WWQP Bulletin Board Chat

NEW FUR BABY

Thanks, Marion and all the other folks who have expressed condolences. What is it about quilters that makes so many of us pet lovers and so kind? Is it some genetic anomaly?

I have advised those of you for whom I have email addies that within hours of notifying the breeder from whom we bought Shadow of her death I had an amazing response. While it has been my intention to adopt a rescue from a local group that not only rescues but fosters and gets vet services for their rescues so in the adoption you get a healthy animal whose temperament is known. I did mention to the breeder (the only one I know and in whom I have complete confidence in his very careful breeding with temperament and good health at the top of his list along with great nose and desire to hunt) that he’d told me a number of years ago that when he retires a brood bitch after a fixed number of litters he has them spayed and sells them at a bargain rate to older hunters who want a more leisurely pace than a young dog would have. They are fully field trained meaning good voice and whistle control before he breeds any of his dogs. The person who receives the older bitch has to promise that she will be a house pet, get the chance to hunt and be part of the family. He told me that never once has anyone complained about the dog adapting to family life or that they had problems with children. That says so much for this breeder. I mentioned this in the email saying that if he has one in the next six months or so and doesn’t mind that I don’t hunt I hoped he contact me. Within hours his response came expressing condolences and then said “Boy are you in luck!” He has a 3.5 year old girl that developed a uterine infection that required her to be spayed a bit prematurely and that rather than trying to sell her he wanted me to have her simply in return for giving her a loving home. I’m so excited. He’s going to try to ship her to me on Friday and I’ll drive to Charlotte, NC to pick her up from her flight from Cleveland. She’s fully recovered from the surgery and having been taken from the kennel into his home for the recovery she never made a mess and didn’t take long to decide she liked to sit in his lap on the sofa. He predicts that by three weeks or so she will adapt to me and her new home. He also says that while she’s quite dominant unlike Shadow, she has never started a fight and loves people and children. She’s fine with other dogs but “doesn’t take any crap from other dogs”. Shadow spent a fair amount of time on her back in her early years. All she needed was a hard look from us to correct her. This girl is also fairly large for a bitch field bred Springer at 40 pounds. Shadow was never more than 32 pounds and was down to 26 when she died. Maybe now I will be able to look forward to coming home when I’ve been out. It’s been dreadful coming into this house.

Marion, you’ll find that the older the grandchildren get the less time they have for Granny. I was in NY for 4 days and had very little down time with them. It was party, party all weekend due to graduations and everyone including me had a wonderful time but almost no relaxed time together. I’m not sure but what those days are over. They need to earn every penny they can get to help defray huge college costs.

Haven’t done any quilting in two weeks and the quilt show will be here in six weeks so I’d better finish up a couple of UFOs so I have something to enter. We always have a silent auction featuring small wall quilts as a fund raiser for the guild and I promised to have a couple of those. After DD’s CA king which is still unfinished I long to make a few small things and will do so. I despair of having her quilt done for her anniversary in August so will put it aside and do some quick stuff.

I feel that I’m on the road to a certain level of recovery from the loss of Shadow. I had known for a long time this was coming. At least when dear old crazy Molly died I had a back up dog. I shed tears at many unexpected times for a year afterward remembering her but the whole house did not die with her. Now that there is no roommate here the house is not a home for me. The new dog is an investment in my own mental health. By the way, her call name is Kit and when I asked the breeder where that came from he said it is based on her registered name of Columbia’s Snow Fox and of course a baby fox is a kit. When I googled snow fox I found that some are all white and some are dramatically black and white which she is. I have a picture of her and I’ll try to post it.

Time for bed for this old granny.

Jane in NC

posted by Jane in NC @ 8:21 PM