Goodbye and Hello

I needed to take our little litter to the dog kennels for medication today. There were lots of people down there, which many prospective homes available for our pups. The ladies asked if we could take our older litter back there for re-homing. On one hand we'd hoped we would be asked for the puppies back, as the younger they are the easier they are to be re-homed. They were also becoming quite a handfull. They were great fun but, boy, the mess! On the other hand, we were dreading this day. We love the pups.

Dan, Milja, India and I took Princess Belle, Rover, Tiger, Tiny Tim and Mozie to the kennels and had a bit of a cry. We settled them in a room with three other pups (whose mum had turned on them) and said Goodbyes. We will see them again, as we will go and visit them and eventually will do the house visits to the prospective owners.

We were asked if we would be ready to take on another litter, this time a very young one. We were more than ready! It would have been a devastating day had we not been given the new litter. Now, it was a busy day.

The new litter consists of 4 young puppies who have no teeth and whose eyes are just about opening. Judging by this, they are 10 days old. The pups were brought to DARG by kids from the townships who said they were found in the woods. They said the litter's mother is dead. There are three other puppies in the litter but the children who brought the dogs to DARG could not find them.

Dan and Milja stayed home to look after the puppies while Heikki, India and I went to Oudekraal. It's a nature reserve halfway between Hout Bay and Cape Town. It's on a coast with sheltered picnic areas, huge boulders, the sea and beaches. A great place for a day out. A friend from work, Gordon, was celebrating his birthday, and his better half, ChrystalBel, had organised a wonderful picnic. Heikki and half of the others went snorkling. I looked after India and played with Matias who came there with Seija, Joona and Joona's friend.

When we got home I decided it was time to be organised with the pups. Three of the new litter look exactly the same so we needed to figure out how to tell them apart. Nail varnish would do the trick.

I drove down to the chemists and bought four different color bottles. We then named the pups: the black one (a bitch) is called Scout. She has a bottle with black on it. The other bitch is called Harriet. She has pink fingernails and a pink bottle. One of the dogs is called Marcus (the pups were born on Markus's name day according to the Finnish calendar). He has a yellow bottle. The other dog is called Pete (pronounced the English way). He has a blue bottle and blue fingernails. Now we can better keep track of who has eaten and who hasn't.