They have been showing at the Florida circuit. After a few open class wins and reserves, today Questo won Winners Dog for a four point major and then went on to take Best of Winners over his sister Vivi, who won Winners Bitch and finished her championship!!!!!! Vivi is the second of my Velevt/Spencer puppies to finish. Now deciding if she is done and coming home or going on to PCA in Apr…

I used my phone and didn’t do so well.  But first of all, every puppy I picked up  squirmed and squiggled so much, this was the least blurry!!!!  And here are a couple snoozing. And a group, think there are five in there…   And one lone ranger!!! They turn a week already tomorrow.  All doing well.  Whew…

Merry had her litter yesterday (almost sounds like I’m going to sing Merry had a little lamb…)  She delivered eleven as seen on the xray.  All black, six girls, five boys.  Very Nice!!!!  She did so well considering it was her first litter and so many.  Only once before have I had eleven.  Peri delivered eleven but two were stillborn and one died a few days later.  So, of course I was nervous til they were all here.  All are doing just fine so far.  Three are kind of small and were not nursing  well at first.  I watched them as I do everyone really, all night — must have been up 16 times — to make sure they were nursing.  By morning the three little ones were doing great. Now I am just putting them on their momma when everyone else is sleeping to be sure the bigger ones do not jostle them off and they all cannot nurse at one time anyway.  Merry has 8 faucets, so they have to take turns.  Merry seems to be producing plenty of milk and I am feeding her plenty to keep that going.   Here are some baby pictures…

       And the momma!!!

OH MY GOODNESS. My darling Merry is carrying eleven as seen on the xray. We even saw what might be a twelvth although that was much less pronouned than the others so probably not – just a shadow. Eleven is quite enough. I was happy when we saw the seven on the sonogram!!! Only once before have I had this size litter. Peri, also a smaller girl, delivered eleven as her second litter. Unfortunately two were stillborn for no apparent reason. Hopefully, Merry’s will all be fine, but it does happen. So now I better get the puppy room ready!!!

These two were from her last weekend out before the holiday hiatus.  She won at two Poodle Specialties that weekend.   She goes out again in Florida, around the 12th, I think. Hopefully she will finish soon and then her sister Pearlie-Girlie goes back out a bit before PCA.

Look at my girl’s belly — lousy picture so hard to see, but look closely — huge belly and has 8 more days to go.   They say short-backed girls cannot carry big litter.  Well, Merry sure is trying.  She is very short-backed so her belly is hanging down to her knees.  Hard to pick her up now when she wants up into my lap because I think she has gained at least ten or  twelve pounds.  Alot for a little thing… She isn’t that little – kind of in the middle for a girl’s size.  She waddles now too, like Velvet did with her big litter.  Velvet not only had nine, but they were all over 13 ounces… up to 16.5 oz which was Mondo — how he got his name.  So maybe Merry is having more than nine or big babies too.  Will get an x-ray in a few days to see for sure how many.  This really is a lousy picture.  Will have to try later, upstairs.  For some reason they never turn out  well in my office — lighting maybe.  But just snapped this with my phone…  Cannot believe the holidays are over — I feel like I missed them practically since my mom was in the hospital for almost two weeks now.  Running back and forth while trying to finish Christmas shopping and take care of all my holiday boarders and keep up with my own, of course.  And watching Merry’s belly grow. Mom was getting out of the hospital today — but she had a problem last night and again this morning so they kept her in.  SIGH, mommy have a really hard time.  Never finished our decorating so I missed having out my nativity set that my mom made me about 30 years ago when she was doing ceramics.  Nor did I get out my lighted  poodle or much else besides my tree and old world santas.  Nothing outside.  People must think I am a bah-humbugge.  Could see the tree in the window though… Oh well, first things first. And my mom and the dogs were higher priority!!!!!!! I did have some fun times — Mark and Jody brought dinner one night when picking up their two babies — my darling Gabi and their little rescue baby Nadjea (spelling?).  I did go to our family Christmas day dinner held this year at my nephew’s new house with his new baby — too sweet that little thing!!!  And today met a few puppy buyers for our Poodle People’s NY Day Brunch.  Nice buffet in Arlington at The Liberty Tavern.  Really nice.  If we go there again next year —it was worth the drive.  But may not do it next year because it will be a monday and hard to find brunch buffet’s on other than Sunday’s.  So maybe next year somewhere else and maybenot a buffet or brunch — let’s do lunch — then we can go anywhere!!!  We should plan way ahead insted of last minute like we do.  Plus I am going to do another get together in the Richmond area in the spring.  Nina wants to do a poodle fun day here like I did quite awhile ago but I just neer seem to manage to pull that off and no one from the club helps.  Maybe with some help we could do that this year.  When Merry’s babies are around 9 weeks old —–  Happy New Year everyone!!!!!!!!

  This is the last show picture of Mondo – it is from when he finished at ll months.  You can see how much  bigger he is here than previous pictures and he is not done growing.  Bigger by the day!!!

PooPoo!! She did not win again Saturday and is not in any more shows til Jan now.  I have no right to complain given how well she was doing – but of course, was hoping she finished saturday and came home.  Now has to stay at handlers another month, just about. oh well.  She’s done so well, am, of course, still very happy with her…

Well, Vivi is certainly moving right along.  Today she won two more points in Florida at the Eukanuba show.  Nice… Meanwhile, at home, her sister, Pearl is obviously enjoying “being a dog” !!!!!!!!!!!!  In about five minutes, she is on the table to get that mess fixed…       And to think this is what she can look like — better not let her handler see the  mess …

Baci is a wonderful dog in many ways — sweet, smart, befutiful.  And now he is certified with the Delta Society – a prestigious certification indeed.  I was told by his “momma” (Debbie) that this certification is more difficult than some others and that Baci was the top scorer in 200 dogs tested that day.  Maybe Debbie will chime in with additional info.  So Proud!!!       Baci is to the left and Peri to the right. Just the other night at our poodle club’s meeting, I was saying how I love to hear about my dogs and their achievements — it is not just about my show champions.  Far more of my puppies have gone off to people and families and are living great lives never entering a show ring.  I have been very proud of the different things they have done.  From agility to therapy work to hunting duck, deer and bear.  I love to hear about them even if it is how they snuggle so perfectly with you too or something silly they have done.   I go on and on about my champs because that is my thing but hearing about Baci today, again, made me so proud.  So congratulations to Baci and to his really terriffic “momma” Debbie who put all the necessary energy and effort into making this happen.  They now go on to a rewarding career as a therapy dog team.