Sammy is in heat!

Finally - today it happened. The first drops of blood appeared. This means that the count down for the trip to Munich has started. But first the progesterone should go up ... and up... and then, in perhaps 10 days - 2 weeks I will start the car and start travelling towards the south. YEAHHH :-)

Sammy - heat? soon?

Sammy and Taitha i Bønnerup 14-03-2010
Originally uploaded by kibutata.

As can be seen on the photo she IS listening to me when I tell her how wonderful it will be to travel to Germany, to meet Ben (she is a bit worried about the arranged marriage bit) and play a bit with him, and I am also tryng to get her into the mood of having the actual puppies - for which she is not *quite* convinced.
Because... perhaps it isnt possible then to run like the wind on the beach, tackle big boy Taitha and all the other fun stuff she has done today?

HD & AD results for F litter so far

Now half of the F litter has been x-rayed:
Lewanika Famuyeke HD: A AD: 0
Lewanika Fubelu HD B, AD 0
Lewanika Fulumuzi HD A, AD 1
Lewanika Fufuna HD A, AD 0

not bad .....

bird dogs?

Another freezing cold days, dogs lazing indoors, fire burning from early afternoon. I have been watching a bunch of partridges (vagtler) walking on the snow outside, but when Eliza wanted out it looked like they had gone ... NOT! ... Liza caugth their movements in the rose bushes and literally flew through the garden and Sammy went from sound sleep to flying RR in a microsecond. Lots of movement in the rosebushes and then Liza proudly carries her prey out - while Sammy points perfectly. Then Sammy is allowed to carry - and by then I have got my wellies on to go out and check that the poor little thing is properly dead.
The amazing thing is, that even after a fair bit of proud carrying, the small bird has no marks of teeth, except right on the neck .- both dogs apparently having very soft mouths.

Poor old boy

Earlier this week Yankee developed a walnut sized bump under his right eye, it looked rather like an infected tooth so Thursday morning we went to the vet and their diagnosis agreed with mine and Yankee was prepared for surgery.
Three teeth had to go: two of the 4th premolar tooth (also known as the Carnassial tooth) which is the largest tooth in the dog's mouth. It is located midway between the nose and the angle of the jaw. This is the main "chomping" tooth used for grinding up food and also one P2 which had also cracked. As the vet said: he has enjoyed many lovely bones in his long life.
It was a rather big surgery as the roots of  the P4's are long and strong and has to be cut out more than pulled out so for the last few days, poor Yanks has been on soft foods and pain killers. But today he came along on a nice long walk in the slush and was quite ready for some more chewable treats :-)
And soon he will be ready to enjoy the next big bone

Evil owner

Wild canines spend large amount of their day foraging for food, but our pets normally inhale their dry fodder in a mantter of minutes. This leaves many hours of the day to be filled - often with mischief - so we always make our dogs work for their feed, getting it out of soda bottles, or most often, finding it scattered all over the land. However, this persistent winter is posing new challenges to our poor African dogs as they are forced to find their kibble in the snow! Today was particularly bad as the snow was pelting now and thick fresh snow was hiding the food ...... But the dogs were persistant and stayed out till the last little bite of kibble had been found.

a good beginning....

Puppies are planned, yes, and have been for some time now, and I am not the only one awaiting Sammys  approaching heat with great anticipation. 

However, gorgeous Ben lives all the way in Munich, and with such a travelling distance, I thought I'd better get Sammy checked by the best alternative reproduction veterinarian in Denmark: Tove Due in the cosy little village of Korinth on Southern Funen. Apart from being an experienced veterinarian, Tove is a trained acupuncturist and osteopath (chiropractor) and years back she helped Puuma to reabsorb her ovarian cysts and become pregnant again.

But this time I came with two "healthy" girls - Eliza, our little Manchester Terrier girl, who still hasn’t succeeded in ovulating and Sammy, Puumas daughter, who I just wanted to be sure was in top form to the physical challenge of carrying a large litter of puppies.

It was a huge experience - Eliza received cranio sacral therapy as one of the bones in her scull had misplaced it self, and got a good few bones in her back set, as well as acupuncture to activate her ovaries. Sammy got a wauw - 100% clear totally healthy, very strong energy lines..... until Tove reached her rear end, but just over her pelvis things changed and it turned out that her pelvis was quite badly aligned (maybe the reason that she never wants to jump into the car?) and one of her legs had also got quite a bad hit. This was carefully moved back and also she got a back full of needles