November 2024

It’s that time of the year again, and the jacarandas have been gorgeous this spring. Even my poor frost damaged one is putting on a brave show, but nothing like these in Pittsworth. I took Naka down for a scan a few weeks ago

She has a big litter of pups in there due on Nov. 14. I’m a wee bit nervous as she was up north when mated and there’s a resident dachshund! The little spines looked a bit long resembling canned sardines…hopefully a nice big litter by Cruise who is red/tan so the colour will tell the tale. It was to be Naka’s last litter, so fingers and toes crossed.

McKenzie has been mated to Sid, after I reared the lovely litter her sister Mina had to him a few months ago I said I’d like some more, please!. The two pups I kept from that litter, KyleC and EmmaMcK are a great pair now known as Kyber and Emmie and growing up fast. Here waiting hopefully for tea.

       

Sun(Gibson x E.Sunny) left,  eventually came on heat but I’m a bit doubtful Jack mated her. I don’t think she came on 100%. Be a pity if she didn’t get in pup, we’ve been waiting (im)patiently for a litter from her! 

       

There’s been news of pups sold, which is always a pleasure. One girl, Sun’s sister Sis, found her way into Neil McDonald’s hands on his way north and was later sold to a lovely lady who got in touch with me. 

I also received a photo of Karmala Chips(Keswick Coin x Karmala Livvy) who is growing into a lovely sensible boy.

           

 

Other news was of an interesting litter born to a couple of ‘pups’ I sold, Karmala Joker/Ace(Sheps JoakerxKarmala SassII) and Karmala Spring/Maggie(Killili Tap x Koonamara Nitro). I’m really looking forward to running on one of the little girls. Jess is doing a great job managing the litter and Maggie’s a good mum.

This year has seen a big change over in the brood bitches available. Most recently we lost Wiggle(Wills x Gemma) a lovely little bitch, a strong, stylish worker and mum of some very good dogs. The last of Gemma’s daughters. Gemma was the last of Karrawarra Gift IV’s three daughters I bred from, they had a big influence on the stud.

Last month we lost the lovely Livvy to a snake. Fizz, Jessarene Cara and Midnight have been retired. Heli has gone down to Ashley Whitehead and I hear is enjoying his back door mat! Elwanvale Sunny died of stomach cancer. Sheps Sandy was spayed after a very bad case of mastitis; I suspect she had it the litter prior to buying her.  She’s retired to Warwick after six pups, the one we kept is very valuable, he cost a fortune! Em and I decided to never ever buy another bitch, but yesterday two granddaughters of Wiggle arrived on Neil’s Pet Transport! Tilley, below.

Their owner changed jobs and wanted Lexie and Tilley to stay together; I saw his advert and resisted for a couple of months, but he stuck to his wish and I finally gave in…some sort of Karma there with Wiggle gone the week before. They’re by Riana Toby and three years ago I tried to buy a pup from their litter without success. I also saw a video of their brother Rip working for the late Kevin Noble who bred a couple of litters by him. I do miss Kevin, we used to text now and then; I loved his pithy remarks and we agreed on most topics. Photos below of Lexie.

 

       

Lexie(L) seems to be the more dominant bitch, she has a stronger food drive and is bigger than Tilley. Both are lovely happy, friendly bitches, can’t wait to see how they go on sheep.

Sass’s nice litter to Coin has found great homes and Ami is the only one here, Em has Jules up north. He’s a super smart little fella and is learning some manners before he goes to a repeat buyer. The other two girls are at Keswick(Edie) and Anntre(Jolie) studs and might make brood bitches one day down the track. Ami ticks all the boxes so far so fingers crossed.The second photo below was taken after I smacked her bottom for playing on the deck table!

 

Em visited mid Oct., her first visit since her accident a few months ago. Lovely to see Bev and the kids as well. My lovely neighbour let us work a couple of dogs on her heifers as I needed some photos for my next calendar. She chose to take Blye, Naka and McKenzie; after an initial few minutes when Blye convinced them he wasn’t the local Staffy they love chasing, they worked nicely. It’s a rare treat for me to watch the dogs on cattle and I hadn’t seen McKenzie on cattle previously. Em wondered why the heifers weren’t keen to lead out and we found out later that they were being used for camp draft practise… I think the cream one might have had more than her fair share of being cut out! I’ll finish off with a few photos.