Third Birthdays and updates

Millie

Monday I received an update for a Poundlane puppy and that puppy was Bayley, who is from Millie's last litter some three years ago. It only seems the other day that Millie  had her last litter of pups. Although Millie just before her fifth birthday was examined by a cardiologist vet and a murmur was heard, over two years later she is in good health and her murmur seems to have not notably progressed. Reggie is the Dad of Bayley. It is actually Bayley's third birthday today along with he's litter siblings Ruby, Lottie, Lola, Lindsey, Meg and Scrappy. Happy 3rd Birthday to you all and hope all is well with you and your families. So the first update tonight is for Bayley.

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Baylet, three years old today

"Hello Jane,
It's that time of the  year again,  here are  a few photos of Bayley as he approaches his 3rd Birthday.As you can see he is very hansom and very like his mum.  He is an absolute darling and thoroughly spoilt, we  couldn't have asked for a better dog. 
I didn't watch Crufts on principal this year. I find the treatment of the dogs too upsetting. I read with interest, Cora Wade's Pet Chronicles on Crufts it is absolutely shameful that the treatment of the dogs is allowed to go on where are the RSPCA Inspectors. 
I hope Toby's MRI Scan is good news and you can go ahead with the love match with Primrose. I would love another Cavalier but there is not enough room in our bed for another little body☺
I still very much enjoy reading your blog, being a country girl myself.
Kind regards
Glenda Moran" 

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Glenda's email asks about the RSPCA at Crufts, but the RSPCA gave up with Crufts a few years ago and now do not attend the show. Thanks Glenda for letting me know how your hansom boy Bayley is and hope you had a lovely day on his third birthday.

The next update is from Bayley's litter sister Ruby and came to me yesterday.

Ruby, three years old today

Dear Jane,
as it's Ruby's birthday tomorrow, 19th March - can't believe she is three years old already, I thoght you would like an update. She was one of Millie's pups from her last litter and we feel so privileged to have this lovely girl in our lives. Ruby is still a bundle of fun and very energetic although she has calmed down since her early puppy days!
Although she is still mega fun and I think she still thinks she is a puppy as she still likes to wiggle and jump up as a greeting as well as taking my hand gentle in her mouth as a greeting!!
Also another titbit of information is that my husband, who was a died in the woods, not very keen dog person, is now entirely won over by Ruby and often calls her 'his little dog!!' Here are a few recent pictures of her and a short video of one of her favourite games.  In these pictures Ruby is showing off her good hips - one of the favourite ways she likes to lay down! She is beautiful inside and out and we love her to bits!! Hope you and the family are all well. 
Love, Lisa, Daniella and the rest of the family.

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Thanks Lisa for the photos and the lovely video of Ruby. I have now sat and watched that clip more times than is surely healthy. It makes me smile each time I watch it, which can't be a bad thing.
Nice to hear of Lisa's husband's conversion into the house of Dog. First commandment is, though shall have no cats before your Dog and has given me an idea for my next blog. Hope you all had a lovely day with Ruby on her 3rd Birthday.


Next update is from Tracey who has Roxy and Charlie. Roxy is from Lucy's first litter with my sister's Poodle, Rollo being the Dad and she was born 3rd December 2010 (That's hard to believe, over four years ago now). Charlie is from Ysobel's last litter, with Reggie the Dad and he was born 31st July 2013. 

Charlie and Roxy

"Hello Jane,
I hope this message finds you all at Poundlane happy & well! Roxy & Charlie are still as adorable as ever & still turning heads wherever they go! The time goes by so quickly & here we are already in spring I so love this time of year as everything all looks so pretty.  We are off with the dogs to the lake district at the end of the month & can't wait! Not sure if our travels will bring us back down to Devon this year but if we do we will most definitely drop in again. I hope you like the pics & I'll call you soon to catch up with you properly. 
Take care Jane
Best Wishes 
Tracey Xx"

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As always Tracey, lovely to hear from you. Thanks for letting me know how you all are and have a lovely time in the Lake District.

Last update tonight is from Felicity, who has Lottie, who is from Primrose's litter born 9th/10th May 2015 and Reggie is her Dad.

Lottie

"Dear Jane, David and children,
 Hope all is well with you and doggies. Just thought I would send you a quick update.
Lottie is fine, just as loopy and bouncy as ever! She started her first season on 31st January which lasted about three weeks and finished around 23rd February. She kept herself very clean (unlike my sofas, discovered cream is not the ideal colour to have with pup on heat!!)but never mind, a few old sheets covering them soon sorted that!
Lottie’s coat had started to get a bit matted because of her still being in Vari kennel in my room at night, and was it obviously getting at bit restricted for her in space, so a few weeks ago decided she really needed to go to the groomers, so please see the attached photos of her rather dramatic but necessary hair cut! I think she feels so much better for it, although as a result, I had to buy her a coat as she was shivering on our walks!
As of last week, I purchased a nice large pen (second-hand) for Lots to sleep in at night downstairs, she’s still getting used to it and does whimper a bit when I leave her to go up to bed- and I’m guessing this may take a while so will have persevere!
 Lottie had a bit of an upset tum and runny bottom the week before last, so put her on a chicken and rice diet for a few days which did the trick andthankfully ‘number twos’ were back to normal last week. I had just started changing her ‘Lilys’ food from the puppy to the adult food so that mayhave been the cause.
 Just going back to Lotties season Jane, – and given your knowledge and experience- how long should I now wait before having her spayed?? Clearly hormones etc need to settle down, and on ‘looking up’ the ‘do’s and ‘don’ts about spaying, have found after 8 weeks (at least) from the end of a season? Would be very grateful of your thoughts and advice!!! I asked in my vets the other day when I was getting some more flea/worm treatmentand the nurses there said that could take Lots in for an ‘initial assessment’ prior to having the spay op.
 I recently found a local lady dog sitter (and a friend of my Mums) who Lots has started going to occasionally, only the lady has got a very small house and therefore only takes two dogs at a time and gets very booked up, so will have to wait till the end of March now before she can look after Lots again.
 We have recently been in touch with Sue and Colin who own Lotties sister Dottie and hopefully we can arrange to meet up nearer the summer so that the sisters can have a ‘reunion’, so that will be nice.
 My lady dog sitter had recommended a place called ‘Toplands’ which is a special doggie exercise field on a country park estate about 20 miles away from my house, so this Wednesday as the weather was good, Lots and I had a drive out there. Lottie had a wail of a time!!! Have never seen her run so fast! There were about nine other dogs there when we arrived, so she had plenty of playmates. I was a bit cautious at first although she is over her season,there was one male Labrador who seemed a little ‘excited’ in the ‘meat and two veg department’ (to put it politely!) but he didn't show any interest in Lots thankfully!
I hope the ‘union’ between Smudge and Henry turns out well, I expect you are all excited about the prospect of those pups!!
As I said above Jane, would be grateful of your advice as to having Lottie spayed – thankyou!
Hopefully hear from you soon,
Best wishes, love Felicity and Lottie.x"

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Lottie

Thanks Felicity for getting in touch and when spaying a bitch the preferred timing is two months after a heat or two months before a heat, because there is less blood supply to the area, so lowers the risk of a major bleed. A bitch can be spayed any time, but when it is elective, it is preferred to do it either two months after or before a heat for the reason explained above. Thanks again Felicity, good to hear how you both are getting on, not long now until Lottie's 1st Birthday.

Rare photo of my husband David and me sat down together

Updates done now down to what's going on at Poundlane. Thought I would share this photo of  David and me on a rare occasion caught sat down together. I had just come in from milking on Tuesday evening and David was waiting for the rice to finish cooking for the curry he had cooked from scratch for tea. Don't take long to get company when you sit down in our home and in the photo with us is Primrose on my shoulder, Treacle on my lap, Belle between us on the back of the sofa and Jessica lying between us. 

You might notice the bruise I'm sporting at the moment on my right upper arm. The bruise is the result of a cow catching me, but you can't blame her, because she had squat the end of her teat. Which I could not see at first, but certainly new about when I wiped her pre-dip off. She is okay, but the teat needs time to heal, so with her being a reasonable way on in calf, we have dried off the quarter, which means we will not milk her on that teat and the teat will dry up, but often in cases like this, the teat end will heal and by the time she calves again, the quarter will be okay to milk on again. 

Cows are big immensely strong animals and over the now 27 going on 28 years I've been milking cows, I've had my share of near misses with them, but on the whole, luck as been mostly on my side, touching wood now. I've had a few squat fingers and bruises, but know of others that have been less fortunate. Part of my luck I hope is down to the fact that I understand the strength of the animals I handle and respect that. 

One of my most memorable bovines though is not a cow, but a bull and one of my most memorable near misses was with Simon. Simon the Simmental bull. Simon is one of the biggest bulls I have ever had the privilege to know. I have yet to see a bigger Simmental bull than him, even at shows. Such was his presence and size that when milking, if someone like a sales rep had come into the parlour to ask where the farmers I worked for were and at that time Simon came in, they would stop talking and would seem a bit concerned. I would say, "Don't mind Simon, he's just come in for some meal."  Always they would comment on his size.

Simon was on the farm I first milked for and at 18 months old started his life with his herd of around 70 Frisian ladies. Everything was bred to him, due to the farm had stopped breeding their own replacement Dairy cows, but buying them, so all offspring from the Dairy cows were reared for beef. Simon reigned for just over 10 years getting all but everything in calf. Anyone knowing anything about bulls, will know a bull reaching nearly twelve years old, running with a herd for ten years getting cows in calf is a fair bull.

I remember Simon going in the field for the first time with his ladies. He was blowing fire, roaring at the first cows as they appeared on the horizon noticing his arrival, but once around 70 of them lined up and charged down towards him, his bravery left him for a moment. He soon though was swooning the ladies and proving his worth and it was not long before he decided to become an annoyance to me in the parlour. 

They had a six abreast parlour, which is were the cows come in alongside you and jump up on platforms about a foot and a half off the floor into a half stall with a fed bowl to the side and you put a chain around the back of them to stop them reversing out, Simon never had a chain around him, because it did not fit and before long Simon decided he liked the idea of coming in the parlour and stand in a stall for best part of the milking, stopping me being able to use that cluster. The attraction to come in the parlour was food and Simon loved his food and would do anything for food, when he decided he had, had enough food in parlour, he would knock up the release bar with his head and leave at his own speed. You could have him lied down, give him a bucket of food and he would happily let you trim his feet. He has a couple funny stories about trimming his feet before we realised he would happily let us do it when lied down with a bucket of food, of course you could only do two at a time, depending the way he was lied, but patience is better used than brute force with a bull.

Once he refused to go in the cattle crush for his Brucellosis test and once a bull refuses you leave 'em be and try again another day. I was unaware of his refusal and when a vet turned up on farm as I was getting the cows in to milk, to redo his test and no one was around. I just got a bucket of meal and Simon happily followed me into the cattle crush. I dropped the bucket at the right moment and the vet took blood from under his tail. The farmer I worked for turned up, just as we had finished the job, amazed that we had got him in the crush, because he had really not wanted to go in it a few days earlier. I would of loved to think it was me that got him in the crush, but I had to give credit where credit is due and that was to a bucket meal.

The near miss I had with Simon was in the parlour. Simon could open the parlour door, so you had to remember to put the chain on it every time you let cows in. One day I had let cows in, with all stalls full and busy,  I was between two cows to turn around to see Simon looking at me, I had forgot to chain the door, he had let himself in and I had no where to go. Right behind me was two milking jars and either side of me a cow and no stall for Simon. His head was inches from me and if you know anything about animals you keep to the front of a horse and the back of a cow and you won't go far wrong. All Simon needed to do was toss his massive head and I could be gone. 

My biological father was a butcher by trade and did home slaughters for people. One day when my Mum was still married to him, he was called to a farm to slaughter a Hereford bull. The bull had killed the farmer and his wife wanted the bull destroyed. The workman spoke to my biological father about what had happened, as he had witnessed the bull killing the farmer and it was very sad. The bull had not killed the farmer in anger, but the farmer had gone in with him and due to his good temper was giving his head a rub, but had misjudged how close he was to a wall. The bull stepped forward enjoying his head being rubbed, forgetting his own strength and leaned his head and full weight against the farmer against the wall, crushing him to death. So with that story in my head, I found myself in much the same situation with Simon.

 I knew if he decided to step towards me any further, just toss his head, I would be lucky to survive such actions. I stood as still as statue waiting for Simon to decide what he was going to do and in that moment as he was watching my every breath, everything stood still and he knew he had me stuck, but he decided to let me run alive, walking on  past giving me enough time to get a cow out and allow him a stall. He had decided twas best not to squat the hand that fed him and also was very good at scratching his bottom. 

Simon was so huge that he over time bowed every doorway out of the parlour stalls.  The only time he broke into a trot was when courting the ladies and one other time when half a dozen bulls being reared for beef got in the yard with him and his harem. He gave us a truly awesome display of his immense strength. These bulls were nearly ready to go and were all clocking in around a ton in weight each. Simon pushed one of them against a wall got his head under their belly and flicked them up in the air like they were as light as a feather. The bull landed on his back disorientated and was a little sore for a day or two after.  Simon was such a lovely bull and he taught me a lot and the number one lesson with a bull is try to avoid ever getting yourself between a bull and a hard place.

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Primrose, Henry, Jessica and Dolly