A Special Litter
Proudly presenting Cherry's litter of all four colours - a first for Chelport!
Cherry is a very pretty, sweet natured, sound moving and healthy great-granddaughter of three of my favourites - Ch Chelport Mr Natural, Ch Selcarim Black Silk, and Ch Fantasyfarm Aztecsungold. Unshown due to mismarks, she has a lovely disposition and has retired to live the life of a spoiled and much-loved pet. Cherry's last litter is featured below:
Tuesday January 7 2003
Cherry's pups are due on Saturday, but her temperature has dropped and it looks like they might arrive tonight. I am eagerly awaiting their arrival, as she has been mated to a lovely, sound Tricolour boy Polonez Mieszko (Olly), and I am hoping for a Tri girl to be the first Chelport particolour to hit the show ring. If there is something suitable, the pup will be the culmination of 3 1/2 years of planning, and over 20 years of wishing. My desire for a Tri girl goes back even before I started showing - when we went to pick up Cindy in 1982, there was also a Tri girl on offer. The other family bought her. Cindy was my best mate for seven years, but at last perhaps I could have a Tri girl - and one of my own breeding, what's more! I could have gone out at any time and bought a tricolour girl, but wanted to stick to the breeding which I know so well and trust. Cherry has three of my favourites in her breeding: my own George and Bailey, and dearest Aztec, and she goes right back to my foundation, Lilli. Olly has the attributes I look for in a stud dog, and so I am hopeful that all goes well.
10.50pm: A TRI DOG!!! Weight 8oz. He has lovely markings - especially having come from a Ruby mother - and a huge generous head. We are on our way!
11.45pm: A TRI BITCH!!! Weight 6oz. After all these years, she is finally here! I cry (of course) - I have waited so long. She is even better marked than the dog and has a very feminine head. Wow! Could I be so lucky?
12.00midnight: A BLENHEIM DOG!!! Weight 6oz. This pup is also very nicely marked - not as much colour around his eyes as I like, but certainly enough. He is cobby with a long neck, but is smallish, and not as keen to suckle. He is the spitting image of a pup Cherry had before - almost identical markings. Sadly that boy didn't make it - I hope this one picks up and does better.
1.10am: A RUBY DOG!!! Weight 7oz. Nice chunky boy, with a really generous head. We are on the right track to having a litter with all four colours! That would be an added bonus - not something I was especially aiming for, but a rare occurrence and noteworthy. All we need now is a Black and Tan, and we have all four!
1.50am: A BLACK & TAN GIRL!!! Weight 7oz. Could this get any better? We've done it! Thank you Cherry - not only have you and Olly given me the Tri girl I've wanted for so long, but now we have pups in all four colours. This is truly a "red letter day" for Chelport.
3.30am: A BLACK & TAN GIRL!!! Weight 8oz. Another one! Very much like her "older" sister - both have generous heads and chunky little bodies. I check Cherry to see if there are any more pups - I haven't had a litter this big in years, and am not comfortable about the mother's well-being if she produces more.
Finally at 5.30am it seems she has finished. She settles down to feed her brood. My Mum, who has been here all night helping out, heads back home and I go to bed for a couple of hours sleep. It is nearly our normal time for getting up, but I think we will have a late start this morning! Wow - my Tri girl AND all four colours...
Week one: I am home from work on two weeks leave, to make sure all goes well with Cherry and her babies. The Blenheim boy isn't as strong as the others, but the day after they are born, some puppy multi-vitamins arrive in the post. They all get some, and he gets the maximum daily dose - he picks up immediately and suckles furiously. I keep the drops up to him every day for that first week. They pass their first vet-check - my vet is impressed with how "robust" they all are. Lots of photos, and excited emails and phone calls with a few select friends - they all know how much this litter means to me, and are thrilled!
Week two: All is going well. At this age, there is not much to look at, as they are just blobs who feed and sleep. They cannot see or hear, but oh boy, can those Tri's squeal?! The pups are all quite mobile for their age.
Weeks three/four: Back to work, and in fact to a new job. I am closer to home and pop in during the day to make sure all is well. The babies have their eyes open now and are developing characters of their own. They crawl over each other, wrestle for the best teats and start to push some toys around the whelping box. Several of them have even escaped out of the whelping box, so it is time for the one with higher walls! They have started on solids - straight onto the raw foods diet of chicken/vegies mix, with mother's milk to wash it down.
Weeks five/six: Uh oh! They are at that age where they test their boundaries to find out what is and is not acceptable behaviour. Ears are being eaten, noses are being bitten, puppies are screaming as they are pulled along by the tails, courtesy of their littermates. They really are rough at this age...
Week eight: Time for lots and lots of photos! My friend Sharon, who owns Olly the dad, and I meet up to take family photos. Later in the week, other friends help take pictures of the babies. Soon the pets will be off to their new homes and training for the show dogs will start in earnest. But that's all for now - here is a photo of the whole family, taken when the babies were 7 weeks old:
July 2004: Four of these babies have gone to live wonderful lives as spoilt pets. Madeleine (Chelport Hereatlast) has settled in with Sharon, of Fantasyfarm, while Scottie (Chelport Nevrsaynevragn) stayed with me, to continue his show career. Scottie is featured on The Boys 1 page.