Pardon the Interruption…
My mission is to help you have a healthier dog and breeders to raise healthier Llewellin Setters puppies through educational content based on over twenty years raising, training, and breeding Llewellin Setters. To help support these efforts, this page may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for qualifying purchases at no cost to you.
Hi All!
We hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday spent with you loved ones and maybe even a little upland hunting. 🙂 We hear from many of you that have made hunting on Thanksgiving a coveted, annual tradition. We could have hunted whitetail deer, but did not. We were blessed to have a very special visitor in our house over the holiday week–our almost 6-month-old grandson, our daughter, and son-in-law. They made the long journey from PA to spend a week with us. It was quite the undertaking for them, as I am sure you can imagine.
We have so much to be thankful for every single day and it was so nice to have a week devoted to spending time with some of our children that we do not get to see very often, now that we have moved so very far away from them. 🙁 It is so hard sometimes. Anyway, we hope you didn’t mind the delay too much.
Today was the last day of whitetail deer season and tomorrow Ruffed Grouse season reopens for the month of December and, currently, the weather is mild and there is very little snow on the ground, so we will be able to get back out to enjoy running the Llews. I’m pretty excited about it because there is usually too much snow–as in several feet–to be able to run the dogs. I love snow, but would much rather have the opportunity to get out with the dogs. I missed so much of the season this year and my heart is aching for our Llews that live to hunt. I must admit, however, I’m a tiny bit concerned about the amount of wolves we have been seeing here lately as well as the fact that trapping season is in. I can’t stand the thought of something happening to one of the dogs. But I can’t stand them not getting a chance to hunt, either. The past two weeks of not being able to run the dogs because of deer season was ridiculous. Scott didn’t want to work the dogs even on our own property! I just can’t stand the interference and excuses not to work the dogs.
Ugh, okay, sorry about that rant. On to puppy news, eh?
Mia and Addie are doing great. They are both excellent mothers, taking very good care of their pups. They do love a break and spend it pointing tweetie birds at the feeders. (Sorry for the strangely distorted photo–it was taken through the kitchen window.) It is good for them to get out and get exercise so I’m thrilled when they play nice outside while I get to change the whelping box mats, check and cuddle with the pups, etc.
Mia’s puppies turned two-weeks old already today and Addie’s turn two weeks tomorrow! Wow, did that fly. I named the puppies and got their photos and the litter pages completed today. Here are the links:
The puppy’s dew claws were removed at age 3 days. Their eyes are opening now and they are doing the drunk walk, getting a bit better at it every day. We trim their nails constantly to keep them from scratching Mum.
Sadly, we lost two of Addie’s pups in their first few days. It’s been a very long time since we lost any puppies and I thought I had gotten pretty good at being able to catch a fader early on and get it back with some T.L.C. Not in this case, however. I spent two days and nights (one with one and then one with the other) trying and still lost both. It was a long, exhausting, sad few days to say the least.
We had a bit of a rough week with Maisy who is really declining lately. She wouldn’t eat–not even her treats or fish oil capsules that she absolutely, usually, loves and wanted to be near one of us at all times. I was setting up for some photos of our grandson in the living room and she laid down right in the middle of the pile of lights. It was a perfect chance to take her picture. We hand-fed her lots of turkey, chicken, etc., and she bounced back within a few days, but it is so sad to see her age and decline. Just over the past two months, she seems to have lost most of her hearing and making it outside is hard for her. I can’t stand the thought of losing this great bird dog and friend. Or any of them. 🙁
But that’s the way life goes for all of us–we age and decline and do our best to fend it off and be as healthy as possible. And, that’s all we can do.
We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and we hope you are enjoying some time in the field.
Hug your Llewellin Setter tonight.
-M.
You must be logged in to post a comment.