Still twiddling my thumbs

Toby relaxes on my lap

Still twiddling my thumbs waiting for the grades for Toby's and Treacle's MRI scan. Now just over four weeks ago I had them scanned. I did ring up last week and they said, they may be graded the end of this week and if I rang them today, they might have the grades, but I'm going to wait at the moment as getting them in the post, you can prepare yourself better. I get the letter with the BVA post mark on them and seeing that my heart rate will just speed up a little. I then bring the letter inside, putting it on the side in the kitchen and make a cup of coffee first, get the heart rate stable. Then I open the letter, this ritual will not change the result, but neither will ripping the letter open as soon as it is given to you. 
Three years of waiting on Toby to use, rests on this last health test result. It is not the end of the world if the result means I should not use him as a stud dog. Don't think the world is going to spin off its axis, I will just have pick myself up, dust myself off and re-examine the situation.

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Ysobel at nearly eight years old

Last night I was messing around with some of the children on the floor and looked up to see Ysobel looking down at us from a sofa, looking very beautiful, so quickly got a few photos of her.
Ysobel is such a lovely Cavalier and is Primrose's and Belle's Mum. Ysobel came to us at around 18 months old, from a small show breeder. We bred four litters from her and she was a wonderful Mum and an amazingly quick whelper. With one litter she gave birth to three pups in 15 minutes, which is very fast. She is now retired from breeding. Although she was heard to have a very slight heart murmur at five and a half years old, her heart murmur has not progressed and she is very well in herself with no health issues. She still loves to run and jump about and loves digging, especially if it's a rat hole.
Ysobel is not a, in your face dog and one of the dogs that I probably don't blog about that much, so tonight I thought I would let all those who have pups from Ysobel know, that she is very much alive and kicking at nearly eight years old. Her birthday is the 23rd April, which happens to be St George's Day as well.

Smudge nearly five weeks pregnant

Smudge is around five weeks pregnant now and is looking very well. Her due date is around the 26th to the 28th April, which does not seem that far away. Her scan revealed she is carrying a good size litter again of around seven pups and you can now see her starting to full out by the day.
The last photo tonight is Jessica splayed out asleep. You know it's nearly a year ago she had her leg amputated. It was the 14th April last year we found her on the doorstep and as she jumped up in through the door, we then saw her back leg just hanging only attached still by a few bits of skin and sinew. Amazing how she copes on three legs. It certainly has not stopped her up. She is a funny little thing, a real character.

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Jessica at nearly a year since her back left leg was amputated