Puppies

Just before Christmas, our dog Skye gave birth to seven puppies. We were taking bets on how many. As she is so young and little I hoped for three or four puppies. Peter thought five. We were both blown away when it turned out to be seven. But they were all healthy thank goodness, and have grown into seven beautiful pups.

I've never seen baby puppies before. They were so adorable with their eyes closed and unable to walk. It took about four weeks before they were running around and now you can't stop them.

Victoria was absolutely besotted with the baby puppies and inseparable from them. We had to physically shut the door to keep her away from them, but even then she figured out how to drag the stool out from the bathroom so she could reach the lock and open the door.

However once the puppies got mobile they have been spending more and more time outside. I'm not really very interested in cleaning up their messes. We kept them in a cage at first however soon discovered they didn't really want to stray very far from the house. In fact the hot weather meant that all they wanted to do was lie under the house and stay out of the sun. So no worries about them wandering off which is good.

With the puppies out of sight, they have dropped off Victoria's radar a bit. But she still loves them to bits. The puppies are all very compliant at being carried around by her.

In order to be able to tell them apart we gave the puppies all nicknames based on their looks. There were two grey/white puppies, one male and one female. The male one is called GreyBoy, the female Squeaky as she was definitely the loudest when they were tiny (now they're all yapping loudly). There are five black/white puppies, two male, three female. The males are Stripe (who has a white stripe) and Circle (who has a white circle shape on his forehead). The females are Diamond (who has a white diamond shape), Kinda (who kinda looks a bit like all the rest), and Skinky who was originally named Kinky because of the kink in her tail but Victoria renamed Skinky.

- - -

GreyBoy - Squeaky - Stripe - Circle

- -
Diamond - Kinda - Skinky

Skinky is Victoria's favourite. Diamond and Squeaky are Kathleen's favourites. Squeaky is Peter's favourite. GreyBoy is my favourite. Parting with them is difficult.

Peter put the puppies up for sale on Trade Me when they turned six weeks old, and within a couple of days they were all sold. We got a call about GreyBoy within minutes of the ad going up, from some people in Christchurch who had been looking for years. They will pick him up at the end of this week.

The first to actually leave were Diamond and Kinda, both on Wednesday. Diamond got taken away while Kathleen was at school (her first day) and I was devastated and didn't know how I would break the news to her that her favourite puppy would not be there when we got home. I cried in the car driving to school. This made Victoria think it was a big deal and the first thing she did when we got to school was to tell Kathleen that Diamond was gone. She shrugged it off and said "oh well, I like Squeaky too". I guess it helped that since day one we've been telling the girls that the puppies will be going to new homes one day.

However I was still dreading the day when someone wanted to take Victoria's Skinky away from her. Luckily the couple that decided to take her said they couldn't take her straight away and would come back at the weekend. That gave us a couple of days to prepare Victoria for it. In the end she was also rather blase about it. She gave Skinky a goodbye hug and kiss and handed her over cheerfully. Both Skinky and Squeaky are going to the same home, which makes Peter and I happy that they will be together.

So Diamond and Kinda left last Tuesday, Skinky and Squeaky went yesterday. That's the four girls gone and the three boys left. Circle and Stripe are due to go Monday and Tuesday, and we get to keep GreyBoy until Friday (ironic that he was the first to be sold but the last to leave).

I will definitely miss them when they're gone. However they're now at that chewing on everything stage and so in a way I'm glad they're going. Timmy and Skye are both handfuls but I'm happy to say they are both past that stage now. Their only problems are that Timmy pees on everything and Skye jumps on you and constantly wants your attention (worse than a child!). I'd like to take them both back to obedience school at some stage and I also think Skye would do really well at agility.

At the end of the day, we've got two pretty good dogs. And now six other families have also got some pretty good (and cute!) dogs.

Megz

Dear Kathleen

Five years and 11 days ago you arrived into this world. Tomorrow you start your first day of school. You are such a big girl now, I can't even begin to describe how proud I am of you. You are intelligent, beautiful, inquisitive. You ask lots of questions and think about the answers.

You love to draw, your drawings are so detailed including hands, bows, belts, eyelashes. Your favourite drawing subjects are people, usually yourself and your family. You got stickers and new pens for your birthday and your own ream of paper, and you do several new drawings every day.

You are becoming more and more independant yet you don't mind asking for help. You have become more independant in your play, and have gotten the hang of playing with the dolls and toys by yourself. We don't play pretend very often any more. I think this is because when your sister Victoria got old enough to play with us, she liked to play dolls rather than pretend and the only way we could all play together was with the dolls. You still enjoy pretending to be an animal, and a noise I have heard a lot over these school holidays has been you roaring at your sister or at me to try and scare us.

You still love being the centre of attention and you love telling jokes. Your favourite joke is "Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I didn't say Banana."

Bedtime can sometimes be difficult for you. Even as a baby you would rather be up and about than going to sleep. I think you find life too interesting to spend it sleeping. You still love TV and computer games. You got a new game for your birthday, Spy Fox, and have completed it several times now.

Your favourite books from the libary are puzzle books, where you have to find something hidden in the picture on each page. We have spent a lot of time at the library these school holidays. You are reading very well and can read lots of words. I'm not sure what your teacher will say when she gets to know you. Hopefully she can find things to challenge you.

You already know a few of the children that are going to be in your class this year, and you know lots of the children that will be in the next class up. Several of them came to your birthday party and you already knew them from daycare as well.

You are excited about starting school tomorrow. I am excited too, at least for now, tomorrow may be a different story. You have been ready for this for a long time now.

I am sad that we won't have so much time together any more, I will miss you. You have said that you are also sad about that. Since Victoria turned three a couple of months ago, she has been going to daycare two days a week and this has allowed you and I to have time together, just the two of us, and I have really enjoyed these days. You will always be my first baby, my big girl. You have had the luxury of having my complete attention for your first two years of life, and for the next two years after that have had my complete attention at least during Victoria's nap times. When she dropped her nap within the last year I didn't realise how much I would miss the one on one time with you. Now I am sad that I will only see you after school and at weekends. I hope that you and I can make the most of this time and still keep our special bond.

I am also a bit nervous of sending you out into the world by yourself (or so it feels to me). I wish I could be there to hold your hand, especially in the early days. But I have to let you go and do this on your own, and trust that you will be alright. There are some things that I know you are going to have to learn the hard way.

Soon this time will be just a memory. You will barely remember a time when you weren't a school girl, or that you didn't always know the friends that you have and are going to make.

But I will remember, my little angel. I remember when you were born, when you first sat up, when you crawled and then walked. I remember taking you to the zoo, to the playground, to the beach. Your first vaccinations, your burnt shoulder, your first fall. Your first time on a horse, your first time on a bike. I remember your first day at daycare and I will always remember your first day at school. Tonight Daddy and I told you that tomorrow will be one of the biggest days of your whole life. You disagreed and said that Christmas was the biggest. In years to come I hope you do remember this most important of days. The day from whenceforth our lives will never be the same again.








I love you my little angel. I love you very much.

Love Mummy