Welcome Home, baby boy!

It wasn't looking good to start with! I managed to get only 3 hours of sleep on Tuesday night, my mum had misunderstood why I'd asked her to come so I had to drive there, the traffic leaving Bristol was awful, the weather on the M4 was utterly bizarre with alternating pockets of really heavy fog and glaring low sunshine, and then we needed to stop for a wee break!

Thankfully, we arrived only 10 minutes later than originally planned  :o)

Mum, Sophie and I spent an hour with Amanda and Ian going through all the paperwork and signing what needed signing, but my brain was on auto-pilot as the mantra running through it was just screaming "PUPPYPUPPYPUPPYPUPPYPUPPYPUPPY"  ;o)  It did sink in that his Kennel Club name is Tamazan Wensleydale :oD

And finally he was mine, all mine!

I carried him out to the car, posed for this photo........

.......popped him into the crate and settled down for the journey.

Unfortunately, Cheese's confusion and concern overwhelmed him and we were treated to a running commentary allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way home about how he couldn't find his brother and sisters, how he was concerned that he might starve to death because the food lady wasn't with us, how he didn't like being in prison, how the prison was moving, how the treat bag didn't seem to be open often enough, etc etc  ;o)

He eventually settled to sleep 5 minutes from home, then promptly woke up and vomited his breakfast all over the crate!

Once we got home, Cheese had his first visit to our garden, where he met Mika with no bother at all  :o)  Moss came out to meet him, shoved a toy in his face, realised that he didn't know how to play "tug" and ignored him. Casey came out to meet him, fell in love and spent the next hour trying to get him to play "chase around the table"  :o)

Apparently, the sofa is the mountain that he is most desperate to climb but, for the moment, he needs some assistance, so he persuaded Nanny to help him....

It became apparent that he desperately needed a snooze, so he was popped into his crate where he lodged only a brief objection before falling fast asleep :o)

He woke up a different puppy!! He strutted up to Casey, playbowed her and off they all went playing racey chasey games!!


I was just gobsmacked to see them all playing like this less than 2 hours after his arrival. He is SO what we all needed :o)

After such a busy day, he spent the evening napping....

Bedtime came around and it was hard work! He doesn't really 'do' crying, only top of the lungs howling and that is precisely what he did for a full hour before giving in to sleep. 2 minutes later, Jacob went downstairs to make himself some supper and came back upstairs singing loudly >:o(  Another 20 minutes of howling followed (from Cheese, not Jacob ;o) ). 10 minutes later, I had to go to the toilet. By now, it was 1am and the next half hour of howling nearly killed me. I took him out for a wee and decided to give everyone a break by taking him into bed. He lay on his back, passed out and snored till 6.30! I know all the complications I could be causing myself, but after only 3 hours of sleep the night before, it was more important to me that I got more sleep than won a battle with a 7 week old puppy :oP Besides, half an hour after waking, he was asleep again, in his downstairs crate, so I snoozed on the sofa and we had another 2 hours of sleep. There's plenty of time for battles when I'm not so tired.....

Final Update......

..........on the boy and his siblings whilst he is still with them  ;o)

30 days old and possibly the cutest puppy photo ever!

35 days old and they're growing like snuggly weeds

38 days old and they're venturing into the outside world!

38 days old and that's a little Cheese boy sitting quietly by the fence

42 days old and that helicopter tail has been generated by the excitement of spotting a leaf!

42 day old busy busy pups

44 days old and my how they've grown!

45 days old and overnight they've turned into Andrex puppies!!

45 days old and 7 out of 10 puppies know how to say "cheeeeeeeese"  ;o)

47 day old charge of the light yellow brigade

47 days old and it's Microchipping Day

47 days old and you just have to feel sorry for Connie now!

Meanwhile, back in Brizzle, I've been cleaning and DIYing like mad to make sure that any niggly jobs are done and out of the way before he comes home, so that I don't have to feel guilty whilst I sit and snuggle him all day long  ;o)  The stairgates are up and the bedroom crate is ready. A bag of puppy food is sat in the cupboard. Meat is in the fridge, as is a large supply of squeezy cheese. A fleece puppy coat arrived in the post this morning. Puppy collars have tags on and his lead has been clipped beside Moss and Casey's.....

I'm just waiting on a text to say that the playpen has arrived so that I can set that up in the lounge and then I'm done!

Unbelievably, ridiculously bonkers to have to say that the next update will be brought to you from our home when our family has been increased by one!

Introducing Cheese

Well it's been a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng time coming, but please allow me to finally introduce you to my boy..........

We visited the puppies on Thursday and, thankfully, the family who had first pick of the boys had visited the day before so we finally got to meet OUR boy. He is just wonderful, as are all of the puppies. He's a bit of an independent munchkin who chose to mostly spend his time interacting with one of us or pootling off on solo adventures.....

....whereas his brother and sisters preferred to pal up for adventuring or wrestling.

He REALLY liked Jacob and that was where he headed as soon as the pups were released from the conservatory  :o)

Next on the Cheese agenda was chomping of the Mummy toes!  :oO

It took him a while to make his way to Sophie but he soon discovered that she is fun  :o)

                

 

After spending over an hour in the company of the litter and watching Cheese in action, I'm 99.9% sure that he is the pup that has been the odd one out in the group photos - the upside down one, the one on Connie's legs. I'm also 100% sure that had we been given the pick of the litter and spent the time observing before making a decision, then he would still have been the one I'd have picked.

Unsurprisingly, he was the last pup to fall asleep when nap time came around!

It was so hard to tear ourselves away, but everyone was snoring and it's only a little while now until he comes home. 10 sleeps! That's all!

Here's an added bonus of a little video of the pups playing. Cheese is the puppy in the last few seconds who goes over to Jacob, bellyflops, then chomps on Jacob's fingers  ;o)



Hopefully, these photos and the video will just about keep me going until Coming Home Day!! After so long, it's still very hard to believe that there will be a puppy here, in my house, in such a short amount of time! I really and truly cannot wait!

We've been given a List of Essentials so, unfortunately, that means that I have to do a little more puppy shopping. Oh dear. How awful! ;o)

You may have noticed, as I had, that some of the more recent group photos have featured 10 puppies and not 11. I assumed that this was because somebody kept wandering out of shot but, tragically, we learned that another little girl was lost at just 10 days old  :'(  I cannot begin to imagine the distress that caused for everyone, but I hope she's having fun playing at the Bridge with her 2 sisters who went before her xx

We are starting to plan the Cheese Tour 2014, so he may be visiting a town near you at some point throughout the year. If you need a squidge, just drop me a line and we'll see what can be arranged  :oD

See How They Grow....

I am so grateful to Amanda for keeping the litter photo page updated. She's very kindly been posting photos every few days (including on Christmas morning!) so that we've been able to watch the pups grow from tiny little creatures into gorgeous small dogs  :o)

Here they are:

1 day old and snuggled up to mama Connie

4 days old and one clever pup has managed to get some extra Mummy snuggles

7 days old and a special kiss for Mummy

8 days old and everyone is sleeping

9 days old and the milk bar is open again

14 days old and they've all grown so much!

17 days old and weaning has started

18 days old and one pup is just.............too............tired........to...........keep..........feeding

19 days old, eyes are open and they're looking like proper little dogs

21 days old and there are two very special gifts under the Christmas tree

23 days old and it looks like the sheen has come off for Connie  ;o)  but her babies still adore her

23 days old again and how cute are they?? Look at the kissing couple at the back 

25 days old and the two pups snuggling up to Connie are just TOO cute xx

25 days old again and they're looking for trouble  ;o)

25 day old cutie-pie

Ok and now for some new important information:

1. One family have been waiting some time for a Tamazan boy so they get first pick, but we get the other boy

2. Boy family 1 are visiting the pups on Wednesday 8th January and will pick their boy that day

3. We are visiting the pups on Thursday 9th January so we will get to meet OUR Cheese pup on that day!

4. Amanda is letting the pups go to their homes between 7 and 8 weeks of age so, after some inner turmoil and debate with myself, I've decided that we're going to collect Cheese at 7 weeks as he'll be coming home to canine company and we're more than capable of managing a youngster. I think the fact that he'll be that little bit smaller will help with the terrierists too.

5. We'll be the first family to collect our pup, so Master Cheese will be joining us on the very day that he turns 7 weeks - Wednesday 22nd January  :o)

6. We're waiting on confirmation from the Kennel Club, but Amanda has submitted KC registrations for the litter. Cheese will hopefully be Tamazan Wensleydale! If the KC say "no" to Wensleydale, then he'll be Tamazan Wallace  :o)

7. Cheese's first weekend holiday away is booked for Nottingham and Leeds in mid-February where he will get to meet lots of our special friends (2 and 4 legged!).

After such a loooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg wait for our puppy, it still seems like an unbelievable dream that he'll actually be here in just 3 short weeks!!! I may not be sleeping much between now and then  ;o)

All Change!

It was only inevitable that nothing was going to run smoothly with the length of the timescale that I started working with......

Back in October, Sophie and I spent a lovely weekend in Nottingham with Laura and Luna and Tucker and met up with some of our fabulous friends. As we were going to be passing fairly close by on the way back, we arranged to pop in to see Kate for a coffee. During our conversation that afternoon, it turned out that I had totally and utterly misunderstood the timings that Kate had in mind for Kalli's litter and she will not be having her pups any time soon.

After nearly 18 months of planning, I finally felt as if I was absolutely ready for Cheese to come home and had been anticipating his arrival in the Spring, so had a bit of a "world falling apart" moment when the realisation hit that he wasn't going to be an Ardenbrook pup after all  :o(

I spent a little while licking my wounds and feeling sorry for myself, then started on the road to finding another breeder. After having such fabulous input from Kate and my wonderful little team of experts from the very beginning of my search, I knew exactly what I was looking for and exactly what I was prepared to compromise on. Luckily, I hit gold (again!) very very quickly!

I found out about a litter that were already on their way, had fantastic parents with stunning pedigrees behind them and a brilliant health background. I made an appointment to visit the Tamazan residence within the week.

We had the absolute delight of meeting some of the older residents who would be Cheese's older relatives and discovered that they were cracking girls. We also met his great-great-uncle who, amazingly, is called Branston  :o)  During my research into the breeder, I discovered so many links between names of the dogs they have and have had and my own dogs, my ex-foster dogs and the special dogs in my life that I was already fairly confident that I'd found the right family for my puppy to come from, but once I met most of those dogs in the flesh, I was positive!

Amanda was just wonderful and answered most of my vast array of questions before I even had a chance to voice them and made us feel so welcome and comfortable. So much effort is put into raising fantastic puppies that I couldn't believe my luck in finding such a fabulous breeder for a second time.

When Connie (Cheese's mum-to-be) came into the room, I was literally breathless as she was SUCH a beautiful dog. The photos that I had seen of her on the website did her no justice at all! She is also an incredible character and an utter princess

Mummy: Tamazan Rising Star aka Connie

Daddy: Bilbo Baggins by Baileydale aka Bill

We left the Tamazan household with big grins on our faces after receiving the news that we would be welcome additions to the waiting list.

And then the waiting game started properly!

Two weeks after our visit, we received the news that Connie had gone in to be scanned to try and get an idea of how many pups she was carrying. Amanda had said that she'd not been showing (in her figure) that she was pregnant at all so was amazed to hear that her girl was carrying in excess of 10 puppies!! At this point, I let out a huge sigh of relief as it hit me that with that many puppies expected there were bound to be boys and plenty of pups to go round, all being well.

Photos were eventually added to the website of a very large and uncomfortable looking Connie who still had 2 weeks to go before she was due to start whelping!

No sign of the sleek figure now  ;o)

As Connie looked SO big in the photos, I was not in the least bit surprised to hear that she delivered her babies 5 days early! On 4th of December, Connie safely delivered 9 gorgeous girls and 2 bouncing boys. Sadly, she also delivered 2 girls who left for Rainbow Bridge  :o(

Mama and her babies

All 11 puppies present and correct

I am so utterly and ridiculously excited that I'm not sure I'll be able to contain myself until the pups are old enough for visitors and am ecstatic that I only have to choose between 2 boys and not 9 girls! I'm already thinking that the obtuse, upside down little chap on the far left of the photo above is looking rather Cheese-like, but we'll see  :oD

Thank you all for the kind words and support and shared excitement on this mammoth journey so far and I hope that you all get to have a Cheesy cuddle at some point so that he can thank you too. It's incredible to think that we are very close to being a 3 dog household again and that, finally, someone will get to make use of the ginormous stash of "stuff" that is waiting here.....

No more shopping!

So now we're on the final countdown, at long long last, to Cheese coming home, but we have a few exciting adventures to have before that special day as we get to meet our little boy and his brother and sisters  :oD