Lovely to hear from Blenheim Lucy, Kayla update and a bit of digging

On Friday evening I got home from milking to find an email that brought a smile to my face, an update from Blenheim Lucy. Lucy came to us around the age of three and we bred two lovely Cavapoo litters from her and at the age of five, she was cardiologist vet heart examined and found to have a heart murmur, the early stage of Mitrial Valve Degeneration (MVD). Tony and Judith who had visited us meeting Lucy hoping to have a pup from her, when I contacted them about her heart murmur and thus not breeding from her again, then re homed Lucy, having had Cavaliers before and knowing about MVD. Lucy had come to us from being an only dog and although she is sociable, we thought in her later years she might be suited better to being in a one dog home. Frighteningly nearly two years have passed since Lucy left us and she is still well and looks as if the MVD is slow onset. She is now around seven years old. Thanks Tony and Judith for letting me know all is going so well with Lucy.

Lucy

Hi Jane and family
 
Do you realize it will be 2 years this January 2015 that we took in Lucy - where has the time gone??
 
She has well and truly settled in with us and knows she is thoroughly spoilt!  Wherever we go in the house or garden Lucy is always there by our side -she likes to be included in everything!   If we have not given her enough attention, especially when we are watching a TV program she will come up and pat one of us on the leg a couple of times!   If we ignore her up she comes again with her special toy "Rudie" (red nosed reindeer) and plonks it on our knee! This is Lucy with Ducky.

We have now moved, still in Crewkerne, but the other side of town, and we have a much bigger garden, with a woodland and a stream so at the moment we are keeping a watchful eye on Lucy as she is very inquisitive and would find a hole somewhere to get through and be gone!      Unfortunately the pesky squirrels are too fast for her!!  
 
Trust all is well with you and the family and we will send you some more photos soon.
 
Best wishes
 
Tony, Judith and LUCY

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Next is an update from Lynne who has Kayla from Smudge's litter born the beginning of this year and is now around nine months old. Thanks Lynne, she looks a lovely girl.

Hi Jane

I hope everything's OK with you all.  I just wanted to send you some photos of our gorgeous Kayla.  We are really enjoying her, she's such a funny, friendly little character.

Best wishes

Lynne

This bit of video footage I caught of the dogs Friday morning. Our dogs all pretty well get on and they love as a team digging for rats and sometimes catching the occasional short-tailed vole also called the field vole. Cavaliers can easily dispatch a rat, which can surprise some, as they think of these little spaniels as just lap dogs, but as they say, "let the dog see the rabbit" or in this case the rat and they will know what to do without any instruction. 
A funny little story is back in the summer I saw Treacle slinking into the back house and although I could not see any thing hanging from her mouth, she looked guilty, so I opened her mouth to find a live field vole, which I removed, found out were they had dug it up from, put it back and covered the hole with wire mesh. 
The video shows the dogs digging, but not with any great enthusiasm, so there was not much scent around. Dogs will indicate by vigour how good a scent is and how imminent they are to flushing something up. Ysobel and her daughter Primrose are exceptional diggers and often will dig until nearly dropping, both I have seen dispatch rats with the accuracy of any Jack Russel. Just shake'em.