Zavi With His

I've spent the last three mornings with Mum, today it was a pain clinic appointment. With Steve's poor mobility, Zavi has been spending his mornings with Frank and Linda. He's adapted well to the routine, and been happy and full of fun in the caravan. 

Ignorance Was Bliss

Back in the day when I thought I knew a lot, but really knew f.all life was a lot easier; I carried on with life obliviously and didn't overthink. Last night I was talking to a friend/breeder about puppy ears. She knows, like I do, that there is a male who produced weak ears in Zavi's maternal line, but she is of the opinion that the ear strength from Fransisco will override this weakness. As I told her, I will not relax until there is obvious progress in his ears, but I'm well aware it's far too early to worry, and mathematically the risk of genetically soft ears are low.

Because ear cartilage develops dynamically alongside his skeleton and adult teeth, a few targeted management habits can make a huge difference during the critical window between 8 and 20 weeks.The young cartilage at the base of his ears is incredibly soft right now, and physical trauma can snap or weaken the developing cartliage. (No head biting Beti!) 

Chewing is an absolute powerhouse for ear development. The temporalis and masseter muscles wrap right around the skull and the base of the ear canal. The pumping action, strong, repetitive chewing acts like a pump, drastically increasing blood flow, oxygen, and nutrient delivery directly to the head and the ear cartilage bases. But really even now it's a bit early to overthink the ear issue. I guess in recent times we've got used to Fransisco ears - small strong ears which went up in the nest, falling during teething but back up again very early, but really before "Fransico" litters it didn't really work that way! 

The top photo is of Blade and the second is Mikey - they are about 3, maybe 3 and a half months in these photos. I never questioned their ears, I just presumed with time that they would stand, and they did! 

The Cats Of 2026

Perry and Jamie at the back together, Isla and Choo

Luther and Archie in this photo as well. 

Archie

Luther

Rain

Zavi was over the moon with the rain last night, I doubt he's seen many wet days in his 9 weeks of life, but there's no doubt there's a lot ahead of him. 

Out With My Lovelies

A lovely short walk in Tremadog with Orin and Siska this morning. 

Zavi 9 Week Weight

A 9-week weigh-in and he's 9 kg – well done little man. 

 

Orin was 7 kg, I have Ross' records down as 6.7 kg at 9 weeks, and Loki was a tad heavier at 7.3 kg. 

Zavi's Siblings - Edit To Add Reacher

        

Kate (Pink) and Lila (Purple)

Bryn (Green) 

All the pups are still looking chunky and great, and all have dark eyes so far. I still think Zavi's eyes are closer together than his siblings' and than any pup I've really noticed before to be honest. It's more noticeable in a photo than when you actually see him. It will be interesting to see how his head develops. 

Hopefully I'll get a photo of Reacher and add it to this post soon. 

Reacher 

Lon Goed

My lovelies are back together.

Visiting Cofi Land

                      

Love these photos taken at Ian's today.

 Zavi was happy and had a good look around but did get tired quickly and fell asleep.  

First group photo, luck not judgment!

My Kind Of Weather

A lovely morning walk in the ideal temperature for me and the dogs. This is currently my favourite walk, but tomorrow I will go somewhere else! I may try Orin and Siska together again tomorrow. A walk would be the ideal way to go about it. I've missed my big man as he's so much time in the run over the last week or so – he'll love me more than her again now, haha.