Nearly lost Mollie and a little trip done memory Poundlane

Starting with an update I forgot to put on the last blog from Rhian and Russ who have Mollie from Smudge's litter born this February 2014. Thanks for the photos sent today and as I explained in the reply that it reminded me of the other update you sent me a couple weeks ago. BT decided a few days ago that my email account would be revamped and although happy using the account as it was they thought it would be helpful for me to have an email account that now takes twice as long to load up and at a quick glance I cannot see so easily what emails I have yet to reply or whether they have attachments such as photos, don't you just love progress, change for no other purpose than change. Rant over.
Thanks Rhian and Russ for the lovely photos of Mollie and your old boy Bobbie, good to hear all is going well with the two of them.

Hi there Jane
 
Sorry I haven't been in touch, we have been on holidays in Dorset, the weather was stunning but a little too hot for Russ and the two dogs, although Mollie had the sense to find the shade unlike Bobbie and myself.  She met lots of dogs, large, small, boisterous and quiet, and she coped extremely well with all of them, and had great fun one day running around a field with an 8 month old
spaniel.We can't believe how well she has settled in, it seems as if she has always been here. Bobbie is amazing with her and although she has her own bowl, she prefers to use his and often there are two heads in one bowl .She completed her puppy socialisation classes last evening and had great fun. She is a real character and very wicked and you can almost see what she is thinking before she
does it, especially when she pounces on poor Bobbie when he is fast asleep. It takes us ages when we go for a walk with the two of them, as everyone wants to stop and ask what breed she is and where we got her from, and of course we always sing your praises Jane. I'm sure all of the other 'mums and dads' have the same thing happening to them too.
 
Have sent some photos from the holiday for you to see, and would like to wish the new 'parents' all the best with their new pups. Will keep in touch.
 
Regards Rhian and Russ
Bobbie and Mollie

This is the email and a couple cute photos I received from Rhian and Russ today that jogged my memory to find their other email and photos above. Thanks for these cute photos of Mollie.

Hi there Jane

Just had to send these two photos to you of Mollie. Russ took them 
the other day when she decided to sit on the landing. She is Ab Fab 
as they say, everyone loves her wherever we go, and they can't get 
over how soft her hair is. She is combed every day and doesn't mind 
it at all, especially as she has a treat when I have finished. It is so 
nice to see how her siblings are doing and we are still checking 
on the news at Poundlane every few days. Bobbie is still being 
extremely well behaved and patient with her even when she takes
his chewiness out of his mouth!!!!  

How lovely to read the story of Margaret and her new cavalier, what
a super lady.

Regards Rhian and Russ
Bobbie and Mollie 

Last night was very hot in the milking parlour and when it's so hot I can't but help remember a lady I knew as a child. Greta was a lady of undetermined age who as a family we knew through horses, she had pony mares which she ran with a thoroughbred stallion and we on occasion purchased offspring from her, she was said to be of romany origin, she was a real character, always up for a laugh, she cared, but cared not much for what people made of her. She had a wisp of silver hair that seemed to have a life force of it's own, she smoked her own roll ups, often with one stuck to her lip as she spoke to you, she always wore a t-shirt with a tweed skirt and her very tiny ankles were covered with white frilly ankle socks finished off with her feet attired in neatly laced brogues. She had a leathered weathered complexion, but a most definite glint of youth still was most evident from her eyes, she always wore a bit of slap (makeup) and part of that was drawn on eyebrows and it's the thought of her eyebrows and what she said one very hot day about them that makes me chuckle and think of old Gret when I'm sweating away in the milking parlour. 
We went to meet up with Gret one day back in the late seventies whilst having a bit of a heat wave, as my Mum approached the gateway to one of her fields, Gret appeared at the open window of the car, looking a bit warm and exclaimed, "My, t'is hot, it was so hot yesterday you know, I sweated my eyebrows off ." With that she then bent over laughing so hard, as she straightened back up tears could be seen from each of her eyes. So every time it is really hot, I consider would it be hot enough for old Gret to sweat her eyebrows off ? Lol
Sadly Gret passed away a few years back now but her spirit lives on in one of her Grand children Helen, who has kept on the tradition of keeping horses and when I meet her now and then, we will always part company laughing, although Helen does have her own eyebrows.

Not many puppy photos tonight I'm afraid, as I was taking a few outside earlier and the battery went flat, so put on charge and then decided to get on with this blog tonight, so quickly jumped in the puppy bed with the pups in an attempt to try and restrain them, so as to get a photo of them altogether and then our daughter Florrie asked me to take a couple of her with Maddie because Maddie leaves us on wednesday.
The pups are now 9 weeks old and a very lively bunch they are. Maddie leaves us on Wednesday, so she will get a few trips out in the car over the next few days in preparation for her leaving. They all seem pretty independant of each other and happy when out and about the property to go off and find their own trouble.

                 A trip down memory Poundlane

Now to a trip down memory lane. In 2010 I tragically ran over our lovely old boy Smidge at the age of 14, this bit is going to be hard, as I type what happened that day comes back in vivid technicolour. I feel his weight in my arms as I picked him up, I see his fixed pupils and although I have seen death close up many times and know it only to well, still I rush to my husband coming out the back door and ask him to stop this, ask, I beg him and he then holds Smidge and we both hold each other with Smidge between us and we cry.
My it hurts still to go through those moments and I can only be thankful that how it happened it was quick. He had not a mark on him, other than a dust across his neck and shoulder area and I believe I ran over that area of his body and detached the brain stem, he was gone before I picked him up.
Smidge was a very special dog, he provided ballast to all our children as they learned to walk and most of all he was my dog, or should I say from an early age he decided I was his allotted human. The children tried to lead him and he would lead lovely for them, as long as I was walking alongside him, but I stopped, he stopped and no amount of tugging would he move until I did.

Smidge around 5 years old

 I wrote an obituary for Smidge on the "In Loving Memory" page at the time of his passing and although I had some photos of Smidge I had none of him as a young boy. Recently one of our children was doing a show and tell at school, which is when they bring stuff into school about them and tell the class about it. Thomas asked me if he could take in some photos of himself as a baby. Thomas was born before we had a digital camera, so it was a trip to the loft and a sift through photos and there I found them, Smidge as a pup and Smidge with his siblings, his mum, his Granny and his Great Granny.
The first group photo below is of four generations of his Cavalier family. Smidge is at the front on the left and this photo was taken when we had just arrived home in the early hours of the new year of 1997 having been out to local pub. Front right is Smidge's Granny, Lucy. Behind Smidge on the left is Great Granny, Jemima and behind Lucy on the right is Smidge's Mum, Penny 2.  

Four generations son Smidge FL, Granny Lucy FR, Great Granny Jemima BL and Mum Penny 2 BR

Jemima was Smidge's Great Granny and when I meet my husband, David, she was seven years old and the old tart after me caring for her every whim, fell head over heels in love with David. She obviously had been making do with me until she found what she cosidered her allotted human, which was David. Lol. Good omen though if your dog falls over head in love with your boyfriend.
Jemima was put to sleep at twelve with heart failure.

Great Granny, Jemima

The slide show has photos of Smidge with his three brothers, as Smidge was from a litter of four boys. His brothers where called Dougal, who my Mum had, Snuffles and Smudge.  
Granny Lucy was put to sleep at nearly thirteen with a suspected brain tumour. She had no heart problems.
Mum, Penny 2 at the age of 9 was put to sleep due to cancer in the stomach area. She had no heart problems. So that makes for the four generations an average age of just under 12 years old.

Last photo is one I found of a young Pupster who we lost in 2011 to stomach cancer at a tragically young 7 years old. He and Smidge were best mates. I do really miss the two boys, but you know when you take a dog into your life, the chances are you will attend their funeral, than they yours. Even though we know this, memories of the warmth and love they brought in to your world, you will drop your guard again and you will let another on to your lap and in to your heart. The heart has a lot of capacity, you just got to open it, again and again and again.

A young Pupster around 10 months old