Rini's puppies are four weeks old

From 2010-11-28

We're having so much fun! Rini & Henry's babies are four weeks old and SO much fun. They love to play, and terrorize their siblings, and give kisses and cuddles. They're very aware of our presence and they love to be picked up whenever they are awake. Everyone is healthy and gaining weight steadily. They're eating solid food (well, mush) now but Momma Rini still nurses them about once a day. We have a puppy or two still available from this litter, so if you're interested, please visit our website.

More puppy photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/johannah.gage/20101128#

Fathom: Looking for Love

Baby Fathom - photo by Holly Curran

Moka's brother Fathom is looking for someone to love him. Well, he has people who love him right here, but he wants his own home where he will get more attention and his sisters will not beat him up!

Fathom is six months old, a blue brindle over fawn, and about the sweetest boy you ever met. He loves to jump up in the air, will snuggle forever, and gets along with everyone he has ever met. He's crate trained, mostly housetrained, leash trained, and has had all his shots. Both parents are cardiac and CERF (eye) clear.

Photo by Kevin Harris

He needs either a home with other dogs or someone who will be home pretty much all day -- he's not used to being all alone. Fathom is a show prospect puppy, but no kennels, please. Our show puppies have to be pets first. Fill out our questionnaire and contact Sharyn if you're interested -- he is at Timbreblue in Virginia.

If you're looking for a younger puppy, Jo still has a couple of really cute babies available at Timbreblue South, ready to go home in January. See posts below for details.These puppies are in South Carolina, but will be in Virginia for a puppy party the week after Christmas!

Woo-Hoo Moka and Beca!

Moka, who is officially Timbreblue Abraxas Mocha Martini, and her owner Beca Zaun ventured out to the Columbus, Ohio, dog shows this weekend. Moka just turned six months old on the 15th, so she is 'barely legal" for these shows. None of us expected much except that she have a good time and get experience.

Baby Moka

Well, the first day, Moka won her class but she was the only one in it. But she had a good time and Beca had a good time. But on Friday, Team Moka took winner's bitch and best of winners for three points! This is highly unusual for a puppy. Usually the judge goes for a more mature dog. But lest we think it was a one-off or that the judge just liked Beca, today they won a reserve to a four-point major, which means that in the event that the winner is unable to fulfill her duties -- well, you know all that -- then Moka gets the points. (That hardly ever happens, but it has been known to, in the case of the dog having been entered in the wrong class or some such)

We're proud of you, Beca and Moka! Good luck tomorrow!

UPDATE: And on day four, Moka got another four-point reserve. Not bad for a baby! We're planning to repeat this breeding next summer!

Puppies' first playtime!

This is a video of Rini & Henry's three week old puppies having their first playtime. They are awfully cute! We have two puppies from this litter available, and they will be ready to go home in mid-January. Visit our website if you're interested.

New puppy photos!

From Rini's puppies -- week three

A few new photos of our nearly-three-week-old puppies. These are Rini & Henry's puppies and they are at SUCH a cute age! They are very inquisitive and funny. They're trying to play, which mostly involves one puppy opening her mouth and falling over onto another puppy's head. We do still have a couple of puppies available, let us know if you are interested.

ARRRRGH These girls!

So two days ago Ivy was sleeping on the sofa and Party jumped up on top of her. Ivy leaped up with a WTF!, Party responded with, "Don mess wit me, ole lady!" and they were off. I happened to be on the sofa at the time too, so I grabbed each one by the collar and yanked them apart -- no major damage. Ivy had a little gash on her head above her eye and Party got a small wound on her leg (her Decotog pajamas took most of the damage). Nothing bled much, so I just separated them till they cooled off, lectured Ivy on how she was too freaking old for all this -- she will be 15 in January -- and forgot the whole incident.

Till tonight at 10:30 pm. I was getting everyone settled for bed in the living room when I noticed spots of blood. Assuming it was Juliet coming in season, I marched her off to the dog room and proceeded to clean up the spots. But they seemed to be multiplying rather than going away. Finally it got through to me that the source must not be Juliet after all and I began checking everyone else. Ivy had apparently scratched her head on a shrub during her last nature's call outside and opened up the wound on her head. I took her in the kitchen (tile floor) to put some pressure on it with paper towels. It wouldn't stop bleeding. This went on for a good five or ten minutes, until I finally went up to tell Walt I wasn't coming to bed right away.

He came down and took over holding the paper towels, but we decided we were going to need some help. Called the emergency vet in Lynchburg and loaded Ivy and me in the back of the car. Walt drove. But about the time we got over the first mountain, we realized that Ivy had stopped bleeding. So we turned around, came home and called the emergency vet to tell them we thought we had it under control.

But we can't leave Ivy alone now because she's likely to rub her head with her paw since it hurts. So here I sit with her for the first shift. She looks like something that just emerged from a fight in the pit, with dried blood caked all over her face and head. Around four Walt will get up and take over the watch while I get some sleep, and when our regular vet opens, I'll run her up there for some stitches, which I obviously should have done two days ago.

As Roseanne Rosannadanna says, "It just goes to show ya', it's always somethin'. If it's not one thing, it's another thing..."

Oh, Party? She's sleeping like a baby in the living room.

PS If you go to the Decotogs site and click on SNUGGLIES AND PULLOVERS, you'll see the cutest whippet and min pin up in the corner, modeling their pullovers. That would be our Jetty and his "sister" Lucy, who belong to Lynn and Jason in Ohio! (Jetty was Flint in the Gemstone litter.) All our dogs highly recommend Decotogs. They say no whippet's life is complete without fleece pajamas!

White whippets and Hamlet

Seeing all of Jo's little white pups makes me think of our first whippet, Hamlet. What Hammie lacked for the show ring, he certainly made up for in personality. Put him in a crate and he would smush his nose up against the bars and make a pig face. Leave him behind and he'd make the most peculiar noises -- almost birdlike, but definitely unhappy! He lived to ride in the car and would wait patiently for hours while we shopped. Although he never finished his championship, he took Johannah to many, many wins in Junior Showmanship, though she had to work for every one of them,,,Hamlet believed in making things challenging for her.

For starters, I could not be anywhere in the building. Though he loved Jo dearly, when he went in the ring, you would have thought he was my dog. he whined and flipped and turned around in circles looking for me. The only way to prevent this act was for me to simply leave the building (and make sure he saw me leave!) And oh, did he love to give her a hard time. She'd have him perfectly set up on the table in the ring, and he'd move a foot. She'd fix that one and he'd move another one. And on and on and on.

When Jo grew up and moved to Boston, Hamlet went with her. When she moved to Indiana, he went with her. When she moved back to Columbia, he went with her. But when she married and moved in with Derek, there he drew the line. He began chewing his foot, making it bloody. He tore up a dog bed and spread it around the house. He forgot to be housebroken. (Keep in mind, this was a ten-year-old dog by now!)

Finally Jo threw up her hands and asked if he could come live with me, at least till his foot healed. As soon as he arrived here, the foot-chewing stopped, he never destroyed another thing, and he remembered to pee outside. Frankly, I think he was just tired of moving! Or maybe he just wanted to retire with Mom. He knew he had my number. Jo took much less nonsense from him!

Hamlet had a terrible heart murmur (we never bred him, obviously) but lived to two months shy of 15 years old. When he was 13, he collapsed and was paralyzed. We put him on prednisone, I held him in the porch swing and cried for hours. It was a Friday night and the vet said to wait till Monday and see how he was. By Monday he was lifting his head, and within two weeks, he was walking. From then on, he lurched like a drunken sailor, but he was one happy dog. Walt took him for walks every day, though we could not trust him off-lead. It was amazing how fast he could disappear even with his zombie-like gait.

The day Walt had to carry him back to the house, we knew it was time to let go. He's buried next to Judy Street Dog, U-CDX, but since they really didn't like each other much, we put a board between their graves. We used to joke that they were beating each other up with their walkers. Neither was strong enough to get in much of a punch, but they'd occasionally go a short round.

We still miss you terribly, Hammie. I wonder if you have come back in one of those little white puppies of Rini's.

Puppies Available!

Daughter Johannah still has a couple of Rini's puppies available, ready to go home in mid-January. None have been "assigned" to homes yet, so we can't tell you who is available, but it will likely be some of the ones here.

If you're interested, check out our price & guarantee, fill out our questionnaire, and give Jo a call at 803-445-1713. These puppies are in South Carolina but can be picked up either there or at our house in Lexington, Virginia.

Ashley corrections and two more pix

A note from Bobbie tells me I got some of the alphabet soup wrong:

BIF, DC, UGRCH Appraxin Callaban Kristobel UAGII, UCD, CD, MC, NA, NAJ, NAP, OJP, LCM3, CGC, V-FCH, TT, CAVX

Slight correction on Ashley's titles:
CH, UGRCH, URO2, UAGII, Timbreblue Windrydr Biker Girl, CD, SC, RA, NA, NAJ, NAP, NJP, FCH, CGC, TT

Is there nothing Bobbie's dogs can't do?

Congratulations, Ashley!

The cake says it all: From three Best of Breed wins one weekend to a CD (Companion Dog obedience title) the next! 

Ashley belongs to Bobbie and Fred Lutz, Winchester, VA, who also owned her father Calvin, known formally as DC, UGRCH Appraxin Callaban Kristobel UAGII, UCD, CD, MC, NA, NAJ, NAP, OJP, LCM3, CGC, V-FCH. As you can see, overachieving runs in the family! (By the way, all those titles mean Calvin was a dual champion, he competed in both AKC, UKC (United Kennel Club), and ASFA (American Sighthound Field Association) events, and he won in conformation, obedience, lure coursing, and agility. He also achieved his Total Dog title from UKC, won Best in Field in AKC & ASFA, and was first place in the American Whippet Club's (AWC) Triathlon 2004and received the AWC Versatility Excellent award. 

Ashley has a little ways to go to reach her father's record, but we are pretty impressed with her titles now! She is CH UGRCH Timbreblue Windrydr Biker Girl CD, RN, SC, NAJ, FCh, UAG1, CGC, having made her marks in conformation, agility, rally, obedience, and lure coursing, as well as earning her Canine Good Citizen title. 

Ashley was born here at Timbreblue on February 24, 2005. She was the most active, mischievous puppy in Diamond's litter, and when Bobbie told me she wanted one with "drive," I said, "Do I have the puppy for you!"

We are so proud of Ashley and are grateful that she ended up with Bobbie and Fred, who realized her potential and have given the time, energy and money to allow her to "chase the dream." Here are a few of our favorite photos of her.