happy birthday

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L-R: Taika, Taito, Karhu, Koda, Diesel, Torvi, Keksi

Ten years ago today – a very special day, as it was the day that Neka gave birth to our very first litter of puppies.  Stoic as she was, and inexperienced as I was, I didn’t see the signs that they were on their way and so I left her snoozing on the sofa when I made the 20-minute round trip to pick up Jay from the park & ride on his way home from work.  When we got back she had gutted the sofa cushions, leaving chunks of foam all over the floor.  Ah, that would be the "nesting" that I had read about, then.

Pretty soon I noticed she was grunting, and a quick phone call to a more experienced friend confirmed that this was certainly contractions, so we retired to the whelping box in the back room. 

I cannot now remember how long I had to wait for the first puppy to arrive, nor how long it all took for the 7 to arrive.  I do have notes filed away of the event, but sadly there was no blog in those days, so when an old computer died without a backup a few years ago I lost most of my photos of this litter (back up your computers, people!).   

But I have a few.

I was hoping to have a reunion for this milestone birthday, but with one of the gang in Scotland awaiting the imminent arrival of a new human baby brother or sister, and a family member of another out of the country at the moment, it was never going to happen.

These dogs are a great bunch of characters – good-natured, friendly & easy-going, occasionally lazy & stubborn, blessed with excellent health & good looks.  Very happy 10^th birthday to the oldies, and many happy returns, in birth order, as always:

Koda

6 weeks & 9 years (Photo: Helen Golden)

Taika

6 weeks & 9 years (Photo: Kate Wilson)

Karhu

10 weeks & 10 years (Photos: Wendy & Scott Gilmour)

Diesel

6 weeks and 10 years (Photo: Melinda Groves)

Taito

6 weeks & 10 years (Photo: Mark Treasure)

Keksi

6 weeks & 10 years (Photo: Daniel Spencer)

Torvi

 

9 weeks & 9 years with Steve (Photo: Steve Giles)

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention all the special families who have loved and cared for these fabulous dogs for the past 9 years and 10 months:  the Goldens, Wilsons, Gilmours, Groveses, McCarthys, Spencer-McGinleys and Gileses – with special mention of Steve Giles who loved Torvi so much and who sadly died earlier this year.  Thank you everyone for 10 great years.

5th birthday

 L-R: Taika, Torvi, Keksi, Taito, Koda, Diesel, Karhu

 

Wow, 5 years already since Neka and I had our first litter of puppies.  On the 13th of June we wished very happy birthdays to Kultainen (aka Koda), Taika, Pikkukarhu (aka Karhu, aka Mr K), Seppo (aka Diesel), Taito, Keksi and Tuuri (aka Torvi).  Although, I have to say that although the owners of those fabulous first Infindigo dogs are saying "five, already!?" to tell you the truth, I'm saying "only five!?"  Because a lot has happened to me and and my dogs in those 5 years - that was even before the birth of the blog.  Eons ago, surely!  There have been 4 more litters since then, for example.  27 more puppies.

But, back in the day, here's how cute that first litter were.  In these photos they are 5-6 weeks old.

Kultainen
Finnish word meaning "Golden"
Owned by the Golden family
Pet name "Koda"

Taika
Finnish word meaning "Magic" or "Spell"
Owned by the Wilson family where she now lives with her own daughter, Minna

Pikkukarhu
2 Finnish words stuck together, meaning "Little" & "Bear"
Owned by Scott & Wendy Gilmour where he now features as "Mr K" in Wendy's very successful fashion & lifestyle blog, Thankfifi
Pet name also "Karhu"

Seppo
Blacksmith from the Finnish Kalevala
Owned by the Groves family
Pet name "Diesel"

Taito
Finnish name meaning "skill" or "expertise"
Owned by the McCarthy family

Keksi
Finnish word meaning "biscuit"
Owned by Daniel Spencer & Jim McGinley
She now lives with her adopted brother Ismo and her own son, Kuura

Tuuri
Finnish word meaning "luck"
Owned by the Giles family
Pet name Torvi, finnish word meaning "nose"













And if you'd like to see how cute they are at 5 years, you can visit their individual pages by clicking on their names here. 

Stay tuned - as soon as I get my photos sorted I'll post some from our birthday walk / mini-reunion.

happy birthday...

...to Neka's second litter of puppies, the Devon Nine, who are 2 years old today. Can it be? Even little Maija is now a fully-fledged grown up Lappy.

Oh, and did I say that when the older dog is 2 years it's the ideal time for a new puppy... heh, just kidding! Well, I'm not kidding about the timing, actually. Two years is the ideal age to bring in a new puppy because that's the magic number when one's Lapphund finally starts to grow up and be a bit sensible. If you're lucky. I was, however, just kidding about getting another puppy. I wouldn't. I couldn't! Could I? No! Most emphatically not. My 6-year-old Neka? Not sensible, not a bit. Little Maija out-sensible-s her mum in every way.

Here's how the Monta puppies looked at about 5 weeks. As you can imagine, it was notoriously difficult to get a photo of all of them at once. There is a cute one at the bottom of this page, though.


A few of the Devon Nine.
L-R: Maija, Tarkka, um, Sulo? - no, Rauhan, Jaana, er, Inko?
It's difficult!








L-R: Inko, Tarkka, Jaska, Maija, Rauhan squished on the bottom (& I think Tarmo might be down there too.)












And here they are with their mum at 1 day old.














Dad Keskiyö saying hi to Sulo (Kaija) & looking a tad unsure about the whole puppy thing.

happy birthday...

...to Neka's first litter of puppies who are 3 years old today.

Here's how they looked at about 4 weeks.












L-R: Torvi, Taito, Karhu, Keksi, Taika, Diesel & Koda at the back

And here's how they looked on their first day with supermum Neka.















L-R: Brown one, brown one, another brown one, Diesel, brown one, Taito, brown one

magic number

Oh, you clever things, how did you know? Despite all the evidence suggesting otherwise, most of the people who voted on the poll chose 5 puppies. And I'm thinking that after my experience of 7 and then 9 of the little beasts, then 5 will be positively easy. Uh huh.

This is how much mess 7 make when they're learning to eat porridge:














Top, L-R: Keksi, Tuuri, Seppo, Koda
Bottom, L-R: Karhu, Taito
Missing from photo: mum-to-be Taika

Kate zoomed down to visit Kath and her brand new ultrasound machine. Lo and behold, she did indeed spot 5 puppies - maybe 6, she said. So, it's quite a relief to know it's more than 2 or 3, although 5 or even 6 will not completely fulfil the demand for them. Unfortunately, some people will just have to wait until next time.

It's so lovely to give people the good news - yes, there are puppies on the way and if nothing goes horribly wrong, then you shall have your long-awaited Finnish Lapphund! Equally, it's terrible to give people the bad news - sorry, not this time. On a mating attempt long ago, we were unsuccessful and I had to tell a bunch of people that there would be no puppies at all on that occasion. Including Kate who ended up with Taika 8 or 10 months later. And this time, the news will also be sad for some who were hoping for a bigger litter. We've all been there with the wait for a Lappy puppy - a very lucky few just happen to turn up at the right place at the right time and ask the right question and not have to wait at all. Most have to wait a bit, especially if they prefer a specific colour or sex.

And so on to the list of prep chores: I am now in possession of plenty of liquid puppy wormer & Kate is employed administering a squirt to Taika everyday. I also have a stack of puppy insurance packs and a whelping box which is currently flat-packed until such time as the junk room is cleared - see previous post. I'm awaiting puppy sales wallets which have been ordered. None of these do much to help whittle down my list, it's true.

Things to add to the list:

• Update the puppy information pack
• Update the sales contract & send to everyone so we have a chance to talk it through

So what's the holdup? If you've had half an eye on Twitter this week you will know that I've been busy setting up a new work-related website. Yawn. Part of the job entailed photographing tiny electronic parts and somehow getting them more or less in focus (yeesh, my eyes!) For this purpose, I needed a smooth, bright white background and so I was using the glossy back of a spiral-bound report we had for something or other and placed it in the feeble natural light coming in through patio doors.

Keskiyo thought it looked like fun, and he decided to help out. He's much more photogenic than these other things, don't you think: