A Visit From Cindy

Cindy and her son Brandon came up from Tacoma yesterday to spend the day with us.  Brandon loves Dallas and although he was very excited to spend time with the puppies he was really excited to spend time with Dallas and I think the feeling was mutual.  Dallas got to go for a much needed walk, he has been trying to play with Larena's cat Tigger and it hasn't been very productive for him.  So to go for a walk off leash and run and get some energy unleashed was a very good thing for him.  Then he got brushed and lots of cuddle time on the couch, to say he was a happy dog yesterday is an understatement.

Cindy could not believe how big everyone has gotten.  She is so happy and excited about these litters and she spent the majority of the day bouncing from one whelping box taking pictures to the other.  I took some time to go into town and pick up supplies for formula and some dog food and anything else that was planned for the day - well that just went out the window.  Larena spent the day with a girlfriend that was in town and she needed a day away as well, so all is good, except I didn't get my afternoon nap and my six hours of sleep just isn't cutting the mustard this morning.

Cindy and I trimmed toenails, do you know that 18 puppies x 4 feet x 4 toenails per foot = 288 toenails!  That's a lot of clipping.  I have been trying to do them periodically through the week, as someone is clawing me, I do them, but this was the first time I think we made a conscience effort to just go through all the puppies and get them all done.

Vegas' litter also got their first new toys yesterday.  We put four toys in the box and although they don't quite know what they are, I found them mouthing them or sleeping on them throughout the day.  We have a lot more, but since they are little pooping machines right now we figured we would only put out a few at a time so that we can rotate them through the washing machine.  They are getting so fun, they are starting to realize that they can make out shapes and mouth each other, I saw orange boy actually bounce this morning, fun times are coming.

Kenya's litter is continuing to get bigger and stronger and KK still doesn't really want to spend any time outside of the whelping box.  She is such a great mom and she is so dang proud of her babies.  I think she was super excited to see Cindy and could not wait for her to spend time with her in the box. 

Cindy adores both girls and at times they have spent time at her house, when I have been off on a trip.  Kenya was a singleton puppy and her and I have a special bond.  She loves me unconditionally and I did most of her showing as a puppy.  Cindy is the only other person Kenya will go off with, if I am anywhere within her sights and she is perfectly fine as long as she knows where I am.  If I am not there, it's not an issue, but there have been times when we had two Champions and Kenya all needed to be in the ring at the same time and we have had to pass off a champion to another handler so that either Cindy or I could stay on Kenya because God knows she won't go off with anyone else.  Cindy is also the person that gave her the nickname KK.

She also has a very special Bond with Vegas.  Although I picked Vegas out as my pick puppy from her litter, it was Cindy who said she was going to be a very special Show Dog and she felt she could be a Best In Show winner.  We still haven't done that, but they have accomplished so much more than I ever thought was possible.  Cindy wanted to take her to Westminster this last year and we did, with Vegas earning Select Bitch out of 56 dogs.  She was the youngest in the group and we had come the farthest to compete.  A this year's National Specialty Cindy and Vegas were the People's Choice Award for the Top 20 Competition and they Won Best Opposite Sex which was a huge honor and I could not be more proud of what they have accomplished in such a short time.  After puppies, Vegas will be in Doggie Boot camp to get herself back in Fighting Shape for the show ring and Cindy has high hopes that even though we will most likely miss four months of the new year due to being out of condition and losing coat, she is hopeful that we can get her into the Top 20 for a third straight year.

Today's picture was hard to decide - Cindy only took 197 pictures with my camera yesterday, so you may have a few days in a row of one of her pictures.