Summer has flown by, we sweltered in the heat and spent lots of time watering the garden and vege plot. We have no mains water here at Catherton, a spring supplies our needs but I must admit to being anxious as the water table obviously went down. Still it kept flowing and all was well.
So much has happened this Summer and I have been remiss at writing my blog . I cannot guarantee I will report events in the correct order but here goes.
Back in May I sat in a queue of traffic hoping to arrive at Stafford for the National Dog Show . There were major hold ups and I ran to the ring literally as Kite was due in her class. Katie, Jan and Tony sorted me out and bustled me in, Kite stood alone in her post grad class so it was a walk over. Having caught my breath and brushed my dog we went into the challenge not anticipating any success then Kite was pulled out and awarded the bitch ticket against some really good bitches, this was her first CC. Still in a daze we then went up against the dog CC winner the gorgeous Rubles, Kite won Best of Breed. I was so excited and just wished Chris had been there to share in the success.
Chris and I love our garden and we enjoy visiting other gardens through the National Garden scheme. You may be aware of them, they publish a yellow book annually, full of gardens to visit and their yellow signs are synonymous with Spring and summer. This organisation raises an incredible amount of money annually for Cancer charities, over 3 million in 2017. Anyway to cut a long story short Chris volunteered to open our garden in 2019, we had our inspection and were accepted and will be open the beginning of July. OMG.
I am also planning on having my second hip replacement next year, hopefully soon after Christmas so will be fit and running to get the garden ready. That’s the plan anyway!
One sad piece of news which I now feel able to share is that we lost Willow this summer. She was our first Munster and a huge part of our lives, she was Chris’s girl through and through. She would have been 14 on her next birthday. She was active until the end, no-one would have guessed her age. She was as sound as she had always been, still had enthusiasm for hunting, right up until the day before she died. She had a mammary tumour removed earlier in the Spring and recovered brilliantly, but unfortunately the disease spread and we took the decision to let her go after she suffered a couple of fits caused by a tumour in her brain. It all happened within 24 hours, distressing for us but thankfully she did not suffer. We still miss her foibles everyday.
I like to think she is enjoying life with Dougie, Kate and Matt’s gorgeous boy, who died a few weeks earlier and Ebby my last GSD.
On to some good news, Kite is now in season and she will be mated using AI (supplied by Dougie , Ch Paddockridge Rulander). This is a repeat mating enabling Katie and Matt an opportunity to have a puppy from their beloved Dougie, assuming all goes to plan. I have a daughter from their previous mating who is absolutely gorgeous, cheeky, full of fun, a comedian like her Dad and biddable and sensitive like her Mum. So fingers are crossed here.
One last piece of news, some of you may be aware I am a huge Strictly fan, well I am off to Elstree to watch the Movie week live show. To say I am excited is an understatement. So unfortunately I will miss the club show. Still a girl must prioritise !!
Chris ‘ next job is to update our Crumpsbrook website much overdue. Updates will be posted on there about the much anticipated pregnancy any enquiries do please contact me.