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JANUARY 2023 - Happy New Year
Updated: Feb 4
1-30-23 Well with the first month of the new year nearing it's end this will be my last post for this month; ending on a good note in that after Nico leaves for his forever home on Wednesday, Feb. 1 we will have just Max & Misty still here as possible show prospects. This past Saturday was Gotcha Day for Nikki, Minnie, and Murphy and all went well. Got Nikki (new name to be GRACIE) to the airport at 11 am to meet with a member of her new family, then home by noon. Connie Schmidt came around 12:30 for Minnie (new name JOVIE). . . .and she brought Coda with her (a previous puppy of ours from Camie's "G" litter) It was great to be able to see her and in full coat to boot. She looks and feels just like her mama Camie and is tiny. At just over 5 lbs I think she could stand to lose a few ounces. I'm thinking that Minnie will grow up to be about the same size. Connie stayed and visited until about 2:30, and shortly after 3 pm Murphy's new family came to take him home. Jen Madsen is her name, a lady that was born and raised here in Omaha but now lives in Arizona. It was love at first sight when she saw and held Murphy and a text from her this morning informed me that she and Murphy (now ENZO) got back to Arizona and that he is adjusting well.
I'm all set to go to the dog show in Des Moines in mid February, but just not looking forward to it at all. It could partially be the winter weather blahs making me not wanting to go anywhere, but also there is the idea of seeing Kathy there putting a dark cloud over my head. Connie from across the street is supposed to be going with me, but has not mentioned it again since her "yes, I'm ready let's do it" which spurred me to enter and make arrangements. She's got anxiety and depression issues keeping her unable to go back to work since last year, and her seeming lack of interest is also curbing my enthusiasm about going. And then there is the pups.. I entered Max and being a 4-6 month beginner puppy probably doesn't matter much if he's not perfect. But it bothers me that yet once again he/the pups in my litters seem to be getting the black ticking in the white hair and seems always there is some where it CAN NOT BE. Misty seems okay so far but not knowing if she would still be here I didn't enter her and I also want to give her coat a chance to grow and fill out. Curiosity about her coat is one of the main reasons I am holding on to her. Anyway, I would be perfectly fine to skip this show in Des Moines. still have a few weeks before, so we'll see what happens.
That's about it for January.. . . . . . .
1-21-23 So happy to say that now NICO has a forever home waiting for him and better yet, he will be going to live with his 1/2 brother Levi! Happiness is . . . . . . .!!! That leaves Misty and Max that I suppose I will hold on to for a while longer to see how she/they mature. I am worried that the black ticking will start showing up to prominently (especially on Max) ruining any chance of them being show quality. We will see I suppose. The pups with new homes will be leaving in just a week, and I am SO looking forward to them leaving and having my house back to some normalcy. Oh it's been a LOUD month or more!
Camie is still here and since my last post about having her here, she developed (oddly enough) similar symptoms to what Barb was experiencing; diarrhea and blood in her stools. After two days with no improvement I took her to her vet and got meds and special low fat diet. Seems she had gastrointestinal issues caused by the stress of her new environment (as I suspected), but also low grade pancreatitis, which is why the special diet. She seems better but so far since her vet visit, instead of diarrhea she hasn't had any bowel movements yet.
Nothing else, just happy to report that Nico has a forever home waiting for him.
1/18/23 5 down and two(?) to find homes for. . . . . or maybe just one for now. Molly, Murphy, Minnie, Noel, and Nikki have been adopted leaving Nico and Misty available and keeping Max here. However, since the lady interested in Misty is iffy at best, I'm thinking that I will hold on to her for the time being to see if she matures nice enough for show. I am really curious how her coat will turn out; not only the foxy look to her face, but her coat in general seems different than the other pups and I'm thinking it might be nice and more on silky- like. The hair on her muzzle is definitely growing and her facial markings and color are great, so she's staying at least for a while. Molly has gone to her forever home and I'm told is adjusting well. We've still got the others here for 8-10 more days before they leave. The girls from the N litter are only 10 weeks old which is why they will be here and Minnie and Murphy's families travel arrangements just worked out to be picked up on the 28th. Hopefully the weather will be good so as not to mess with these pick up plans. We're expected to get a pretty good snowfall today; better now than in a week or so.
As if we don't have enough dogs in the house, Barb had to go to the hospital earlier this week so we are taking care of Camie for her until she is up to having her back home. Barb was in the hospital for a couple of days and home now, but needs to build up her strength & stamina before Camie comes home. I'm guessing she will be here til the weekend at least.
That's about it; our lives are consumed with dogs and puppies these days. As much as I love puppies, it will be nice to have the house back in order and some semblance of quiet when then leave.
1-13-23 Well, seems I will likely be heading to Des Moines in mid February for their dog show; Connie is going with me. Christine messaged me yesterday about it and convinced me to go, well all it really took was knowing someone I knew would be going as well. I went ahead and entered Winston even though I'm leery about taking him somewhere that Kathy might be convincing myself that I just need to "rip off the bandage" so to speak and get that first uncomfortable time over with. Not sure if or when I will hear anymore from her about our co-ownership of Winston but I sure don't want it to be in public at a dog show. She is usually at the Des Moines show so I assume she will be there, but hoping she will NOT be. Des Moines is also having a 4-6 month Beginner puppy show, so I'm probably going to take/show Max as well. He will be just a couple days past 4 months old and with the weather the way it is, not to mention so many pups in the house to get any real training in, we'll see how it goes. But if nothing else he will get the experience of the show noises, sites, smells, and all that goes with it.
A wedding tomorrow for great niece Didi Marchio; totally thought it wasn't until the 19th for some reason so it snuck up on me. Have nothing (new) to wear and would love to just stay home, but know it will be fine going once we are there. Ceremony is at 2:30 with dinner/reception "following", so hopefully we can sneak out and get home earlier rather than later.
I have a couple more puppy nibbles. The lady asking about Misty from seeing her on the puppies website stopped by yesterday. She was definitely in love with my dogs/puppies and we got along great. She has a Biewer that has that same "foxy" look to her face which I think is what drew her to Misty. She left saying she will have to look at her finances so nothing set in stone as of today yet. And an email inquiry came through inquiring about Murphy. The person was born and raised in Omaha but now lives in Arizona so she is having her aunt stop by to see Murhpy this weekend. Fingers are crossed that he will find his forever home with her.
1-10-23 I am less freaked out now about fearing I would have many pups left to find homes for as they get older. I placed them up as available on FB, my website, and in feeling desperate I went ahead and listed them on puppies.com. I did receive one inquiry (for Misty) from that website that is currently in progress to see if the person/puppy will be a good fit. Pretty sure two of the other inquires came through via my website and happily those turned into sales of Molly and Noelle. Both went to local families; Molly left for her forever home yesterday, Noel will stay until she is 12 weeks old. I had also sent out emails to each of the applications I had received earlier last year when I had no puppies available asking they be put on my waitlist. One person replied stating that they had already gotten a puppy elsewhere (which I assumed would be the case for all/most). Surprisingly I did receive a reply from one lady yesterday still waiting for a puppy and just like that, Nikki has a forever home waiting for her too!! What a relief and load off my mind knowing now I only have 3 puppies left to find homes for. Thank you Lord. . . .
With that said it pretty much leaves me with just Max as my "keeper" puppy. When I look at his bite I can't say it looks perfect to me so I am waiting for the adult teeth to come in before I can say for sure. What a bummer it will be if it's not good, but then again I still am not sure how many shows I am going to get to this year. They are to young and it's to cold to think about going anywhere anytime soon, so we'll just wait and see for now.
Our life is pretty much consumed these days with being home with the puppies giving them many times of free run play throughout each day so that's all the news I have for now.
1-4-22 New year starts with our M and N litters still keeping us busy. They are now almost 12 weeks and 9 weeks old and it's beginning to freak me out a bit that only one of them has a forever home with no other inquiries for the others. It always freaks me out a bit at this age when I have puppies still available, BUT this time with so many to find homes for I'm even more nervous. I'm not sure what the problem is; I have them listed on my website and put photos on Facebook often enough with only a few inquiries and no buyers. All I can think of is that the holidays and Christmas spending is slowing down the puppy buyers. Hopefully soon more applications will start showing up. The pups are as cute as can be of course, fluffy bundles of wild and crazy fun. Mamas Skye & Dolly are done with them though so it's up to me and Jim to keep them entertained with free run times throughout the day.
I'm not sure if it's the stress of the puppies still not sold or the fact that getting to shows will be less often, and the fact that I really don't want to take him to a show that I know Kathy may be at, but lately I've been thinking that maybe I will retire Winston from showing & not bother with getting his GCHS title. There is also the fact that none of the female puppies stood out enough as possible show prospects which also made me wonder/think about just not doing any showing anymore, or at least for a while. I'm just kind of down about it all and I'm not sure what to do. I love showing, but my lack of ability to travel very far for the shows makes it difficult to get to enough shows, maybe making it not worth the effort. Time will tell. . . . .maybe when the weather gets nice again I will get dog show fever.
We had our sibling Christmas gathering/gift exchange AFTER Christmas (on January 2nd) like last year. It was another fun gathering with Jim and Duffy hosting. Dodie and I ended up shopping for our gift exchange gifts together one day the week before the party and oddly enough ended up with each others gifts in the L-R-C game we play. That was funny but worked out nicely as we both knew we would like the gift we received.
Nothing much else besides puppy playtime and trying to stay warm in these first few days of the new year. I've always considered January as the downhill time to winter ending. Looking forward to longer days and warmer weather to come.