Winding Down

Apologies to all for not getting the 7 week pictures up, but I've been doing catch up here and "playing with my fish". That means water changes, 30-40% on each of the 40+ fish tanks (done every 7 to 10 days). Takes me a couple of evenings every week, especially when I stop to admire my scaley beauties! Argus is my Assistant Fish Keeper and loves to "help" which means I am forever tripping over him. He pretends to bite the fish, leaving mouth marks on the glass, and his favorites are the black spotted Knight Gobies, my Dalmatian spotted fish. I'll work on pictures and a webpage update tonite!

Sherman & Spencer leave tomorrow morning - the babies birds are leaving the nest! How can that be? Seems like only yesterday we were discussing the litter, and now the pups will soon be leaving for their new (and hopefully, forever) homes. An enormous amount of money and time have been invested in this litter, and we can only hope that the new owners follow up on what we have begun.

Although I agonize over each puppy placement, we've been extremely successful with that over the years. Very few of our pups have come unplaced for any reason, and when they do it has generally been because of family issues, primarily divorces. Pups are placed with the understanding it is forever, but people's health, financial, and family situations change, and we can only hope for the best for both the pup and its owners. The most recent situation occurred when the youngsters developed serious allergies and a new home had to be found for the 6 year old Dal. Fortunately I had someone waiting who was happy to take on an adult. One of the most aggravating situation was when a buyer dumped one of my pups at the Humane Society rather than notifying me that they were having problems. Fortunately, someone who was looking for a Dalmatian adopted the handsome liver boy who came with paperwork - which contained my name and address, and he contacted me. That dog lived a long and happy life in an excellent new home.

All the homes this time are previous Dal owners. Two parties I have interviewed, and who have met the pups, another I had previously sold a puppy to some years ago, and a fourth that is a referral from Bonnie, who had previously sold them a dog. We don't anticipate that they will have any problems with new puppies, but I always tell people that my pups come with Lifetime Service Policies - if you have problems PLEASE CALL ME! It's much easier to solve small problems than large ones, and many issues do not go away on their own, but may have easy solutions.

I started an Excel spreadsheet to show the various costs of raising a litter, and sent it on to Tom so he could add his expenses. Whew! Now I know why I don't normally track those things - I might never do another litter!

But . . . We are waiting for Violet's CERF eye exam, and if her eyes check out fine (her OFA xrays looked good) she may come to spend the winter in Paisleyland. Because she is liver factored, we will see what Argus will do in brown. But that's the subject for another blog . . .