We have been having an eventful summer with the pups still on rest and with continued ops, but finally they are both officially fit and well with fully functioning legs :o) Sadly, we also passed the first anniversary of Bran's leaving us :o( We've been able to meet up with lots of friends and we had a couple of FABULOUS afternoons, thanks to
Kate.
As I probably explained way back in the beginning, Faith was always due to have a litter this year as she is slightly older than Lara. Kate very very kindly allowed us to visit the pups first when they were 4 weeks old and again when they were about 7 1/2 weeks old. I cannot begin to tell you just how much this meant to me as it meant that I got to see some Ardenbrook puppies in the flesh and see exactly how a litter were raised before it was the Cheese litter. It really brought home to me just how importantly Kate views her "job" with the puppies before they go to their homes and I was gobsmacked at just how wonderful they were becoming because of the efforts that she'd already put in.
Anyway. Our first visit. I was ridiculously excited and was most definitely not disappointed. As you can see, they were terrible, awful puppies that we couldn't bear to snuggle.......much ;o)
 |
| Jailed! Their crime? Being too cute! |
 |
| Play time |
 |
| Bundle |
 |
| Mass play time |
 |
| Shhhh! Sleepy times |
 |
| Time for zizzes all round.....but there's a pup missing! |
 |
| Hmmmm. Little yellow boy just HAD to have a Sophie cuddle |
It was an incredible privilege to spend time with these fabulous pups who were bright, healthy, confident little creatures and amazing to identify their personality types. We were sure that we could already see what sort of dogs they were all going to grow up to be. Kate, however, knew better and kindly said nothing ;o)
We got to spend some time with Lara, Kalli and Summer after puppy and coffee time and I was utterly bowled over at how beautifully Kalli had matured in the 8 months since we'd last seen her. She was absolutely stunning and took my breath away. She was a wonderful personality too and made me laugh with her antics as she played with her mum, Lara. It made me excited to imagine that my Cheese could be as fabulous as this gorgeous girl. A lovely end to our special visit :o)
4 weeks later and we returned. This time, we were going to help by wearing hi viz jackets and big hats to help desensitise the pups to the strange things. Before the dressing up started though, we got to spend some time with all 5 of the growed up girls and that was just wonderful. There's nothing quite like walking into a house, sitting on the floor and being mobbed by kissy labradors.....bliss! We then went outside and caught sight of the puppies and.........oh my word!! I'd thought they were cute and adorable before but they were even more so now! And they all had names, so Kate introduced us to each of them and pointed out the girl that she was planning to keep. I was a bit taken aback as I'd thought she was planning to keep a pup from the Cheese litter so when she uttered the words "Ah. Yes. I need to talk to you about Lara's litter" my heart hit the floor :o/ However, being the easily distracted sort that I am, I thoroughly enjoyed the next few hours playing with wonderful puppies (watching in awe as almost all of them sat at the same time waiting for their lunch to be put down) and then had a delicious lunch with Kate and Abi.
 |
| Kate getting mobbed and nibbled from all directions! |
 |
| Handsome little yellow boy |
 |
| Sophie getting munched on |
 |
| Handsome little black boy |
 |
| Nomming on the play box |
 |
| Yowch! |
 |
| All six getting involved in a play bundle |
 |
| Gorgeous black pup |
 |
| Incredible ears! |
 |
| Tyred pupster ;o) |
 |
| Beautiful little yellow girl |
 |
| Lunch eaten, playing done, it must be sleepytimes |
Of course, Kate's instincts proved to be spot on and our's were shockingly poor as the personalities had all completely changed in those few weeks. It was fab to see just how well Kate knew each of them and how the right pup had been matched up with the right family. It also illustrated perfectly to me why Kate had advised not picking THE puppy until 7/8 weeks (no matter how badly everyone wants to know which is their pup at birth!) simply because they do change so much.
I managed to get some photos of the big girls this time too :o)
 |
| Connie taking it easy |
 |
| Summer trying quite hard to earn a treat |
 |
| Momma Faith showing off her svelte post-pup figure |
 |
Trouble 1 and Trouble 2 aka Lara and Kalli:
most definitely NOT disobeying their mum and, once again, dragging their beds around ;o) |
We had a delicious lunch with Kate and Abi, then Kate took a deep breath and said "so we need to talk about Lara"......
This Lara. The Lara who was going to be mummy to my Cheese pup.....
 |
| Beautiful Lara |
Except......Kate had been thinking long and hard about the planned litter and wasn't sure that the Ardenbrook line had a lot to achieve from another Lara litter. Obviously, when we'd started talking about puppies, Kalli had been too young to consider as a potential mum and hadn't been health tested. We now knew that she had fantastic hips and elbows and was becoming an incredible dog. I told Kate how impressed I'd been by her on our last visit and we all heaved a sigh of relief as the decision was mostly made that Kalli would be Cheese mummy instead of Lara. All that needed doing was for Madam to be eye tested and EIC tested (Lara is a carrier) before we could definitely say "all systems go".
Of course, clever Kalli sailed through the eye test and proved to be EIC clear :oD
In many ways, I am even happier with Kalli than I was with the adorable Lara because Kalli was born at Ardenbrook and I know that she has had Kate's incredibly intuitive input from day one. Also, she is 50% show bred and 50% working bred so it means that whether Kate chooses a show or working sire, Cheese won't be 100% of anything, but a nice 75%/25% mixture.
Of course, Lara is still a spectacular dog and I am still considering ways to smuggle her into my car without Kate noticing ;o) but seeing how beautifully she still interacts with Kalli, I have no doubt that she will be a wonderful Cheese granny.
The next big step is finding Cheese daddy. Kate has decided that he will be a working lad (yay!), but we have a few months yet before any big decisions need to be made. The timings should all be much as I'd been hoping with Lara and Cheese should still be coming home in Spring 2014.
I *may* camp out in Kate's paddock for his first 8 weeks ;o)
So. With that little tiny change announced, I'll leave you with some of the photos that I took of beautiful Kalli back in October.....
