Afternoon Sara sorry to hear about Mouse. (((Hugs))).
Afternoon Jenny. It sound as if you had a nice walk.
You would of been very clever posting while asleep.

I have been to the charity shop again today. Then onto Mark and Traceys with some sheets and quilts and to borrow some alan keys as Gorden couldn't find his. Stayed for cuppa too.
Our wardrobe unit is dismantled and ready to go tomorrow to Mark and Traceys along with the desks.
Sorted two boxes in Michael's room that he needs to sort to see what he wants to keep when he arrives Monday.
Dillon is up and down the stairs and into everything and finding it hard to settle. We have never been so disorganised since he arrived he is going to be nightmare Friday.

Afternoon all, just got back from lunch with Roodee's other mum & doing various bits of shopping for tomorrow at Newark.

Mr T has secured a place on the Xmas cards for AINMHITHE animal rescue Have ordered mine already & I don't really do Xmas cards

Hope everyone is feeing better & Ms Bev Mr T says he will come & visit, he likes the sound of your walks

Afternoon Joedee. Congratulations on the Christmas cards.

I had a short and feel full of beans again. The sun has gone and it looks like it may rain again any time so I'm just going to take the dogs for a very short 20 mins walk (on lead) before settling down for a lovely quiet evening in.

Lynn - Well done it sounds as though you are really getting sorted now. Dillon is bound to be pretty unsettled for a while now with his home being dismantled around him. It won't last and I'm sure he'll soon settle in to the cottage and will love having that large garden to play in.
Joedee - That photo you posted hasn't shown ... well not to me anyway.. Bless Tommee for getting his photo on the Xmas cards. It looks like you'll be sending cards this year then Enjoy your day tomorrow.
Malka - Thanks again for making that photo into avatar size.

See you later.

Waited till 12 noon then took Cariad and Keshi up to my friend's house to see what I could see, and my friend was there, she had decided to take the deeds over to the place after all. She told them she worked in Legal and Finance anyway so it hadn't been a problem getting her solicitor to look through the deeds with her, and he had confirmed it was indeed private land off an unadopted road where the car was parked, therefore they had no legal right to clamp the car.
Bloke insisted they 'could do what they wanted' she explained that she would be very happy to take them to court, but felt it would be a waste of her time and their money. The clamp will be removed. I will be watching with interest on Monday, but I bet they turn up when I'm not there!!!!
Jenny, one of the problems we have is that we have a tiny gene pool, I have turned myself inside out with my matings ensuring that I keep them below 8% COE (inbreeding percent) but obviously it has come to an end now, and I am not prepared to go down the same road as others have and do excessive line breeding or risk inbreeding, we have just about managed to breed away from epilepsy, however the risk factor is always there, and for a while now TUBR has been discussing bringing in the founder breeds from health tested dogs with a traceable ancestry. Try as I may I could not find one of these mixes that was health tested, advertised for stud, yes. When I asked about their health test results I was always told 'he's only a pet' so why are you advertising him for stud then.....
My friend who owned Mabs's father (Storm) and I decided to buy our own and we found after much searching a litter of GSD x Alaskan Malamute from KC registered dogs with hip scores, so we went all the way down to Cambridge and bought Cruz back with us. We have now had all his health tests done, and the original plan was to put him with Lona, which we did, and she absorbed the puppies, with Cariad only having 4 puppies, and them all being reserved virtually prior to birth and then Lona not having babies, I have a sizeable list. The Plan was for Mabs and Cruz to go together in November when she was due in season, she scuppered those plans by coming into season 2 months early, just as I was having her hip and elbow scored. Very luckily the vet I used gives a very accurate prediction and I was able to gain permission to carry on with the mating on the basis of the prediction, otherwise it would have been well into next year.
Soooo this litter will be quite important to the gene pool as we are bringing in an outside line to help offset health problems. One of my friends is slightly further on than me because she put her Utonagan male to a GSD some years ago and now is putting a daughter from that mating to another Utonagan male, giving us 75% Utonagan. When I did the mating with Cariad and JJ one of the reasons I did it was because he is 75% Utonagan, so Keshi is actually only 87.5% Utonagan, but if she is mated to a pure Utonagan the babies will come out 93.7% and will be regarded for all intents and purposes as pure. So these puppies that Mabs is having will be 50% and give more options breeding wise.
That is why the babies are being sold at £450 instead of the £650 for a pure Utonagan, I sold Cariad's for £550 as they were 87.5% I don't stint on any of the things I do, they are all wormed, vet checked, litter eye screened, etc. but it would not be ethical or moral for me to expect people to pay that sort of money for what is to all intents and purposes a 1st Cross Utonagan, although to look at they will be indistinguishable.
If we don't do this then we are going to be in a very bad place health wise within a few years, as we have only just dragged ourselves away from that place, the last thing we want is to go back there!!!!
Sorry if its gone on a bit, hope it is all a bit clearer now.

A heavy thunderstorm here. We've just got home in time though. OH wanted to go to Delamere forest today to see a steam train coming through It's about 30 minutes away from us but we've not been for years now. He'd arranged to meet his mate & his 3 yr old foster daughter there. Anyway I was undecided wether to go or not after all the rain last night & the forecast for today. I'm glad I went now. I left them at the station & took Taff off for a lovely long walk through the forest. We had a good 2 hr hike - got back to the car & no sign of the others so I phoned them & they'd just started going for a walk themselves. Caught up with them & had another 2 hr slow walk. The sun came out & it was glorious.

Ooh. This time next week Lynn you'll be in your lovely new cottage.
Lovely photos of your walk as well Jenny.
Afternoon Bev. Hope you're doing ok.
Can't remember anything else so I'll go & sort something out for tea.

Winds got up here, gone very dark and the rain is coming down. Still quite warm though and been a decent day so mustn't grumble.
Where's this birthday cake Nippy, could just eat some, and I've forgotten to buy tea bags, hope I've got enough to last me

LOLOL I didn't post a picture just a link to the charity's website

Just got back from a 25 mins walk with the boys. They've both had their tea, a drink and have claimed their seats for the evening. I've changed into my 'comfy' clothes so all set for a lovely quiet evening.

June - Thanks for that it was absolutely fascinating and I know how thorough your are with all your testing and care for your dogs and puppies It'll be so exciting to see how many take after Cruz and how many look more like Mabs. Both stunning of course . Sorry to have bombarded you with questions but I just love it all. The only thing you didn't answer is: Is this Mabs' first litter? I suspect it is 'cos I think she is still quite young. I expect you'll be up to your friends again with your 'sherlock' hat on so you can report back with the next instalment of the DVLA men.
Lynne - What a wonderful time you and Taff have had today which I think is often the way if you aren't sure that you want to go somewhere and it turns out fab. I should think Taff will be tired now and ready for a quiet night in.
Thanks Joedee, no wonder I couldn't see a photo. I'll go and take a look.

Jenny - I might have made the photo into avatar size but Azz is the one to thank for squaring it and putting it up for you, not I!

Joedee - how nice to see Mr T on the Christmas cards!