might want to ask, "Should this mating be taking place ?" The social skill, amour and vitality to reproduce unaided, surely is one of the markers of a dogs temperament and health.

Smudge is now heading towards seven weeks pregnant this weekend and with the labour ward in situ, it's just keeping an eye to Smudge. She is looking big and has just started to slow up and she is being a bit finicky about eating, so her food is now split into four little meals.
Last weekend Henry the father to be of Smudge's pups to be born in a couple weeks time, had a run out with Smudge's mother Millie at the river, so sort of Henry's mother-in-law. Got a bit of video footage of a moment that Millie nearly made a break with Henry, to go off hunting and the other bit of the video is Henry going for a swim and I get a little worried and call him back, as he was only feet away from swimming into a part of the river that has a very strong current. Thankfully he comes back to my call. 

Now to finish on  a funny moment with our children, when I try to explain what clubbing is to our youngest Tilly, who is just six years old. 
This evening when I dropped them at my in-laws for supper, whilst I milked. Just before we got to them, a song came on the radio in the car and on it finishing I said, "In its day that was a massive club anthem, when I used to go clubbing." Our daughter Tilly then asked me, "Mummy, what is clubbing ?" I replied, "Clubbing is when a woman gets a club and goes out and finds a man, clubs them over the head and then drags them back home." Tilly replied somewhat unconvinced with "What!" Our oldest daughter Florrie laughing, shouted from the back of the car, "Is that how you got Daddy ?" I replied "Yep, that's why back in the day, I was known as 'Neanderthal Jane', or was that because of my hairy arse. I can't rightly remember now."  "Oh , mum !" said all the children laughing. 
Don't you just hate it when you can't recall the finer detail of your youth. Lol

Jessica found a good spot last night to snuggle up, my backside. I was just lying on my front on the sofa and up jumped Jessica and made herself at home on my left buttock. Lol
Smudge who is expecting our next litter which the father is Henry, so is a cross between a Cavalier and Brittany spaniel, is at around six weeks pregnant, already looking heavily pregnant. We know from her scan she has around seven pups inside her. 
Although carrying what looks like a good size litter and already looking heavy for six weeks in pups, it is not stopping her up and she is happily keeping up with the pack still. Will be looking to get the labour unit up soon for her. Like to get them sleeping in the whelping box, at least two weeks before the birth to keep their immune system up to speed with its surroundings. 

Henry the expectant Dad of his first ever litter is well and from the video seems to be jumping with joy. One of our sons, Alfie caught the moment I had called him, giving him the command to jump up into my arms. Normally when he hurls himself at me at speed, I position myself so I can step back and twirl around to take up some of the energy from at least 16 kilos hurling its self at you, but as you will see I rather misjudge how close I am to the sideboard behind me with one of our sons, Thomas sat on it and I only just miss one of our daughters, Molly walking behind me. Freeze frame and my facial expressions are hilarious but be warned you won't be able to unsee, once you do that. Lol

The children have been home from school now for the Easter holidays and it's like having a plague of locusts in the home. I baked last Saturday and by yesterday not a crumb left, so had to get the mixing bowl out again and cook up some more cupcakes. I may be an atheist but hey, who don't like a cupcake with chocolate eggs on top of it. I was in Marks and Spencers a few weeks ago and was in an aisle with our daughter Florrie, looking at their Easter eggs and Florrie saw an egg that had been fashioned with Darth Vader's head on it. She then asked me, "Mum, what does Darth Vader have to do with Easter ?" which made the lady working for Marks and Spencers at the bakery counter laugh. 
This weekend with Monday being a Bank Holiday, my husband David and me have managed to wrangle the whole of Sunday and Monday off, I'm now banished from the computer until Tuesday. So, I'm now off to have one of those cupcakes and a cup of tea whilst there are any left. Have a lovely weekend.

To use Toby , or not to use Toby, that is the question -
Toby and Treacle were MRI scanned nearly five weeks ago now and I have been chasing the British Veterinary Association (BVA) up for the last couple weeks, about when the scans would be graded. A sense of urgency for the grades now, as Primrose came on heat this last Sunday, so on ringing the BVA on Monday to be told they might be graded today. I was on the blower (Phone) this morning to find out if they were going to be graded today and was told that they would be and my reply was, "Yes", which made the lady on the phone laugh and she took my details, so I could be rang later on with Toby's result.
So around 4pm I got a call from the BVA to be told that Toby's results were CM 2, which nearly all Cavaliers are, so no surprise there and then she told me he was SM 1b, which also is not so bad. I would of loved SM 0b. I did not get Treacle's result, as the BVA had been a little funny about giving me Toby's result over the phone, even though these results go public on the Kennel Club website. T'is sex, lies and espionage in the dog breeding world I tell you. On Monday I got told that I could not be told the result over the phone, only the vet that did them could ring and get the result. So I said to the lady,"So I can ring you on Wednesday to find out if Toby has been graded and if he has. I then have to ring the vet in Bristol to ring you for the result. They then ring you for the result and then they ring me to tell me the result, whilst you put them on the Kennel Club website in a couple weeks time and anyone can see the result. I'm not having a go at you, but don't you think that sounds a bit ridiculous." She told me to ring back Wednesday and see what they could do.
The BVA reminds me of a little story involving my old Mum and a pasty. Although Mum is coming eighty this year, she is still pretty sharp and a little while ago was in a self service cafe. A lady came to help her and my Mum pointed to a pasty saying, "I'll have a small pasty please." The lady replied, "We don't do small pasties, we only do medium or large." My Mum asked, "Is the medium pasty smaller than the large pasty ?" The lady eagerly replied, "Yes" and with that my Mum rephrased her first request, "Well, I'll have the smaller of the two pasties you have there then." Lol

So bide my wandering. What does the grade SM 1b mean ? You can find out more about the BVA scheme for Chiari-Like Malformation (CM)/Syringomyelia (SM) and what its aims are by clicking on this link
http://www.bva.co.uk/uploadedFiles/Content/Canine_Health_
Schemes/Chiari_Malformation_Syringomyelia_Scheme.pdf
And you can look at the BVA suggested breeding recommendations at this link http://www.bva.co.uk/uploadedFiles/Content/Canine_Health
_Schemes/CM-SM_breeding_recommendations(1).pdf

Toby with a grade of SM 1b has Central Canal Dilation (CCD) less than 2mm. What is CCD ?  

Caught this bit of video of Toby and his litter sister, Jessica stalking each other on the lawn. Jessica is the little lady who had her left back leg amputated last year after injuring it to bad to be repaired. Unfortunately the stalking is cut short by the other dogs hearing a dog aggressively barking on the telly, so they all ran outside trying to find where the barking was coming from.

Smudge is now around 38 days pregnant and caught a photo of her last night fast asleep on her back. Interesting to see how Henry takes to his own, as last year he was a star with the pups we had.

Last tonight, I finish on a loaf of bread I made yesterday (When I say, "made" I mean chucked a load of ingredients in a metal box and pressed a couple buttons) and on returning from milking in the evening, I came in the kitchen to see the loaf minus the lovely crusty top it had before going milking. My first thought was, "Henry," but then I looked closer at the evidence. The loaf was sitting still dead square on the chopping board and I'm sure if Henry could of done that or any of the dogs, they would not of just nibbled the crust so neatly off, I think the whole loaf might be missing. Then our two youngest strolled into the kitchen. I looked at the loaf and then smiling looked at them, and the two cheeky little smiles I got back. I new I had found the crust thieves. Lol