Sheila was born in Australia but her mother was born in the United States (at Camelot) and her father was born in England and imported to Australia. Not only that, but her paternal grandfather was born in The Netherlands. Sheila's dam is Aust GrCh Camelot's The Fifth Element ROM (Leelu), past winner of the Australian Rhodesian Ridgeback National Specialty (the only livernose who has ever done that). Leelu was born at Camelot and was our house pet until she was sent to our good friend Lisa Barrenger in 2008. Sheila's sire was "Red", Rekaylahn Kwa Red at Ujumaa, owned by Vicki Moritz. Red was lost in the tragic Melbourne wildfires in early 2009.
The breeding was carried out by artificial insemenation using frozen semen on January 28, 2013. The puppies were delivered by C-section on Wednesday, March 27.
There are only five puppies in the litter and at the moment they all appear to be show/breeding potential. It is possible that, as they grow, some will have faults that will cause them to be classified as pet quality. However, at this time we have a long list of applicants for pet-quality puppies and therefore are not accepting any more applications for pets. I am still interested in talking with people who are seeking a well-bred show-quality puppy; contact Clayton Heathcock.
All pet-quality puppies, if there are any, will be sold with limited AKC registration, meaning that they cannot be exhibited in AKC conformation events and, if bred, their offspring cannot be registered with the AKC. In addition, pet-quality puppies are sold with a contract that requires neutering or spaying by the age of nine months. For show-quality puppies, preference is given to individuals who are members of one of the recognized Rhodesian Ridgeback breed clubs (preferably the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States, RRCUS) and/or who have prior conformation experience.
The breeding was done by artificial insemenation using frozen semen (transcervical insemenation) by Dr. Janice Cain at the Bishop Ranch Veterinary Clinic. Here is a photo of Dr. Cain and Louise Vangsgaard, Sheila's coowner, and Sheila, in a most embarrassing pose.
Louise took Sheila to Bishop Ranch for ultrasound on March 2 and confirmed that we have puppies on board; Dr. Cain's estimate was 6-8.
Because Sheila had trouble with a natural delivery in her first litter, and we had lost a very nice male puppy when she stalled during natural deliver, we had planned a C-section. I took Sheila to Bishop Ranch Monday afternoon and Dr. Cain examined her, did an x-ray, and decided that Wednesday morning would be the best time. I took Sheila in at 8:30 and met Louise there. Sheila was prepared for the operation and at 10 am, Louise and I were excorted back to the operating area to witness the delivery. Here is a photo of Dr. Cain in the delivery room and of Dr. Izekawa and several vet techs cleaning up and examining the puppies as they were delivered by Dr. Cain. puppies on board; Dr. Cain's estimate was 6-8.
When Sheila had recovered from her anesthesia, the vet techs and Dr. Cain brought her into one of the examination rooms where she laid on the floor under a heated cover until she was recovered enough to walk. Here is a photo of her with her head on Louise's lap.
After about another 45 minutes, Sheila was able to get up and walk on her on so we packed the puppies in a plastic box and brought them home. Here is a photo of the pups in their taxi cab and a photo of Sheila curled up in the box with one of the pups nestled between her legs.
There are five puppies, three girls and two boys; weighing 15-19 oundes each. All have show ridges and there is no excessive white or kinked tails. Dr. Izekawa checked all five for dermoids and cleft palates and found none. A sixth puppy was still-born. This puppy was not completely formed in the rear and had an incompletely formed abdominal cavity. Dr. Cain found that the placenta was joined to the uterus in an abnormal way. It was fortunate that we had elected a C-section because it would not have been possible for this malformed puppy to be delivered by natural birth, and the puppy was blocking the uterus so we would also have lost another puppy.
Sheila is a very good mom. Although it took her a few hours after returning home from the vet on Wednesday, she has not taken full possession of her new family. She is very careful entering and leaving the whelping box and the puppies are strong and vigorous crawlers. Consequenlty, we feel we can now trust her alone with the puppies and no longer have to sit with her all the time. She still has some drainage so we have old sheets down on the bathroom floor. However, the discharge is much less than it was the first two days so we will probably be able to dispense with the floor covering soon.
Our bathroom has a dog door that exits to a small privacy garden outside the bathroom. This is normally closed off but when we have a mom dog in the bathroom whelping box, she has access to the outside when she needs to relieve herself.
Sheila has also begun to hang out with the greater family and now goes to the kennel with the rest of the house dogs for her meals. But most of the time Sheila just hangs out in the box with Luxor, Angkor, Taj, Tikal and Lijiang.
Sheila's milk came in yesterday and the pups are happy little campers. She is a big producer and with only five puppies, we will soon have some butterballs. Average weight gain for the litter has been 12-13% per day for the last two days.
Sheila's discharge has now ceased as well and she occasionally comes out of the bathroom where the whelping box is located--but just briefly. She is still nervous about the other dogs coming into the whelping box bathroom so when the other dogs are loose in the house we leave the door closed. However, at night when the house dogs are in their sleeping crates we leave the door open. At 4 am this morning she came to visit Cheri and me in bed with big licks, then proceeded out the dog door to do her business.
Yesterday Louise came for a visit and sat with Sheila and the pups for a couple of hours. The pups are still very headstrong and need lots of holding. When we pick one up the general response is to wiggle vigorously and squeal like a little pig. Then they gradually relax and settle down and after a few minutes are content to nap in your hands. This socializing is important at this age and one of the upsides of a small litter is that it is easy to find time to cuddle each one a few times each day.
The other consequence of a small litter is that there is always an open nipple at feeding time, and actually open nipples for second helpings in most cases. The pups are continuing to gain at the rate of about 12% per day. [If they keep it up they will weigh an average of 266 pounds each at 7 weeks of age.]
Yesterday was Conner's 14th birthday so we had a little birthday party here at our house. Of course, 14-year-old Conner and 12-year-old Camille spent a good part in the whelping box holding puppies.
So far, this has been a very easy litter. The pups are strong and vigorous and are growing like weeds--only 5 days old and the average weight is almost two pounds each. One of them, a light male, seems to be taking after his father, who was a famous lure courser. This is little Luxor, who can scoot across the 4-ft whelping box as fast as lightning.
It is spring vacation for my grandkids Conner and Camille and their grandmother is visiting from Washington so they have been visiting my house a lot this week. That is good news for the puppies because they are getting a lot of holding and socializing. The most willful puppy so far has been Taj, who struggles a lot when being held. However, last night 12-year-old Camille held her for about two hours while we were watching the Giants-Dodgers baseball game and she has declared Taj "officially trained". Her is a photo that Camille took with her iPhone.
All the pups are over two pounds now and the average daily weight gain is down to "only" about 8% per day. I generally figure that pups will double in weight each week for the first two weeks and this bunch is a little ahead of schedule. The average birth weight was 17 ounces and today, one week later, the average weight is 36 ounces.
I am really excited about how these puppies are looking. Beautiful heads at this point--nice broad muzzles and full underjaws. Not surprising as Sheila and Ruger are both distinguished by their typey heads.
Weight gain continues to be very steady, still averaging about 9% per day average gain. The largest puppy (Luxor) is now over three pounds and the smallest (Taj) is about 2 3/4 pounds. They are starting to lurch around a bit and should be up on their feet in a few more days. Eyes and ears are still closed but they should be starting to open by early next week. Sheila is still spending about 90% of the time with them in the whelping box but she does go out to the kennel for meals with the rest of the house dogs. She is perfectly ok with human visitors, both us, family, and strangers (to her). But she is not ok with canine visitors. The other house dogs are very, very interested in the puppies and try to sneak in for a look. If Sheila is in the box she barks at them and jumps out of the box in a threatening posture. So when the other dogs are in the house we still keep the bathroom door closed so that she isn't stressed. Today I changed the bedding in the whelping box and put the pups in a dog bed--which they liked a lot!
I was gone to New Orleans for a short business trip Sunday and Monday. Cheri weighed the pups every day while I was gone and it was amazing to see how much they had grown in such a short time. Their eyes are starting to open now and they are beginning to hoist their bodies up on their legs a bit instead of just scooting around. The average weight now is more than 3 1/2 pounds.
They have all become much more calm when bting held. Even little Taj, who was a major pain to even weigh, enjoys being cuddled. Louise came to visit today and sit with Sheila and the puppies for awhile--Sheila was overjoyed to see her mom and was ambivalent about staying here with her pups when Louise left to go home.
Yesterday afternoon we took Sheila's stitches out. The C-section incision has healed remarkably well--Dr. Cain is a true craftsman.
Last night I watched Tikal walk all the way around the whelping box. Of course, she toppled over on her side a few times. But she made the lap and then settled back into the puppy pile, totally exhausted from her exertion. Today I need to dig out the puppy toys as the eyes are almost completely open and it is almost the time they will start playing with each other. When I weighed this morning I found that Luxor has followed the 1-2-4 rule (1 pound at birth, 2 pounds at one week, 4 pounds at two weeks). Angkor is just behind at 62 ounces. The three girls are more petite, but still ranging from 53-56 ounces.
Louise and I are off to the Orange Coast Rhodesian Ridgeback Specialty tomorrow morning so I probably won't blog again until next Monday. We are taking Molly and Salsa for BOB class and will be showing two of Sheila's pups from her last litter, Bolt and Maya, in the 6-9 puppy class.
Louise and I arrived back here last night around midnight after the long drive from Irvine. The specialty was successful--Bolt is still a squirrley puppy who hasn't grown a brain to match his body yet so he didn't win anything but many of the breeders who saw him show were drooling over him because of his great structure, particularly his return of upper arm. Maya is more trained because her prinbipal owner, Sage Gallegos, has been taking her to handling class for several months. She placed in all six classes and on Saturday whe was 1st in a class of 8. Molly was Best of Opposite Sex at the Specialty on Friday and at the Sunday Western Hound Show. Salsa was Award of Merit at the Specialty and Select Bitch at the Sunday show. For anyone who reads this blog who isn't familiar with dog show awards, what this means is that at the Friday specialty show, Molly was #1 bitch and Salsa was #3 bitch out of a total of 70 bitches. At the Sunday show they were #1 and #2 bitch.
The pups have grown noticeably in the four days we were away. Their little eyes are now fully open and they are walking around the whelping box. The steady weight gain has slowed to an average gain of "only" about 5% per day. Angkor has overtaken Luxor and is not the biggest, with a weight Sunday of over 5 pounds. The three girls are all well over 4 pounds.
Last night Cheri and I were watching TV and we heard one of the puppies screaming back in the master bath where the whelping box is set up. Cheri went to investigate and found two of the pups, Lijiang and Tikal in a dog bed that is next to the whelping box. They were the first two escapees over the 6-inch insert. My whelping box has two different sized door closures so now we have the higher one in place.
Today the pups are three weeks old and walking around smartly. Their eyes are fully open and functional. I have no idea if they see things clearly at this stage, or just shapes and light shades, but they turn their heads to follow motion and are clearly seeing something. The ridiculous weight gain has slowed to only 3-4% per day, but the largest boy (Angkor) is closing in on six pounds.
Louise came to visit yesterday and here are a few photos we took.
Here is a photo of Lijiang, the smallest and most cuddly girl. Also a photo of her perfect ridge.
Louise came to visit yesterday and here are a few photos we took.
The pups are walking quite well now. The dark puppy below is Angkor, the one with the yellow toy is Luxor (aka "Ruger Junior").
Camille and two of her friends came over this afternoon and sat in the whelping box holding the puppies for some time.
We had lots of visitors yesterday. Terry and Victoria Rosen, who are going to have one of the boys; Jeremy Nickala and Stefanie Mortimer, who will have one of the girls; Tim and Debbie Bozarth, who will have one of the girls. The pups got lots of holding, which is great for their socialization.
This afternoon we found that Tikal had learned hot to climb over the higher partition so we have both partitions in the box now. See if you can surmount that!
I was busy pretty much all day yesterday taking Molly and Coco to the dog show in Vallejo and last night we had our monthly wine tasting group at my son's house in Walnut Creek. So I didn't get the pups weighed as usual. The weight given for Sunday on the weight chart is actually an average for Saturday and today. The average weight is a little over 6 pounds with Angkor tops at almost 7 pounds and Tikal at 5 1/2 pounds. I collected the DNA samples this morning for the DM test. I had worried about possible contamination with mother's DNA but when I carefully read the instructions sent with the OFA kits I found that they had anticipated my concern and gave explicit instructions on how to handle puppies who are still nursing. Just keep them away from mother for an hour, wake them from their sleep, and collect the samples.
We have been using the higher of our two door closures for the whelping box (see following photo) but several times the last few days we have found one or two of the puppies walking around the bathroom where the whelping box is located. The escape artists are Tikal and Lijiang, who have learned how to climb out.
So now we have to keep the whelping box door completely closed, which makes it hard for Sheila to get in.
We keep it this way at night or when we are gone but during the day I usually leave all of the doors out so that the puppies can walk around the bathroom if they want. They prefer to sleep in Sheila's cozy cup.
Yesterday was a big day. Sheila has turned in her full-time mother's card. She is somewhat conflicted about her decision, having an occasional urge to be with the puppies. However, she will no longer lay down on her side and let them nurse. They are able to get some nourshiment from her if they stand and suckle the teats that are hanging above them, but they don't get much that way. As a result there was almost no weight gain from Monday to Tuesday and it was clear that it was weaning time. So yesterday the pups had their first food from a pan. I start them with a milk formula made from goats milk, plain yoghurt, mayonaise, corn syrup and egg yolk, with enough Gerber's rice cereal stirred in to make a porridge with the cosistency of oatmeal. They managed the first round with a minimum of mess, although there was a good deal of spillage on their heads.
They had their second pan meal this morning, using the aluminum puppy pan I normally use for young puppies. They managed this second meal with aplomb--no one even needed a bath afterwards. It is amazing how naturally it comes for them to dip their heads into the pan and lap up the semi-solid food when they have never eaten before except milk out of mom's nipples.
Yesterday was also the day they moved from our master bathroom into their own room in the kennel. They have an indoor 5x8 foot room with a Varikennel (door removed) and an open-flap dog door to the outdoor gravel run, which is 5x30 feet. This will be their home for the next month.
This bunch of puppies seems to me to be rather advanced, as they immediately went outside and explored the outdoor run. The first two out the door were Tikal and Luxor and as shown below they both met Salsa through the wire fence. Salsa seems very interested in the puppies and when I let her in the puppy run she went inside to check out the puppies and their digs. Since she will be a mom in just two months, maybe she is just doing research.
The puppies have turned into little dogs this week. I am phasing in ground kibble; a typicl meal is the goat's milk formula (dilusted about 50:50 with water), ground kibble, and enough of the Gerber's rice cereal to make a mush. Unfortunatley they like it too much and I have not done a good job of judging how much was too much. So now they have the runs and I am battlling that. This often happens and I expect to have them settled down in a few days. I started by giving them only diluted milk with cereal for lunch today to give their tummies a break. Sheila hasn't helped as she sneaks into the puppy kennel from time to time and lets one or two of them nurse by standing on their hind legs and sucking a compartment dry. Lijiang did that this morning, shortly after she had her big breakfast from the pan. When I found her she looked like she was about to pop. A couple of hours later she barfed clotted milk and then she napped for a few hours when the four other puppies went to play in the yard. By late afternoon she was back to normal.
Louise came over this morning and took Sheila for a long walk in the neighborhood and helped me dremel nails on Molly, Salsa and Ruby (well, actually she did the trimming and my job was just to hold each dog by the collar and reward with a treat after each paw was done). Louise also sat on the kennel floor loving up on the puppies for awhile.
Louise and I took the four who weren't feeling gimpy to the yard and sat with thiem in the grass in the shade of a magnolia tree. It was their first time out in the grass and they loved it.
Later in the day I had another pair of visitors, Sam and Kate Taylor, who will be getting a puppy next year. We took all five pups back to the grass yard and they played for awhile with mom and later with Salsa, Molly and Ruby.
When playtime was over the fab five curled up in a pile under the magnolia tree for a nap.
I finally decided that the problem with the pups is that they have cocciodosis. This is a bacterial condition that sometimes affects dogs giving them diarrhea. Sometimes dogs can harbor the bacterium at a sub-clinical level. Apparently Sheila is one who does harbor it as we had exactly the same problem with her last litter. We went to the vet today for their general wellness exam (all passed with flying colors) and to get medication that will deal with the coccidia in a few days.
The pups were fine with the car trip to the vet. I transported them in a wire crate that was covered with a sheet. They slept all the way there and all the way back. No whining and no car-sickness. Bunch of troopers.
The stool sample test came back negative--no worms found. However, I always treat with deworming medicine anyway, just to be sure, so we had a three-day course of Panacur. I have also been treating with Albon to treat the coccidosis they apparently had. After three days the problem is almost completely resolved--poops are now "tubular" and normal again. Nevertheless, I will continue the Albon for the full two weeks.
The pups were five weeks old yesterday and they are quite speedy and very resourceful. They have their indoor kennel room that connects to the outdoor run. But during the day I keep the gate to the outdoor run open so that they can go out into the grass yard and play. They like to roll around and wrestle under a magnolia shade tree and they also explore our cement patio. When they are tired of playing outside they all go back into the kennel and curl up in their little room for a nap.
Since they have access to the back yard during much of the day, they also have contact with the adult house dogs. Sheila visits them a few times a day, but she really isn't very interested in them anymore. Although they have been weaned for about 10 days now, they still pursue her and try to nurse, but she is pretty dried up now and she doesn't really like it much, so she just runs away. If is pretty comical--all the little 8-pound puppies chasing their 80-pound mother around the yard.
The pups also have some interactions with the other adults. The older ones--Hadley, Napa and Monroe--don't want to have much to do with puppies and they just stay inside the house when they know the puppies are out. However, the three younger girls--Ruby, Molly and Salsa--are more interested and actually play with them from time to time. The most intersted is Salsa, who is hopefully pregnant herself. It is probably too early for her to be having any maternal hormonal urges, but maybe not.
Louise was here today to go the in Hollister and show Bolt and Coco, the two 9-month old half-siblings of the current bunch of puppy. Bolt and Coco are Sheila's puppies from her last litter. They are both just starting and don't really know what dog shows are about yet. Bolt was 2nd in his 4-dog class, which was good because he was the yongest in the class. Coco was 2nd of two in her class, but she will do better tomorrow.
This afternoon after we came back from the show we had the puppy kennel open and the five puppies had the full run of the kennel, house and yard. They mixed in with all the adult dogs, including Hadley and Napa, who normally don't much like puppies. The age of innocence is now officially over because two of the pups have figured out how to use the dog door into the house, so when I think they are in the yard, I sometimes turn around to find one sitting on the floor right behind me.
Today was the first audition photos. They are only 5 1/2 weeks so this is pretty early, but we found that several of them are very easy to stack. This may be a bunch of natural show dogs. Here is one photo each of the five pups.
Angkor
Luxor
Lijiang
Tikal
Taj
We took another set of stack photos today, indoors with a flash, because the photos I took outside yesterday look washed out and I didn't think the coat colors were representative. These photos are better. The pups are getting the hang of this stacking stuff and they really like the Hagen-Daz vanilla ice cream.
Angkor
Luxor
Lijiang
Tikal
Taj
The pups had the run of kennel, yard and house this afternoon and we had some visitors for a couple of hours to pet, hold and play with the puppies. Here are a few candids.
The OFA posted the results of the DM tests today. Both boys are heterozygous (carriers) and all three girls are homozygous clear. Here are the results.
The age of innocence is totally over. When the kennel gate is open the pups know how to use the dog door in the hallway to get in the house and there are usually two or three hanging out. This afternoon I took a snooze in my recliner with Tikal asleep on my lap.
The pups are a joy now. They are very mobile and when they aren't napping they are exploring all the kennel runs, the big back yard, and often the house. The two boys, in particular, often come in the house through the normal dog door the big dogs use. Here is a photo of Angkor curled up in one of our many dog beds with Salsa.
Last night I was watching the ballgame in my recliner chair. The two boys came in the house and stood up with their paws on the chair to be held. So I took them on my lap and we watched a bit, then Cheri called for dinner. I got up and left them there and they both sat up like they were watching the game (maybe they really were).
When I sent this photo to Louise she said I should buy them little Giants caps and a baseball.
Louise and I took another set of stacked photos this afternoon. The pups are six weeks and two days old, so this is still early. We are very pleased with the maturity of the pups for this age. They are easy to stack and hold position well. Of course, they love the Hagen-Daz. Comparison of this set with the photos we took last week shows significant improvement, especially for Taj and Angkor.
Angkor
Luxor
Lijiang
Tikal
Taj
The puppies have taken a first step to individuality--I am feeding them in five different rooms, each with his/her own bowl. They are still pretty much in the feeding frenzy mentality but hopefully they will soon get used to the fact that what is in the bowl is all for them. This morning I sat out on the patio with the fab five and took a few photos.
Taj
Lijiang, Tikal and Taj
Angkor
Salsa and Molly, both 3-year old Grand Champions, watching from their safe perch
Tikal
Tikal
Lijiang
Play time is over
The pups are 7 weeks old today and Cheri helped me stack them so I could take the 7-week audition photos.
Angkor
Luxor
Lijiang
Tikal
Taj
I am still working on my numerical evaluation. I can evaluate ridge, head, coat and tail now but I need another week to do a meaningful evaluation of gait, general appearance, and the body morphology.
I went through my puppy auditions from past litters and prepared a page that has 6, 7 and 8 week photos, along with an adolescent photo. This is an interesting way to project what you might see for the Sheila-Ruger puppies as they mature. Comparisons.
David Bueno came over after this morning's show in Vallejo to help me stack the puppies and do some comparisons. Following are the last set of audition photos; I think what we have here is pretty much like what we will have down the line.
Boys: The boys hang out together--I rarely see one without the other. However, they are rather different body types. Angkor is shorter in body and has a bit less shoulder layback. He also has leff bend of stifle, so he is less angulated than Luxor both front and back. He is also shorter in loin and shorter in neck. Both boys have good croups and tailsets. Angkor carries his tail with a "Camelot hook", similar to Marley and many of her descendants. Angkor has a goodly amount of black hairs interspersed in his coat, particularly on tail and on his neck. This is not something we normally see in our dogs and neither Sheila nor Ruger have produced it in previous litters, so these may disappear when he sheds his puppy coat. Both boys have nice heads, although I like Angkor's a little more. Both boys now have two descended testicles, so that is good.
Girls: Lijiang and Taj spend most of their time together, whereas Tikal tends to belong to the boy pack. Tikal is clearly the most adventurous of the litter, She was the first to work out how to get in the main house using the dog door that our adults use, and I often turn around to find her sitting on the floor behind me. Taj has also taken up a new hobby the last few days. She has found that it is fun to run at a small shrub or plant in the garden and launch her body through the air and land on the plant. She has pretty much flattened several formerly attractive garden plants. I like Taj and Lijiang a little more than Tikal. However, all three girls have good features. Taj has better shoulder layback and a bit shorter loin. However, she is shorter in leg than the other two girls. This feature is changing weekly for her; refer back to the 5-week photos, for example. Lijiang has a bit less shoulder layback than Taj, but more than Tikal. Lijiang also has the greatest bend of stifle of the three girls and Taj has the least. All three girls have nice toplines. Lijiang has the shortest neck, Tikal the longest. I like the flow of neck to topline to croup for Taj. I think all three girls will turn out to be straight wheaten, although Taj may end up being a bit lighter than Tikal and Lijiang. Taj has an "Ida Belle" white foot on her right back leg.
At the risk of appearing to be kennel blind, I will say that I think the average quality of this litter is among the best I have had. I did my numerical evaluation but you can't take it very seriously. I didn't try the 10 pts for gait so the max would be 90. Here is what I have:
Most of the people who have been looking at the audition photos like Taj and Luxor best, based on the obvious superiority of their fronts. I docked Taj 0.5 point on tail because it is just a bit elevated. However, this often changes as the legs grow and the croup drops over the next few weeks. I also docked her 1 point on ridge because her crowns are slightly offset (maybe 1-2 mm), but no more than Marley or Mojave, so it isn't a big deal. I gave three perfect scores on ridge (Luxor, Tikal, Lijiang); Angkor's ridge is a little short at the top (but still longer than Ruger's). I docked Angkor a point on coat because he has more interspersed black hairs than I like. So not much help. But the closeness of the numbers is a reflection that I like the consistency and that all five are of good quality. For comparison, when I did a similar numerical scoring for the Lennox-Kaya litter that included Molly, Salsa, Ruby & Crosby, the scores ranged from 61-82. In that bunch, Molly had a score of 82, Salsa and Crosby both 76, and Ruby 71.5.
Angkor
Luxor
Lijiang
Tikal
Taj
Today was graduation day for Taj. Judy Bains flew here yesterday from Austin, Texas. She spent yesterday afternoon and this morning interacting with the puppies and I took her back to the San Francisco airport this afternoon with Taj, whose show name will be Camelot's Kuba Taj (Judy and her husband Ken Bains breed under the kennel prefix Kuba).
Today was graduation day for Luxor. Terry and Tori Rosen, who live in Hillsborough, drove over the Bay Bridge this afternoon and spent a pleasant hour with us in the backyard with the four remaining puppies. There new family member is Luxor, whose new name will be Camelot's Fiat Lux, "Halo". Terry and Tori live very close to my co-breeder, Louise Vangagaard, who will undertake training and showing Jango when he gets to the right point.
Graduation day for Lijiang. Here is a photo of her with Debbie and Tim Bozarth of American Canyon.
Her new name will be Camelot's Hazelnut Macchiato" and her call name will be Hazel. Hazel already has her own blog site:
http://hazelnutmacchiato.blogspot.com/2013/05/first-day-home-8-weeks-4-days-old.html
Graduation day for Tikal. Here she is being picked up by half of her new family, Stefanie Mortimer Niskala and Odin. The other half of her new family is Jeremy Niskala and 6-year old Ridgeback Charlie. Stefanie and Jeremy intend to keep Tikal's call name so we will be brainstorming for a good Mayan show name. Watch for Tikal in the Northern California show ring later this year.
