the last couple of months have been pretty emotional, with puppies growing up quickly and becoming increasingly demanding of everyone, the noise, the mess and chaos, but almost as quickly as they came, they have all gone. well, all but one, little sambona.

i can't believe it will be november next week, one minute it was the middle of summer, the next the autumn chill, longer nights and wood burning fires, at least at the weekend.

my figures back at least, almost anyway, just a little slack there, but tobes has been taking me on some longer walks and a couple of runs around battersea park, so it won't be long before i'm back to my normal shape!

it was strange really, seeing the pups go, on the one paw i was very sad, but on the other i was relieved. there was no gradual departure, strangers would arrive, see the puppies and then one would go. i was not quite sure what was going on at first, but when i saw them being placed into a another car, i guessed it meant they were going to a new home. the new owners all seemed very pleasant, they smelled ok and were very friendly to me, so i was ok about it. tobes said some had sent photos of the growing pups which was nice to hear, i hope that i might see one or two of them again; i believe some live quite close by?

last weekend was the first calm(ish) weekend we'd all had since the pups were born on 26th july, but toby was busy cleaning, walking little sambona and teaching her to go to the loo outside! i was so surprised to see her little face when we arrived at ronnie's on the friday night. ronnie was working, so linda was looking after the dogs and she brought 'sammie' over to the car. to be honest, I was not sure about having her in the car, she kept climbing onto toby's lap while he was driving, so i tried to tell her off, but i think tobe thought i was going to hurt her so he told me to be quiet! can't win. anyway, once we arrived home i took her on a little walk around the cottage in the dark, i want to teach her to hunt. but no sooner had we said hello properly we were playing, she's a little devil with very sharp teeth, it was so lovely to be with her.

7 week itch!

pups are 7 weeks old on tuesday and i am in a quandary, as i love them and at the same time, i hope toby finds some wonderful homes for them!

toby has said one can stay, but i'm not sure......i'm also not sure whether i would prefer a boy or a girl? hmmm.......

we've had a lot of visitors, friends, family and prospective puppy owners.

ronnie has been over a few times which has been wonderful. he also brought a couple of cages for the kitchen

toby built a fabulous run in mary's garden - i hope he asked her...... she seems very happy to see the pups

over the past few weeks we've been weaning the pups off their milk and weaning me of milking!

their teeth are very sharp and i have had a few little cuts as a result. up until last week, i was only feeding them once or twice a day and only for about a minute as i could not take much more. oddly though, i've started regurgitating my food for them, not quite sure why i do this, leaves me the option of starving until the next meal or eating it again.....not my favourite i'm relieved to say that i'm not milking now. but more importantly i am begining to look like my old self as my teats have reduced in size, phewee!

on that side of things, i'm now having daily walks into the fields which is wonderful. may be not as long as i was used to, but a lovely contrast to the garden, which although beautiful, i do like to stretch my legs and chase the odd rabbit - in fact on saturday night while walking with tobe we spotted a rabbit and so i gave chase.....sadly i am out of shape and even though my teats are smaller they swing round like shopping bags between your legs.

here are the pups:

chebbi (girl)

deka (boy)

grogan (boy)

mazoe (girl)

ndola (girl)

pemba (girl)

salisbury (girl)

sambona (girl)

selous (boy) now called "hoofy"

days 14-19 seeing the daylight

yep, as the title suggests all my little nippers eyes are open and although there seems to be a little confusion, they can see! and combined with their little leg muscles developing, they are really starting to move around the pen, making it hard to lay down without sitting on them!!

i was really sad when i found out toby could not make it back on wednesday night : ( fiona told me he'd hurt is back, which i was worried about too, so i was very relieved and happy when he arrived last night, yay! i was so excited to see his reaction when he saw the pups, as they've grown so much, so quickly.

tobes popped down at about 430 this morning as the pups were making such a racket! but all was ok - always lovely to see him, although he made me laugh, he was still half asleep and butt naked - fortunately the pups eyes were closed at the time!!

we had a busy saturday morning, tobes building a bigger pen while i fed the pups. his mum, harriette, arrived later to see us all and lend a hand - tobe was not his usual agile self ; ) they weighed all the pups, gave them new collars and some needed their nails clipped - when's he going to get round to doing mine, does he really expect to bite them?!











so much going on today - tobe also gave the pups a meal of processed puppy food and water, they loved it, but trying to keep them clean was impossible, some had climbed into the bowl! so while tobe picked them out, i licked them clean - but the food was so nice, as soon as the pups stopped eating i dived in!! cant's waste it ; )


later tobe placed the pups in their new kennel. i was a little concerned as i did not really understand what he was doing and i could not see them. but he lifted the lid for me to see them all curled up asleep, so i relaxed a little and enjoyed a moment to myself until the next feed.


even so, i was relieved to see them clamber out of the little door way when they woke, pee on the newspaper and walk over to me for their milk. tobe was there to guide them, i think he could tell i was anxious, but i needn't be, he'd never let me down.

tobes said i should put some photos up of me, in my former glory, pre dugs for britain!! can't wait to get back out into the hills, chase a few rabbits, hares, may be even a deer =))

days 6-12 - growing pains

long days and long nights, bouts of deep deep sleep, then lengthy feed sessions, followed by cleaning and i mean a lot of cleaning......including the things the pups leave behind!

the week was mixed, toby went up to london for a meeting on monday, back down that night, and then away again on wednesday, only to be back friday. i miss him when he's away, especially now with all the pups. i'm lucky to have fiona here looking after us all, but it's just that for 4.5 years i've been almost everywhere with tobes.  hope it's not always like this?

so nice to sit in the sun, at least for a few minutes!

weekends are very busy, lots of visitors. yesterday, toby's brother max popped by, then jenny came to stay and then friends of toby's from new zealand - who currently live in dubai - donna, andy, fin, maya and riley (hope i've got the spelling right??). and of course mary pops in most days, though i think i must have been asleep when she came in? anyway, i was knackered by the time everyone had left, slept like a log last night!

in my own basket at last

had a yummy leg of lamb today. jenny cooked a roast, smelled sooo delicious, my mouth was watering! such a contrast to dried dog food, which although good, it is a little dull. having said that, toby has been adding mince to my food, so that's been an improvement....but for how long?

diet obviously ok though, they're all growing though, ranging from miss grey at 850g yesterday up to 1200g for both mr yellow and mr turquoise.

huddling together for comfort and warmth



however, what's good for the pups may not be so good for me. weighed myself today 46kg! normally around 41kg and my teats are huge! hope i'm gonna be able to get rid of these in a few weeks??? hydrotherapy is apparently the answer, i'll have to make sure toby sorts this out for me once i've weaned the pups off the milk. weaning starts next week, thank the lord! yes, that's right, week three starts on wednesday.

adorable while they sleep!










naming, well that's a challenge. i know toby's got to register a kennel name and names for each puppy - i wonder if he'll like the ones i've chosen? it's very exciting! but even more so, mr white (collar) opened his eyes on friday! fiona was the first to see him and mary popped in and saw them open too. some of the others are starting to open their eyes, very slowly. still, i doubt they'll be seeing very much for a while still.

they sleep everywhere and anywhere

days 2-5 it's been a howler of a week!

wowee! haven't stopped, think i've slept, just not sure when, some point between feeding, but then that never stops....as soon as one rolls over, belly full, and sleeps, another pipes up and fumbles their way over for a feed. that is unless it goes off in the wrong direction and starts yelling for help, but then they're deaf and can't hear my calls, i can't move as i'll disturb those i'm feeding, nightmare!! luckily toby is always around, although in the past few days i've also had mary, bel and linda too which has been fun.

toby's taken to sleeping on the kitchen floor, with boxers and a t-shirt which makes a change, couldn't have him strutting his stuff in front of the children, eyes closed or not! but then, am i really that bothered, perfectly natural, anyway, what am i wittering on about?? it's this pesky pups you know.... point is, even through the night, he wakes up runs over and either picks up a pup who's trapped behind me, or gives me a much needed drink. too tired sometimes to get up myself...plus i end up with pups suspended in the air when i stand up, boy can they suck! but then dropping off which is not great i guess?

enjoying my moments of respite when i have a loo break, good to see the daylight, smell the fresh air and scents in mary's beautiful garden. so lucky really to have this space. better than london for this sort of thing, though i miss my friends along the river and parks. see them soon i hope?

gonna take a while to get back into shape, not sure how long i'll be feeding like this for, but at least 6 weeks...just over 5 to go!! even though i'm eating like a trojan, i feel my life being sucked out of me. apparently i need nearly 4000 calories per day at the moment, going up to over 7000!! that's around 2kg of food each day, over 4 times what i'm used to?!

pups all have collars on now, i think it makes it easier for toby to work out who's who, seems pretty clear to me?? anyway, i'll leave you with some more photos, must pop outside for a moment...

in no particular order (got to sort out some names!!) a shot of the ridge, followed by their cute little faces...such a proud mother (sadly camera run out of battery so missing the last one!!) these were taken on thursday, so no collars sadly.

day 1 - birthday

tobes was still away when it all kicked off! i'd been digging in the mary's garden and not eating, but he still did not realise what this meant, so i decided that enough was enough, walked into my lovely whelping basket and dropped a couple of pups, ha!

i heard fiona call toby on the phone almost immediately.....although i wanted to get him down, i now felt a little lost having started this without him...... oh well, he's a fast driver, he'll be here soon enough, hopefully in time to see the rest???....i have no idea how many, but they sure do weigh a lot!

a boy and a girl, one of each perfect! they felt pretty heavy.... i'd forgotten they can't open their eyes right away, but they still found their way straight onto my teats, yowzer!

3 more have popped out, but still no sign of toby, what's he doing!! blood everywhere, i'm trying to keep it clean, but there's only so much licking i can do.... fiona's doing really well helping me (not licking!!). not sure i an stomach much more of the placenta though...

i can hear the truck..... wehey, toby's here!! so excited to see him and show him my pups - oops, perhaps i shouldn't have jumped out of the basket, i've left my pups squealling! so hard not to tread on them and sit down without crushing them, they're tinie....

7 pups now

one of the pups being born....

0604 wednesday morning, well tired! tobes has been with me the whole time though, sitting on a wooden chair next to my bed. i really need the loo, too tired to move!!


9 pups, phewee!!! i think that's it? i sure hope it is! all weighing between 350-500g, that's nearly 4.5kg of pups!!