Long overdue update

It has been a long time since I last posted, and I apologize to any of you who check in frequently only to be disappointed. No sooner had the last puppy gone home when Acey came into heat and unfortunately for me, her season was was followed by pyometra, which is a uterine infection that females sometimes get following their seasons. I took her to Dr. Katherine Settle at Sanford Animal Hospital, our not so local vet who is also a dog breeder and trainer and exhibitor and who understands the semi-obsessions that we dog people can have about our canine friends. We tried to save Acey's fertility with a week of prostaglandin injections to help her expel the stuff in her uterus, but we ended up having to have her spayed as her cervix just wasn't open enough to let enough stuff out and her life was in danger. The whole ordeal was both frightening and sad, and afterwards I just grieved. Acey is an incredibly special bitch and I have looked forward for so long to her puppies. At first I could hardly look at her beautiful face without tearing up, but we're all doing better now. Acey has completely recovered.

Bahnsen continues to be a fun, intriguing puppy. He is quiet and serious and even sedate ... until I indicate it's time to work/play and then he's doing leaps and bounds, yet is extremely focused for a not yet five month old puppy. He gives a very fast "high five" now, shakes hands on the prompt "how do you do" ("pleased to meet you" is the response), gives a quick "sit" or "lie down", does a sit and down stay, knows what "load up" means, retrieves a ball, and plays tug with the best of them. And I really haven't spent all that much time in training him. He turned on to sheep a couple of weeks ago. He's been going with me to water and feed them for some time and this particular time he suddenly noticed how they moved off of his movement. He moved, they moved. He stopped, alert. He moved again. They moved again. He rushed them. They ran. He chased. He almost immediately split off a newborn lamb and ran it into the round pen where he pinned it to the ground. His expression as he looked up at me was hysterical ... I don't think he was quite sure just what he had done.

We had triplets born here yesterday, just a few days after I sold off ten sheep because they were getting so populous. I went from twenty one to eleven and now am back up to fourteen. The babies are precious, two boys and a girl, and from my favoritie ewe, too. It's the third set of triplets to be born here this year, but the only one to have all three live. Photos are of Bahnsen, Acey and the triplets with their mom, all taken today. Enjoy!