The Puppies are heading home...

First - I have double checked it and Ginger is out of Dundee (Am Can Ch Nuthatch's Snowy River Rider) and Shiraz (Nuthatch's Unchained Melody). She is a full sibling to Bella (Nuthatch's Hocus Pocus - fostered out with a family in eastern Ontario) and my sister's boy Garak.

Everyone always asks how you can bear to send puppies off to their new homes. Frankly, I do it with glee. By the time you have ten GSP puppies at 8 weeks of age, you have a non-stop poop factory and chaos machine. They can now push that ex-pen wherever they wish to go in the living room, dragging their mess behind them. When you try to lay down fresh newspapers they are right there to play the game of destroying them as fast as you can let them go and sometimes faster. Some paper never even gets to hit the floor before it has been snatched by a little mouth eager to play the game. When you tuck them behind baby gates in the kitchen so you can clean their mess up, they proceed to tackle the kitchen tablecloth (and magicians who can pull the tablecloth out without dropping a thing they are not), the gates themselves (yes, that many puppies can knock down the gate when they move en masse - thereby causing you to drop the bundle of newspapers in your hand and rush to try to prevent them from attempting the stairs in their unsupervised explorations), and anything else they can get into. In essence, they have turned into constant work and as a poodle breeder once told me, no matter how many newspapers you use you can guarantee that the place you lay your hand will be where it gives and leaves you with a fistful of sh**.

In the summer months, they can be put out in ex-pens to enjoy the sunny weather and play and that helps a lot but in the winter that is not an option.

By this point I have also met all their families, often multiple times, and I know where they're going and how much their new families are looking forward to welcoming them into their pack. It's not like they're leaving my place to go live on the streets of Toronto.

So, they leave and I'm often left with mine - if I don't have a foster home lined up already - and maybe one who is waiting to catch a flight or for his family to return from a trip, etc. This is when it gets hard. Two aren't very much work at all and there is a lot more time to play with them and cuddle them on your lap as you watch a movie and just carry them around the house with you. While you always love all of them you know you've done right in letting them go. When you're down to one it becomes much harder to say it's for the best and is in their best interests to move on to new homes.

Just ask Limerick (aka Lime-Ricky and Nuthatch's Funny Girl - out of Jeannie & Frost). I was determined to foster her but no one was interested at the time. Of course, she was lonely without her brothers and sisters so she needed to spend lots and lots and I mean lots of time being played with and cuddled by everyone in the house. Then Miss Emily (aka Can Ch Nuthatch's At Last aka the Boss Bitch these days) took a shine to her and decided she would willingly tolerate the little fiend and it was all downhill from there. Now, you'll hear me say after she's finished her Canadian and American championships or maybe if a really good show home comes along (as if a good enough one is likely to come along) she can be fostered or co-owned. Until then, everyone, including the adult dogs has pretty much made her part of the pack.

With a little luck we'll find a foster home for Becca's daughter fairly soon because Grandpa is going to kill me if she hangs around too long. (And yet, I'm not the one who decides to have quiet time with them curled up on his lap late at night???)