welcome

I'm sitting enjoying the first coffee I've had in... actually I don't know how many months it's been since I've had a coffee.  But a fairly long time.  The occasion?  We are celebrating the arrival of Keksi's puppies last night.  I say "celebrating" but, in truth, there might be the tiniest bit of self-preservation in there too as the first puppy arrived at 9:30 last night and we've been going all night.  This is the 2nd night of no sleep for Keksi & me, and even after all her hard work, she's definitely doing better than I!

At the time of writing (9 am on Sunday), I'm still not 100% certain she's finished, as number 7 arrived only an hour & a half ago, more than 5 hours after number 6.  Number 7 is a bit slow to get going, as you might expect, but he's moving & making noise so I'm hoping he will make it.

So, without further ado, welcome to the Riemu litter!

Mum & babies















For these puppies I've chosen the litter name "Riemu" (pronounced ree-moo, approximately) as a way of carrying on the family name tradition on their sire's (Glenchess Ilolas) side of the family.  Riemu is a Finnish word meaning "joy" or "elation".  Ilolas's pet name is Ilo (pronounced ee-lo), another Finnish word meaning "joy".  His kennel name, Ilolas, is the Saami form of that word.  His father, Lapinlumon Elämänilo, is also called Ilolas, and Elämänilo's father is called Ilo.  So, as you can see, there's plenty of joy in the family.

I've chosen another word with the same meaning, as I feel there are quite enough Ilos and Ilolases in the family tree already - not to mention a little lady, Neka's half-sister, who lives here in the UK on the south coast and is also called Ilo (although it's pronounced it differently with a long I-sound as eye-lo). 

As with all things related to the Kennel Club, though, the name Riemu is subject to their approval, so I hope I don't run into any problems there.

We have a little bit of a rainbow, colour-wise.  There is a black tricolour girl and 2 black tricolour boys, a brown boy and a brown wolf sable girl and what I think is a wolf sable girl - but at this stage it's difficult to tell, frankly.  She might be black tricolour too.  And, of course, a cream girl who is looking just like her half-sister Marja (Marilyn) from the last litter.

Individual photos up tomorrow.