Wonderful Winter

In winter, I obsessively watch the weather forecasts and keep extras of basics in. Today amazon have failed to deliver and the coal man still hasn't made it up the hill. We have very little snow now, it's just the ice. We are not desperately short of anything, but I hate only having one bag of dog food in the shed. (Though the barrels are half full in the house.) Steve is getting ratty as he hates the snow and ice, but I love it as long as it doesn't clash with a dog show!

Carpal Tunnel

Siska and Meerah in the field today, a fresh covering of snow and thick ice made life fun for them but a little difficult for us. We got out to get to the doctors but the roads, even at that time, were pretty dodgy. Doctor google was right and I have carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands. I now need to sleep with them both in braces for 6 weeks, I can't imagine that will be fun! I have to go in for blood tests to check my thyroid levels, again and to check for rheumatoid arthritis. Coming home was fun, we'd made a conscious decision to go in the van as it's better in wintery conditions than the car ... but there was some skidding and sliding on the last hills home!

Happy Birthday L Litter

Happy Birthday to Kaiah's kids

There has been some tears today!

Making The Most Of The Snow

Well what little we have left!

Smile Zeus - Haha you look silly!

Orin and Siska

Posing for treats!

Sammi, Loki, Meerah, Ross

Oh Ross!!!

Ross, Beti, Meerah

Beautiful Morning

Loki Thoughts

A photo of Loki and Meerah out in a beautiful fresh covering of snow today. I had to watch him as he's eating snow continually, but the toy does help. Bless him he looks old and frail. 

Yesterday evening after being out for 20 minutes, Loki came in and had a poo in the middle room. One blob every three feet or so, easily cleaned as long as no one walks through it. I sighed. 

Between 8.30 pm and 11pm Loki went out 4 times, but still managed to poo in his bed within minutes of going in it. I took him to the kitchen, cleaned out his bed and burst into tears, it didn't get better as I went into the kitchen to find he'd walked through poo and it was now all over the kitchen floor. I took him to his bed and mopped the kitchen floor. Not what I envisaged I'd be doing at 11.15pm.

Steve came through, gave me a hug and said, the cleaning isn't just down to you you know. As I explained to him, it's not the cleaning, that's no problem, it's just the sadness of the whole situation. The old boy is so well in his mind, but his body is failing. This morning I chatted to the breed health co-ordinator, and the subject moved from the matter in hand to Loki. She just made me think ... "as long as you and the dog are coping with the situation then you carry on until it no longer becomes sustainable." Yeah Ok, so others are on the same page aren't they, whilst I may have the odd cry and meltdown as long as Loki is happy, and has dignity in his life then we plod on .... 

2010

Now, this is the kind of snow I was hoping for this morning, not the slushy mess that we have! It was snowing when we went to bed and by 4 am everywhere was covered in snow. (yes I got up to look) 

By 7.15am it was already raining, now we have a dangerous mixture of snow and rain in the yard. There is a river running from the mountain and flowing via the top field into the yard where it's all collecting by the gate as it has nowhere to go. There's a moat around the van, and that is covered in splashes of mud. I know it's called Winter, but I'd just hoped for a couple of crisp snowy days that didn't fall on Manchester Ch. weekend! I'm going to get the troops out now, but I'll have to watch Loki as he gave himself "Snow Gastritis" yesterday, again!!! Actually, Beti did too, but she wasn't as bloated. Father and daughter in the memory photos - Kai and Asha (Kaiser Vom Conbhairean and Blanik Georgette in the pedigrees)

Snow Gastritis

If your dog is showing signs of bloating and shivering after eating snow, it's likely experiencing "snow gastritis," which is an upset stomach caused by consuming large amounts of snow, potentially irritating their stomach lining and causing discomfort; this can manifest as bloating, shivering (due to discomfort), and possibly vomiting or diarrhoea.

Just A Little Snow

Another scare from Loki today, he ate so much snow that he got bloated and started to shiver. (again) I took him in and Steve dried him with warm towels and massaged his belly whilst I walked the others. It took a bit of time, but he got him sorted. Put it this way, he was none too pleased at being left in the house!

In every photo of Meerah today she's looking down at the snow, she was thrilled with it. She was born at 4.45pm - 5 months ago!

Beautiful Beti also ate too much snow and ended up shivering! Silly girl.

Siska and Orin had fun playing chase, it's much for fun than eating the snow!

Meerah at 5 months

Baby Meerah and the M litter are five months old today. I measure her at 55.5 cm and last week at the vets she was 22kg, so she's probably about 23kg by now. I love her colour, I love her coat, I love her beautiful attitude to life. I'll just have to wait and see what happens as regards to the size. If she carries on this way it may well go against the show ring, but of course, what happens over the next month will give me an idea of her adult size. At the moment she is the biggest, heaviest female pup I've had here, a smidge taller than Asha, who was taller than Sammi at this age. (but Sammi is taller than Asha was, and Storm was the tallest ever!)