Life is good!

Samantha and I got back last night from another wonderful trip to the farm! Hearing test were performed Friday morning at the University of Tennessee and no surprises great stats once again for this group! For the first time in 3 litters Lillie has produced show girls! ALL THREE will be placed in show homes and I could not be more excited! Oh yes I could! Looks like the two liver boys are also going into the confirmation ring! We have to wait for one another breeder to finish evaluating next Saturday to confirm the other evaluations. All things work out for a reason. I got to meet one of the puppy owners yesterday. She made me cry which often happens remembering the loved dogs we have lost and meshed with holding a new family member brings a rush of emotions! Originally she was to get a girl but as I knew once she met the boys she was in love. Boys always do that to the right people that have open hearts. As I tell all of my puppy people when I start talking to them. I don't know what we are going to get and to be open to color and sex. I have not had one puppy placed that it has worked out for the best! Rachel and Nash from the last litter has been the best example of that! This also includes puppy people that are so closed minded to spotting, color and sex. If I have a person that does not even care about meeting the puppies and seeing personalities vs looks and sex of the puppy it's just best to move that person on to someone else. In the long run no matter what is placed in that home they won't be happy.

We thought most of the puppies would be going home next weekend....looks like I will have a few to stay on due to vacations. Oh I just hate that :)....puppies that I get to enjoy, love, play with!

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks. Back to the farm Thursday and than next week Samantha and I have high hopes that we will finally get to close a chapter in our lives that has been a complete nightmare for us. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayer that what comes around will FINALLY go around!

Looking forward to the weekend

I have enjoyed this week with the puppies. They have moved to the big yard with so many things to keep them busy they just come in at bedtime and off to sleep! How did I live without a grass matt? We had a pretty bad storm a couple of nights ago and I just got up, swepted off the grass matt and got the puppies up and on it for the morning feeding. Samantha is doing such a great job with them during the day. Playing with each one of them is important part of socializing them for there new homes. I can't believe how this time has flown by. We will do the first set of shot for them tomorrow for the trip to the University of Tenneesee next weekend.

Lillie is looking great as she always does. Samantha already has her in training jumping over the agility jumps and doing obedience. She has been the best Mama and has not missed a beat. Well I take that back. Last night at 12:30 am when she looked over the side of the whelping box, the kids got sight of her and SHE didn't want to jump in and nurse them! She looked at me wagging her tail as they were crying the high pitched cry that they make at 12:30 am saying "I'm over that". Thanks Lillie! I got up at 5 am and fed them knowing that last night was the first time they went without a "snack from the milk bar". Only 10 minutes and back to sleep. Great time for a post!

Puppies all have great personalities as they did the first litter. The boys again have the greatest layed back "I'm the dude" attitude with one of them just being the marmaduke dude with nothing phasing him what so ever! Girls never stop and are the first to jump, roll, tug any new item introduced to the ex-pen condo. Just can't believe we are going they will be 6 weeks old on Monday!

Where did the babies go?

Oh no don't be alarmed! They are just SO big now! Lillie got in to nurse them last night and I just look at them and remember how little they WERE!

I was without Samantha last week and it was tough all around. This weekend I packed up the EHDALS auto with everyone and headed to the farm. Dalmatians everywhere! Like a little slice of the most wonderful cake you can imagine. Got the puppies unloaded and Oksana and I had some time to take in the puppy sights before the SHOW van arrived. It was loaded with the winners dog/best of winners, "Mud" and winners bitch, "Dolly" from the dog show!!! After Samantha and Ada got "sanitized" we parked chairs under the huge umbrella (got to get one of those) and ex-pens and waited......I knew Samantha and I could not say anything because that would give away what our thoughts were. After what seemed forever Ada finally gave the "nod"! Love that when it happens both in the ring and out. Again Lillie and Pat DID complete a repeat performance to a fantastic litter. Now the wait. Hearing test are scheduled for June 26th in the morning, they are going to be evaluated conformationally in the afternoon and than we will know were everyone is going (or staying). We are traveling to the University of Tennessee for this testing. Just hate when that happens that I have to find a reason to stay in the hills of Tennessee!

This past Sunday we went to the show with Samantha and Mud being the only ones showing. For the second day in a row "Mud" went winners dog/best of winners! Oh and the girl, she showed him up by going BEST JUNIOR HANDLER beating over 30 other Junior Handlers. I have never heard the crowed erupt like that when a Junior won before, oh yeah she had all of her moms there and than some! Thanks to Michele Wrath and Ada for giving her some great handling training after Saturday's show. Obviously it worked.

We get some time off from showing. We better because Samantha is lined up to show 9 out of 11 days at the end of July!

What a weekend!

Announcing.....CH Green Starr's A Patriot -- "Daddy Pat!"

Not only did Ada finish one champion but TWO and got a major on her girl Dolly this past weekend! Congrats Green Starr's A-Ada!!! LOL

I got to see the Bunker boy and Fiver boy! I'm very proud to have such good homes for these fantastic boys as I am all of the puppies we have placed! We are excited to have Fiver come and stay with us in a few weeks while his owners go on vacation. As is Nash, both of these boys have the best personality. Go to a dog show for the first (and second for Bunker) and just lay down at will, relax and wag tails at everyone and everything! If I have not explained before so that everyone understands why I write so much about these guys...they are full brothers to this litter of puppies.

OH THE PUPPIES...oh the puppies - what can I say...I'M IN LOVE! I think Ada gets tired of me saying "I can't wait for you to see these guys!" Well she won't have to wait long cause...we are taking them on an adventure this weekend so that Ada and Oksana can look over the litter.

We continue to socialize and actively stimulate the puppies in individual play time. They had a big day yesterday moving outside for 7 hours and having there first plate of goats milk, rice cereal and formula yum! Cleanest puppies that I have experienced. Not a one stepped in the bowl. Lillie enjoys this part because she can usually spend time cleaning put the mess but not this time! It only took them one time to figure out the chow call of "puppy, puppy, puppy" because when I did it this morning to wake them up for chow they came running! Since it is a smaller litter than I am use to they seem more in tune with human bonding. Just hate to see that since I just love to do the luv-a-bug with them!

To much fun!

Nothing else to say but we have been having way to much fun with the puppies to take time out to blog! These guys have been great fun this past week! We hold them, talk to them and nuzzle with them and they wag and talk back! Everyone can hear and that takes a lot of pressure off of a breeder!

We have a show this weekend in Asheville so think good thoughts! I hate leaving the puppies for any amount of time but I have to transport Samantha and Mud to the showsite so that she can stay at the Dalmatian farm for a week. I'm jealous but will get to meet up with everyone the next weekend for the show in Waynesville! A few breeders including the owner of the sire, Ada, will get to really see and play with the puppies for the first time. I can't wait! I enjoy getting to see more experienced hands handle the puppies so that I can see them stacked for the first time. As usual I have my eye on a couple of kids for show quality so keeping it to myself we will see if I got it right again! I get to see BUNKER (Enchanted Hart Starr on Bunker Hill) and FIVER (Enchanted Hart Five Starr) this weekend also. This is two of the three boys that are in show homes from the previous litter.

Puppies started hanging off the second layer of the whelping box so we had to finish off the box for them to be safe. Now Lillie will be building back her muscle by jumping over the box to get to the kids! They are figuring out the pecking order and I so enjoy watching everything the puppies put into getting in line! I have been taking pictures and will have time to take more, down load and get them on Sunday so check back!