Ahhh... lazy summer days! Well, I wish anyway! Actually it's as busy as ever, though I have been somewhat slack with the dog training. Seems a whole plethora of new things are taking off, old things are changing and I'm thinking about fifty things at once!

As much as I'm eager to move, I'm going nuts over the "where" and feeling a bit sad about leaving this house... it's where we met, where I was proposed to, where we got married, where found out I was pregnant, labored and later brought Laurent home and spent his first year. I'll miss silly things, like the stained glass windows and the beautifully carved fire places with their decorative tiles and insets. And our garden. I'm taking a few things but a lot of the plants we'll have to leave behind when they've been birthday and wedding gifts. *sniffles*

I'm getting more and more eager to meet my new puppy as well, I got the latest photos at 3 weeks of age and I'm ready to fly up there and cuddle her right now! This waiting thing is for the birds!


Now lookit these two pics... what a difference a week makes huh! That chubby little slug has LEGS! LOL Nose is blacking up more and more and will eventually end up solid black, copper is pretty clear now on cheeks, eyebrows and under the rear legs.
We went to the Melbourne Royal on Aussie Shepherds day. I'd been looking forward to it all year long as it's probably one of the biggest Aussie turn outs. Due to crappy traffic ("Take the car!" says my usually PT loving husband! "It's faster!") we got there after judging had already started. It took 1 h 45 min to get from Hawthorn to there!!! Totally bummed out but I still got to catch quite a few of the Aussie Shepherds and got plenty of snaps. If you're interested, here's a link to the Kodak gallery I uploaded them to as there's about 40 of them, too many to put up here! It was waaayyyyyyyyyy too busy, everyone deciding to "miss" the weekend crowds made it into huge, noisy crowd. Blerg. Wayyyy too many people to take Laurent into the petting zoo, you seriously couldn't SEE the animals for the throngs of children so we gave it a miss. I decided to have L's photo taken at the "have your kid's photo taken with a lamb" thingie. It's $10 for a single print or $25 for a "package" which was a single print and a couple of dinky wallet sized ones. I just wanted one for the album, so the lady gave me attitude, which I didn't hear fully at the time (crappy hearing loss...) but apparently was all sniffy like, "Well if you don't think your child is worth it... blah blah" And then just brushed us off, taking 1 shot instead of the 7-8 to choose from she did with the lady before us. OMG!!!!! The NERVE!!! I was steamed for the rest of the day thinking about that lady making a judgement on my gorgeous, wonderful little boy who is more precious to me than anything! It is nevertheless an adorable photo of my gorgeous boy and a very cute little lamb who was licking his fingers! Soooo cute together but poor bubba was so tired!
And one from today, we are actually all having a lovely morning snuggling up together in the bed, just lazing about before we get up. Cade is under the covers, Sierra snuggled up next to L and N, me on the far side of them (you can see my elbow a bit above the lambs nose) and Laurent having fun with the stuffed sheep I bought. You press it and it bleats! Laurent lights up when he hears it and giggles! Tooooo cute!

On a sadder note, the test results for Me-Me, who passed away earlier this month, to confirm the renal failure was indeed amyloid are back. It is something which is something that can only be confirmed after death with a congo red stain test. Today I got an e-mail confirming what we suspected. HERE is the pathology report. End result - positive CRS in both kidneys and liver... amyloidosis with fibroisis and papillary necrosis consistant with Sharpei familial amyloidosis. We're still waiting on her sire, Sami's, report but expect it to confirm the same thing. Not that I expected anything differently because all the symptoms were there and other causes eliminated but I don't know... I just feel so sad, she was such a bright spark, fighting so hard and now gone. It just echos through you.

And as a last icky bit, Cade will be visiting Dr. Jane tomorrow to have his ear looked at. I think the cat must have bit or scratched him while playing as he's got two giant hard red pimples about 2cm size and a smaller 1cm one that look like infections that need lancing and draining. ICK!

Well it's official... we're moving! Talked to RE agent yesterday and signed a form and everything. Auction date will be 25 Nov with 120-150 days to close. Where we're moving is still up for debate! But Nic has agreed to at least keep an open mind and visit various areas so we'll see how that goes. We're going to make a day trip to one area Friday, not sure where as I've had a few suggestions but it's tricky to suss out what is a.) nice, b.) I can have a couple acres for sheep, dogs, chooks, garden, agility yard etc. c.) is in a nice area, d.) close to amenities and transport for Nic and e.) has good schools for Laurent. Or we may end up going with the Blackburn and save for a few more years thing. Dunno.

Talked to Nancy, Me-Me's mom on the phone today. It was good to talk to her and I'd promised myself I wouldn't cry but almost lost it when she told me that when she called her Kisses and told her I loved her still, she managed to wag her tail when she hadn't been moving before, and she knew that part of Me-Me remembered that time with me. There's more but I'm really too emotional to write about it at the moment.

Didn't do a huge amount in the way of training today. I puttered around a bit with a few of our dance moves but mostly just read my new Freestyle book to get some good ideas. Really chuffed I got this book, super neat!

Other than that I've just been flat out buggered. Laurent had another sleepless night. Nic finally took him from 1am to 3 am so I could get some sleep but then Laurent woke up at 6:30 for the day and I had to get up. Blerg.

Funny story about how tired I am... the other day I was making breakfast and deciding if I wanted coffee or tea. I wanted tea but as I was so tired I needed coffee. So I made a coffee. And I made a tea. Clever solution right? The problem? I made it in the same cup, at the same time and didn't notice until 10 minutes of wondering why my coffee tasted funny this morning... *sigh*

Me-Me... Chi Kuan's U Talkin' Bout Me? 4/7/02 ~ 19/9/06

I got the news the other day that Me-Me, the Sharpei I mentioned awhile back who had amyloidosis and whose sire Sami (Epic's Am I Blue) also had the same and had recently passed from it, had managed to injure herself on some chain mesh. Her owner was hoping and praying that there wasn't disc damage in the spinal cord and deeply afraid. About this time the renal failure took a turn for the worse. I asked Nancy, her owner, if they'd considered a canine sports injury specialist, canine acupuncturist or chiro. Maybe if they could get the pain under control they could at least accurately evaluate her chances. Nancy wrote back telling me the look in MeMe's eyes was just breaking her heart... how much could she ask her to go through? She was hurting and even with medications she was crying out. To fix the damage, it would be a large surgery and much pain for a reason MeMe wouldn't understand. And her renal failure was getting worse. Who knows what it'd do with surgery... nothing good certainly.

I had hoped. I'd hoped we were wrong about the damage. Hoped she'd rally. Hoped the pain meds would work and allow her to eat and drink again. Nancy tried syringe feeding her. She was on muscle relaxers to help. Her shoulder was paralyzed. I wanted to say yes, keep fighting. I wanted her to get better. I wasn't ready to hear this. But I know, I KNOW realistically I don't have the magic wand that can fix her failing body.

I thought back to Me-Me's birth. She was a little thing but a scrapper straight from the start. She was a girl who knew what she wanted and went straight after it, determined, intelligent, persistant... you really had to admire that about her even when you were busy prying her off the x-pen she was trying to climb for the umpteenth time. She was a sweetie too, her habit of kissing everything in tongue range earned her the puppy name of "Kisses". (Often the buyer changes renames them but you either give them a puppy name them or call them Puppy 1, 2, 3 etc.) Me-Me wasn't the second smallest in the litter but she still never was pushed from the teat and would squirm determinedly through the wriggling mass to nurse. By the time they were clambering out of the whelping box, they'd be practically climbing the x-pen and eachother to get to you when you came by them. When they were older still and were outside, you had to watch like a hawk, else you'd have the whole mob tumbling after you, under the gate and pell-mell out into the big dogs area. Yes, Me-Me had always known what she wanted and if she wanted to keep fighting she'd let Nancy know... but if she was tired, if her body hurt too much to keep fighting and she was ready to rest, I knew she'd let Nancy know as well. So in the end, that's all I could really say to Nancy, to listen to Me-Me to know when the time was right and let her know she was loved and while she would be missed, if she had to go she'd understand. I wanted to say so much more.

I went to bed with a feeling in my heart like a lead weight. I had one of those gut feelings that I'd get up in the morning to find Nancy'd have had to send Me-Me on to the Rainbow Bridge. I avoided the computer in the morning, finally logging on and downloading my messages. I scanned them quickly and found the message I'd been dreading. Me-Me was gone. Nancy said she'd leaned over her to tell her that I loved her too and that we'd always loved her and she'd always be with us, which I'll be forever thankful to Nancy for because I couldn't be there to say it in person.

It's such a waste and such a damn shame... not even four years old. It's too young! I did the breeding on Ella and Sami, I was there when she was whelped and welcomed her into the world late in the evening, touching her damp fur, clearing her nose, helping her mum clean her and marveling as I always did at the birth of a litter at the sense of promise and potential there was in these tiny little scraps of life. It's a bitter draught to see that which you welcomed into the world and held as it drew it's first breath go out of this world.

Tonight will I light a candle for her, something I didn't think I'd have to do quite so soon for Me-Me. I will light it in memory of the sweet little puppy I called Kisses who held all the promise in the world as she explored puppy clumsy and adorable in her innocence and for the beautiful girl called Me-Me that she turned into under Nancy's care and for the grand old lady she would have been if she'd lived longer. There is another twinkle in Sirius tonight, watch closely for it and smile remembering this little lady with me.
Just born...
Three weeks
With Phish, being told a secret
At Nancy's home
A lovely young lady

I also have a more recent photo I will post once I've done the resizing. The retrieve is going nicely, I meant to comment on it last time. We're to the point of her picking it up off the floor for short hops.

Puppies!!!

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post is that Cleo was imported to Romania very, very preggers... and her pups arrived last night! Monica sent pictures and they are BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooooooo proud of my little Cleo-bean!!!

In other news, the countdown for the Courage x Tilley litter is down to five days... due 11 Sept. I am having a very hard time waiting patiently... I am also talking to their breeder about an older half-sister (same dam, different sire, dam is the one whose bloodlines I am really in love with) who is 1 year old from a previous litter who might be available so now the possiblity is that I might a.) get this 1 year old, 2.) get a pup from this litter or 3.) wait until another litter is bred from the dam of this litter late in 2007 if there aren't enough show potential pups in this litter for everyone on the waiting lists.

We are also crossing fingers for a breeding done by Nancy (Mao Bao) in Georgia with her Splash and Diva that Diva caught and is pregnant and wishing for a minor miracle for a lovely woman I know with Standard Poodles who is having issues with getting some semen imported for an AI for her bitch. The stud, who is in the USA, had his rabies vaccination lapsed and that means a delay as quarantine has strict regulations, which also means it wouldn't arrive until after her bitch will most likely have come into season and passed out of it. Hoping for miracles for her! I want big black bouncy poodle puppies to play with!!! ;-)

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After searching for 6+ weeks, I've finally found a piece of music that A.) I like, which B.) has a beat that works for freestyle, C.) doesn't have obscene or bizare lyrics and D.) is fast enough for my speed-freak dog but not too fast for me! I may opt to do this instead of Popcorn because I just can't think of any ****ing moves to go with it really. :-/ It doesn't seem to work for the swirls and twirls that are Sierra's strongest trained tricks. I had heard "Sway" before but by a different artist who sang it slower - too slow for me to think would work. I tried it out a little bit and it seems to really tickle Sierra's fancy as well, she was wiggling like mad, weaving, bobbing and having fun playing stick-with-mom-as-she-tries-to-loose-you heeling.

In other news, I have NO voice... caught some kind of cough earlier this week and lost my voice a couple days ago. L caught the same thing earlier and had a horrid fever that kept him (and me....) up all night, sweating up a storm and unhappy the poor lamb. The fever broke that morning but he's been unsettled, very clingy, tired and whingey all day long. And snotty. *blech* I literally couldn't set him down for two seconds without him wailing like a lost soul so I got virtually none of the 9000 things I had to do done today!

In better news, the woman who had lost Sami whom I mentioned a few posts ago had also purchased another Sharpei from the same breeder that I worked for. This girl is Cleo, aka "Cleo-meo-myoh!" among other nicknames. She was my very favorite dog and from the very first litter I helped whelp, out of two American, United and Canadian Champions with health certs out their ears. I knew she was special the second I laid eyes on her, still wet and squeaking. I held her and told E.C. that this little girl would surpass both of her parents or I'd eat my hat. She has and is such a beautiful girl, inside and out! I had wanted to buy her but didn't have several thousand dollars laying around and didn't want to get involved in the terms of contracts the breeder liked to use. Long story short, this woman ended up buying her but is only NOW getting her... she arrived safe and sound the other night and I got some lovely pictures and updates on her! Oh I am SO glad she is in such a lovely home where she will be so cherished!!! This is just the best news in a long time and has not only made my day but made my MONTH!

Sad news

A short while ago I got the bad news that one of the Sharpei puppies I'd helped whelp and care for was in renal failure at the tender age of four years old. She never fevered and there's no way to prove it till after death with a Congo Red Stain but amyloid is strongly suspected as everything else has been tested for and eliminated as a possible cause. Her name is "Me-Me" aka Chi-Kuan's U Talkin' Bout Me. This was absolutely devistating news to her family and to me... you never think when you watch those beautiful puppies born and see them grow into beautiful youngsters and lovely adults that something like this will happen. Unfortunately there is no DNA test for it at this point to determine which dogs are susceptible and no cure.

FSF and amyloidosis are related and inherited, though the mode is not clearly understood. With this in mind, Me-Me's owner/mom, who also owns her maternal aunt was in contact with the owner of Me-Me's sire. (Who is not her breeder btw, as he'd been sold after the litter was bred to a new owner.) Her sire is Sami, Epic's Am I Blue and his new owner was very distressed to report that he was also ill.

I just found out today that on the 29th of August, Sami passed away. A CRS has yet to be done but it will most likely confirm what we all suspect. I am so heartbroken thinking about this beautiful, vital boy being gone... it blows my mind. And it makes me face the fact that Me-Me will also go downhill and pass away much too soon as well. Sami was such a silly, goofy boy... always the class clown, he would never stop moving or wiggling or licking for two seconds in a row. He was such an unserious dog, who took a lot of joy in everything he did. When I think of him, I remember him sticking his muzzle in the waterbucket and then goosing me on the back of the knees, trying to keep him in something resembling a stack while he wanted to bounce and kiss the 'judge' at training, lazing in the sun with Ella and Action and just generally being a big goofy lug-a-bug. I really just can't believe he's GONE. My heart also breaks for his owner, who not only loved him as a beloved family member but had imported him from the US to Romania to show and eventually breed. My heart breaks for his puppies who carry genes which may well cause them to suffer the same fate and for their owners who can do nothing but take care of their lovelies as best one can if so.

I hate this damn disease.... I hate that it hurts so many dogs.... I hate that it hurt one of "mine"... I hate that some people hide problems and that the breeders and owners who are honest and forthcoming in their troubles worry about being lambasted. It's just so damn unfair!!!!! All of it!! Hug your furbabies a little closer tonight everyone... and look for the newest star in sirius tonight.