Reggie is going to be a Daddy ! Tonight some long waited good news that Dolly was scanned today & is carrying at least 5 pups. So this confirms that not only is Reggie a lothario but a fertile lothario.lol We also had Lucy's heart listened to & filled in her annual Cavalier heart research form with no murmer being heard at the age of 4 years old. So she will be Reggie's next conquest. We will scan Ysabel next Wednesday & we will rescan Dolly just to get a bit better idea how many. I turned up early for my appointment today.lol. Nothing like being early, well a full 24 hours early to be precise, luckly they fitted me in as it was my mistake & on coming home & looking on my calendar it was writen down on Thursday so confirmed my mistake. It will be with great excitement that we will be waiting for Reggie's pups as Reggie is such a character. Today I had left a bucket of cooking apples I had picked in a bucket in our utilty (outhouse) to then notice apples all over the lawn. I then observed Reggie walking out of the utility with an apple in his mouth gentle placing it on the lawn sit & look at it for a bit & then returning to the utility for another apple. I retrieved all the apples which did not have one bit mark on them showing what a soft mouth Reggie has but needless to say the bucket of apples have been put up out of the way.lol. He is so comical to watch. Reggie also has his spot on the lawn where he has figured out that he can keep an eye on all of us from. In his vantage point he can see me working in the kitchen, keep an eye on my Mum in the annexe & see anyone coming to the gate. When the weather is good he will even sleep in this spot with the shade of the weeping willow tree. Definately a bright young boy is Reggie who makes us laugh. Tonight a rather tired blog after a night of being up with our daughter Molly who was getting sick, as you see from the photo's below of her with my husband that she does not look any worse for the lack of sleep but the same might not be said for her poor Dad who is not feeling so well & also endured a night of very little sleep. Dolly & Primrose cuddled up with them & could not resist the chance to catch it on camera. Molly seems much better this evening & we will hope to get some sleep but with our other little girl Matilda being of colour on Sunday we will be on a code Red tonight as two down there could be four more to go. lol. I hope Tricia you can forgive me at my first slight vagueness when you rang today as brain was not totally in gear after practically no sleep & will look forward to meeting on Saturday. Tomorrow I am of to the vets with Lucy & Dolly. Lucy has just come on heat so we want to get her heart listened to before putting her in pups. She has come on a couple weeks earlier than expected & all going well we would hope for pups ready for homes from Lucy around the first week in Feb 2012. Lucy is a real character & all going well will hope to emulate her last litter of pups which were seven little golden stunners. Dolly will be scanned tomorrow & all going well this will confirm my suspicions that she is in pups to Reggie. She is over 4 weeks since her first mating but just under 4 weeks from her last but even if the scan is not so good munipulation of her abdomen should confirm in pups now & I can rescan her if needed when we scan Ysabel next week on the 5th October to get an idea of the size of litter. Dolly is looking really well & I will have my fingers firmly crossed for both girls tomorrow. We have had such an interest in our next two litters that we have decided to stop registering interest in Dolly's & Ysabel's future litters. This is because we do not want to give false hope to people. We are hoping at this time to breed two litters of Cavapoos in 2012, we are already getting interest for these litters & if interested please feel free to email at [email protected] or phone for a chat on 01769 560969. Also keep an eye on our "New Arrivals" page as if a pup becomes available it will be published there. Lastly a little group of photos of Reggie & Primrose to enjoy. Thanks again for all the kind messages & the lovely photo's I have been sent today certainly put a smile on my face. We start with a update on Maddie who is Smudge's sister with Millie being their Mum. Maddie was pick of the litter & I think looking at the photo's you can see why. I always remember Alison & Ray coming to see the last pup we had of another litter & meeting Millie heavy in pup falling for her gentle charm, so then deciding to wait to see what she produced. Maddie is the first Cavalier they ever chose as their other Cavalier they had was the last in the litter. I know it was hard for them choosing a pup but I think there can be no regrets in their choice. She is a little stunner & the one I let get away. Alison says that "her favourite toy is a handkerchief. She has worked out that they are kept in our pockets and now if one is slightly exposed she jumps up and takes it out, she even goes through our dirty washing when its on the floor to find them. She is such a clever girl." Thanks for the update & photo's Alison much appreciated. Next is Maddie's brother Oliver who as you can see loves the beach. Madeleine sent me this very cute photo of Oliver on holiday in Wales & Madeleine says "we made it up Snowdon again & Oliver yet again put me to shame for energy on the day & after!! lol. His favourite thing is fetch on the beach & I have attached a photo of him after a rather long session ! He is covered in sand & salt water !! lol.He loves it on the beach as he knows a good game of fetch is on the cards as soon as he sees sand !! We are regularily running together now & he loves that:) Anyway hope my mucky pup below cheers your spirits a little." Thanks Madeleine looking at your photo of Oliver certainly made me laugh & smile. Last but not least I have a update from Tracey & cute photo's of Foxy. Foxy is Primrose's sister with their Mum being Ysabel. Foxy is our little girl who had an inguinal hernia & had it repaired at 6 weeks old. She is now just over 12 months old & has been spayed. She has gone on well showing no ill effects from having her hernia repaired at 6 weeks old. Thanks Tracey for the cute photos of your Fiesty Foxy who I will always remember how brave a little girl she was having her surgery at 6 weeks old. Tonight I have put on the photo's I could not get on last night as my internet connection started playing up. It always seems to when we get very heavy muggy wet weather & was it wet today. It has steadily rained all day & as I type this I have a mass of damp doggy smelling dogs asleep at my feet. Look out for the very cute photo's of Ysabel in black & white, especially the one with her eye open looking up. Time moves on & the sudden lose of Pupster last Thursday seems a blur but as the saying goes "You have to dust yourself off, pull yourself up & start all over again", so as a dear friend life ends, we look forward to hopefully our next litters of pups & the start of new life. Dolly was mated over a period of 7 days from first to last mating, so she could be just over 3 weeks in pups now or just around 2 weeks in pup. She does seem filled in her abdomen & hopefully if this is the first signs of her showing in pups she maybe has concieved from her first mating but please everyone do not get over excited yet as this is just a very subtle change & I would not put money on it yet. Dolly is very well in herself being a very laid back individual but has been very fussy about her food the last couple days which could be seen as another indicator that she is in pups. Ysabel is also in fine health & was mated over 6 days & is nearly 2 weeks in pups from last mating or could be a little further on if she concieved from her first mating. She has had a subtle change which is she is normally a fussy eater but she has over the last couple days been eating like a little pig when fed, so hoping that she is showing first indications that she might be in pup but as I said before do not put any money on it yet. Dolly is now our only tricoloured Cavalier King Charles Spaniel we have with all the rest being blenheims. Reggie is now the only male in the pack but I will be hoping to find a suitable Cavalier boy to join our pack in the near future & he may be a tricoloured or a blenheim as with my girls either of the broken colours should produce nice marked pups. Got a few photos tonight which include a last photo of Pupster taken 24 hours before he fell ill. Lastly I would like to mention that over the weekend I was contacted by Mike. Mike had a adult Cavalier from us just under a year ago who we never bred from as we felt she was not cut out for breeding, she was my Mums dog. Mike had an older Cavalier girl called Lucy when he got Pippa from my Mum. He new Lucy had heart trouble last year when Pippa joined him & on Friday she passed away from heart failure. I felt very honoured that Mike shared this sad moment with me & was so glad he has Pippa to help him with the loss of Lucy. Mike is in a wheelchair & on meeting him & Lucy when we took Pippa to meet him the love & comfort he gets from his furry companions was very obvious & also was obvious the love & confort he also gives them. I only meet Mike for a couple hours but he was inspiring with out knowing it because when I asked him how he had become to be in a wheelchair he told me & then said "What can you do, you just have to get on with it" & that was what he was doing. Today has been a very sad day ! Pupster had to be put to sleep. As I type this still raw from todays events the tidal wave of emotion sweeps over me & to people out there who have lost a pet will know what I mean. Losing a pet evokes the same feelings of losing any family member.
Pupster seemed in good health & the photo below was taken only 6 days ago but about a fortnight ago I did mention to my husband that I had noticed a very subtle change in him, with him being a little slow to rise when we were going out but put it down to him being seven years old & just starting to slow up a bit. Last night though about 8pm he got sick several times which did not alarm me to much as Pupster will eat any old rubbish but decided if he was not right in the morning I would pop him into the vets. Morning came & Pupster was obviously not very well & was drinking lots & then vomiting it up seconds later & was showing signs of being in pain. When I got to the vets I still thought that he had just eaten something that had upset him but on the vet examining him & then scanning his abdomen we became aware that he had a large mass sitting against the outside of his stomach & was causing the stomach to be almost closed over. So surgery was the only next option & it was felt at this stage we were looking at a tumour the size of a tennis ball & on signing permission for the surgery the vet & I had to discuss the fact that with such a large mass that we may have to look at euthanasia as a possible out come. This caught me slightly on the emotional back foot so to speak as I am normally a person who in public keeps control on my emotions but from going to the vets thinking Pupster just had a tummy ache I was now talking about the possibility of putting him to sleep, so the tears could not be held back. I cuddled the old boy before I left & drove home on an emotional rollercoaster. Middday came & the phone call from the vet followed but at this time I was prepared for the worst & unfortunately it was the worst being a large tumour which was puting so much pressure on the stomach it had almost closed it over & had spread to the lymph nodes & other areas of the intestine although no other organs showed signs of damage. The choice was remove the tumour which would mean dividing the stomach & then stitching it back together getting him over this surgery with the very high probability of the cancer left behind rampaging his body & claiming him shortly after getting over the operation or not bringing him round from the surgery. I made the choice right or wrong which I felt best for him which was to put him to sleep on the surgeons table. It is never easy to play God & I will now rerun today over & over again hoping that the choice was right for Pupster. I did not want him to suffer. I have had a dog called Penny who was Smidge's Mum who had a similier cancer & we tryed to keep her going but I regret today the shell of herself she became. We brought Pupster home this afternoon & he now lies beside his old mate Smidge. The other dogs got to see him & know his passing with our children being able to say goodbye to our Pupster. I am astonished that Pupster could of been so well up to 24 hours ago even eating his breakfast happily yesterday morning & have a tumour in him the size of a tennis ball. Pupster up to today at just over 7 years old had never had an ill day or any health issues. Rest in peace Pupster our little welshman ! Well, I sat here for over three hours doing a very long blog about the spaniel breeds & what I was aiming for in crossbreeding & then my page froze & to recover it I lost all my blog, so a little fed up with my computer. So I will try & do the blog again in a few days, time allowing. We now have Ysabel off her mating time of her heat, so will hope to scan Dolly & her the first week in October, so fingers crossed ! I am now off to bed with a numb backside from sitting to long at this computer.lol Had a welcome surprise yesterday with an email from Fizz's family. Fizz is from the second litter of Cavapoos we bred & her Mum is Ysabel & Dad is Rollo, my sister's Miniature Poodle. She is nearly 2 years old. Sarah contacted me to tell me Fizz is fine & because she is so lovely her sister & she are considering breeding one litter from her next year & asked my opinion on the second cross & about breeding a litter.
I feel happy that she has come back to me & feels happy to ask me for advice. Some breeders can be very overbearing about a novice taking up the reins to breed a litter but I feel that everyone starts somewhere & I would rather that someone feels comfortable to come back to me & ask for advice than not. Sarah is switched on & may breed next year from her but I have advised to get lots of research done & speak to her vet & then the choice is hers. Whatever she decides I know it will be done with Fizz's best interests at heart. Breeding a litter most times can be a wonderful experience but if things go wrong & they can even with lots of experience of breeding it can end in a nightmare, so you must understand fully what you are getting into. The Mum's welfare must always come first & worry about the vets bill once you know she is okay not before. Sarah sent me this photo taken from her phone & hopes to send me more once she can download photo's from her new camera. Thanks Sarah for contacting me again & letting us see beautiful Fizz all grown up. I am lucky to have photo's tonight of two beautiful Cavapoo girls from Lucy's litter born back on the 2nd December 2010, so that makes them nearly 10 months old. Roxy in the first set of photo's has been on holiday in the Highlands & Tracey kindly sent me their holiday snaps saying "As you can see Roxy had a fun holiday, she is a dream of a dog. People were stopping us asking what breed she was, asking to take photo's, the attention was unreal & Roxy loved every minute." The photo's of Roxy with Tracey's daughter show a confident little girl around her furry friend Roxy & memories of meeting Tracey for the first time with her family are of her daughter visible nervous of our little dogs, so to see photo's of her looking obviously happy in Roxy's company are a joy to see. Thanks as always Tracey for sharing your moments with Roxy & allowing us to see her growing into a real beauty. The next group of photo's are of Big Poppy who as I said is Roxy's sister & you can certainly see the likeness. Toni sent me these photo's earlier without a message but from the photo's I imagine she is doing well as she certainly looks very happy. Thanks Toni for your lovely photo's & letting us see your beautiful girl grow up. Lastly tonight a quick update on Reggie. He has mated with Dolly a couple times now showing great aptitude for the work of a stud dog. His mild manner & general cutness belies a lady killer.lol. Just hope his fertility matches his virility !
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“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you,but he will make a fool of himself, too.”
― Samuel Butler Me (Jane) with Puddin' and Teagol, waiting patiently to flush a patch of kale, December 2019
AuthorHello, I am Jane! Archives
March 2022
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