Eyes Open

Linda (Tilly's breeder) got in touch today to say Tilly has now opened her eyes which is very exciting.

We have received another picture of her as well - I like the way she us using her brothers neck as a pillow - to be fair it doesn't look as tough he is complaining!

We are still busy looking for a Kennel for Tilly - there was an ideal one on ebay in Ackworth of all places however I forgot to bid on it - ooops!

Mum and Dad

Mum (Della) and Dad (Samson) both live with Tilly and are lovely dogs. Dad is 7 years old although you wouldn't know it to look at him as he has more energy than most 2 year olds. Mum is springer loopy and the only time she stopped bouncing around was as we left the run - when she popped inside for a headcount to make sure we had not pocketed Tilly on our way out!

Samson

Della

Della or "mysticpride aprila" - is of mysticpride gun dogs and while I don't think we will be doing any field trials with Tilly I am hoping to do some agility work with her so trainability in the breed will come in useful!

More piccies...

We received a couple of pictures from Linda last night so I thought we would share them. Not sure how I am going to feel about splitting up such a cute group!

The Fence

Well with an English Springer Spaniel soon to take up residence we thought it may be a good idea to have a "dog proof" garden. First job the fence!

We have lived at our current address for over 2 years now and since we moved in we have been saying,"We need to replace the fence" getting a dog was just the sort of trigger we needed.
So after much measuring and head scratching we ordered a small rain forest which was duly dumped on the drive on Friday morning.

450 uprights and 3 days of hard work later and the fence is done. Rach had to cut every single upright to profile our rather uneven ground - thanks to Dad for the loan of the chop saw - without it I think we would still be out there now.
Fortunately it was a lovely weekend and we both caught the sun a little! We are very pleased with our new boundary and I will be impressed (although worried) if Tilly manages to jump over it!


Next job - kennel and run!

PS The photo of the garden was taken on my mobile - SE C902 I think it came out quite well for a mobile - maybe I should use it more often, it certainly is a lot more pocketable than the canon!

Tilly...

Well we went to see the litter in Dewsbury and met 5 tiny little gorgeous springer pups. We had previously decided on a bitch - our thinking being that a bitch would probably be a bit smaller than a dog and hopefully less had strong!


Out of the two bitches we initially couldn't decide and left saying we would be happy with either. However after much puring over the photos and lengthy discussion we decided on the smaller of the two - mainly because the marking on her head looked like harry potter's scar!


Next came naming our new addition...we tried to think of Harry Potter related names - Hermione was vetoed straight away and the only suitable name seemed Bella (after Bellatrix Lestrange) -however we have a good friend called Ella and she is easily confused when it comes to dogs so we thought Bella would be a bad idea. Now this seems like it is leading up to a logical explanation as to how we ended up with Tilly but I am sad to say I have no idea where it came from but it has stuck.

So 'Tilly Best' will joining us in early July - we can't wait.

Have we found our Springer?

Excitement tonight when Jon found a litter of 5 Springers born in Dewsbury today! They are liver and white and we are going to see them next week! Fingers crossed the looking may be over.

I have spent the night looking at what to feed it... suggestions welcome.