December 17th, 2012

Hi all,

Nothing very exciting to report, but I do finally have Bird and Steele’s litter page done: click here. The photos are awful—I’ll just warn you now. I have new batteries for the camera finally ordered and they should arrive by the end of the week, just in time for the pups to turn 1-month old! And, just in time for Maddie’s litter. 🙂  And, just in time for me to leave! Maybe Scott darling will handle the photo-taking and keep everyone updated… or maybe not. Not sure how it will work out. If he’s up for it, I’ll give him a lesson on how to do it before I head out for the l-o-n-g drive home to PA.

Bird and her pups are doing fantastic. She doesn’t look as though she just had a litter.  She’s in such excellent condition and it’s great when having a litter doesn’t seem to even phase a healthy and fit bitch. The pups are growing by leaps and bounds and are really nice puppies. I like the looks and personalities. They are very content and I barely hear a peep from them—unless they want their Momma and when they smell the pan of puppy mash, which they started this past weekend and love it. I’ll start letting them out of the whelping box more over the next few days.

We are all anxiously waiting on Maddie’s litter, now. She doesn’t seem very big to me, but I said that about Bird too! Maddie is enjoying being queen of the sofa with an occasional growl when the rambunctious Gitch and Minnie are playing too rowdy for her liking. She spends time in the whelping box, but prefers being close to me for the most part.

We’ve had a lot of rain over the weekend, melting all the lovely snow. Now I just have mud and yuck. I may eat those words come Thursday, however as I guess we have a fair chance of a good snowfall. How much depends on the track and temperatures. You bet I’ll be hunting the next few days before too much snow, before I leave for Christmas, and before Maddie’s litter arrives. I am hitting the woods every chance I get! Sadly, the season closes here at the end of the month. I’m fortunate, however, to live very close to Wisconsin, where the season is in until the end of January, so I’ll bite the bullet, get a non-res licence and hunt there! Unless, of course, there is just too much snow… and then maybe I’ll just have to take off for a jaunt to Kansas, eh? A girl can always dream, right? Scott, darling, when are you moving here?

I’ve received some great photos, lately and I’ll add those soon. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you—I have not—and appreciate all the pictures and news. It makes my day every day! I’ve had excellent reports about the pups from the Thorn and Spices litters and I’ve heard my boys in Montana are enjoying their new life. I have to stop calling them my boys, I know. For 8 months they’ve been the light of my life, though. This business is rough on the heart and soul… and the floors, and the carpet, and the furniture, and the truck, and the…. but I really don’t think I could trade my “Life with Llewellins” in the Northwoods for anything.

With that, I’m off to scrub and paint the kitchen again because the “Aviators” will be taking it over soon and I can’t stand when even though I scrub and scrub, things in photos still look dirty. And then, I do believe I am going to try my hand at building a hearth and surround for the wood stove sitting in the corner of the living room being used as a side table instead of helping to heat this old farmhouse. I want to build a new whelping box because I can’t stand the wood the other one is made of… I probably should decorate the place for Christmas otherwise folks might think I’m a scourge, but I’m not at all—I just can’t get time to do it.

I’ll let you know how hunting goes and I’ll keep trying to get better photos of the pups with the crappy camera until the batteries arrive for the better camera.

Until then, folks…. hug your Llewellin.

-LML