Laureate Shelties Blog
A bit of this, a bit of that...with a lot of free spirits.
Christmas came early for us here. Ch Lynphil Major Distraction had two girls and a boy yesterday sired by Am Ch Brandina Carmylie Double Digit. Mother and babies are doing very well. The boy is on the right in the group shots.
Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season.
Aerial view of our newest litter sired by GCh Rosmoor Protocol x Laureate Longoria (Eva). Eva is our Notorious daughter and this litter is very special to us as she missed the first three times bred. We knew we had to try once more as two of the breedings had been with chilled semen, something we haven't had luck with (yet). Last night I felt like we'd won the lottery. Such a nice size litter and even in both sex and colour. We are absolutely delighted.
The fellow in the middle looks either bi coloured or he's going to have very dark tan...the blue male is on the left. Twelve hours old and I think they spent a lot of time wandering looking for their mother. Eva is unsure of what to do with them yet and spent the night circling the box trying not to squish them.
The girls...
The first tri girl. This one took quite a while before she gasped her first breath...I was worried. I just love her, she is very fancy on the off show side...
Girls
More of the girls
The boys...
Lots of black in the box
Christmas came early for us!
Happy Holidays
I introduced Miley's puppy to the Paris litter yesterday and it was a precious moment. They wanted to nurse from her and she seemed intrigued by them. So hoping to duplicate this on camera I put them all together on a piece of fleece.
Well they hadn't been fed recently and I soon realized this was not going to be a successful photo shoot. They must have learned yesterday that Miley's pup wouldn't provide food so they were hunting all around the fleece for milk. Miley's pup didn't quite know what to make of these guys with their faces planted in the fabric.
I went to get Paris and it took the pups awhile to lift their heads up and realize their Mom was there. Miley's pup wondered if there was enough to go around. :-)
Miley's girl will be 4 weeks old on Thursday and she is has
benefited from having her mother all to herself.
Singleton puppies are often larger, so we're not too worried about size (yet).
She is still as sweet as can be. We'll see if her size moderates once she is on solid food.
Our guests were driving down the driveway when we looked out the window and saw TWO otters! (see post below)
The last time we saw the otters by the creek was Nov 30, 2008; see the pictures
here. We had been preparing for visitors when we spotted two of them out the window. By the time the guests arrived they were gone.
This time as luck would have it, we had guests here and they spotted the otter! A quick dash to grab the camera and he was gone.
Soon he emerged from the water with his catch...
Nom nom nom
I didn't realize we had big fish in the creek...
Making a mess...he left some and the crows came and polished it off.
Seeing the otter is a rare and special treat; I'm glad our Australian nephew was able to see it!
Pete spent a good part of this summer trimming and clearing out dead branches and trees; it is an ongoing task and could be a full time job. He noticed the other day that one of the large willows by the creek sheared off in the high winds we had last week and went down to have a look.
It hadn't been down a day or two that a beaver came upon it and started using it to sharpen his teeth. Notice the small trees surrounding it that have been taken down also.
This tree had some mesh protection by the former owner, but had outgrown it. We had not wrapped the big willows thinking they were safe...I guess not!
Their teeth are so sharp it looks like they can cut the small branches with one chomp. Beavers are incredibly destructive rodents, and while I thought they were pretty neat when I was a kid, I've since changed my mind about them. Now they are just a
nuisance.
Wrapped and hopefully safe. Pete said that the small trees were taken away. I don't know where the beavers lodge or dam is.
Snapshot from the balcony today. We have just a dusting of snow compared to our friends in Southern Ontario who have been hit with almost a years worth of snow in the last few days. The beaver better not touch the oak trees we planted (and wrapped) or it will be made into a hat!
Paris' newest litter is divided in two by size. We have the two littlest ones weighing around 10 ounces and then the two big boys at 15 and 16 plus ounces. They were a bit grubby this morning, so they all had their first bath and blow dry. I kept them in the "incubator" (a large cooler with a heating pad) to stay warm, but you can see the little girl wasn't quite warm enough yet. She went back in with Paris to stay warm.
She is still the smallest, and she appears to me to be one that could be on the smaller side at maturity. Just a hunch. All I can do is observe, while I have people waiting patiently in the wings for me to decide which puppy is for them.
The biggest boy on top. These fellows are fat and doing well on their mothers milk. I wonder if the big boy going to be big later, or moderate once he is weaned. It is a waiting game...lots of time for things to change.
They just seem like such joyous animals. It was pouring rain, and they were rolling around having a ball.
Once again marking his territory! They slipped into the water right afterwards...
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