I was going through some old photos I have stored in the computer and enjoyed some quiet reflection on our journey with the labradoodles. We have experienced a wide range of emotions as we have been involved in watching 30 new little labradoodles enter the world:) There was tremendous excitement for us and our closest friends as we waited for Avalon’s first babies to be born! We also experienced our first sadness as we lost our precious “Saskatoon” when he was 7 weeks old. I didn’t know if we could do another litter after such disappointment but I soon realized that spiritually I knew he lived the life he was meant to live and we had seven wonderful puppies to send off to their new families. I still think of “Saskatoon” and remember the last morning I spent with him as he enjoyed playing with his siblings in our big back yard. I know that every day he lived was filled with love and companionship and many would wish for a life that full! We enjoyed two more of Avalon’s litters and were relieved that all were healthy and found exceptional families.Our last litter produced Maddie -a fabulous parti girl who will fill Avalon’s big shoes when she retire this summer.
I never got tired of spending time with those loveable puppies and surprisingly many of our friends didn’t either:)
Keely’s first litter was highly anticipated as we sent her away to California. This was also a first for us and something Darren was initially quite uncertain about. Keely managed quite well without us and had her first real adventure on her own. Her puppies were everything we had hoped for and she was the lovable mom we knew she would be. We had abit of what we initially thought was a setback when one of the puppies was born. As I inspected the litter I saw that one of our little babies has a cleft lip and then later realized palate too. I called our vet and asked what to do. I expected bad news but surprisingly he told me to try and feed him. As usual my faithful pal Christa (once a La Leche League member) decided that we needed to “milk Keely” to get colostrum for the puppy. She always said she could get milk out of anything and true to her word she did:) Our little guy took to a bottle which we fed him every two hours. I mixed a formula recipe that I got from the internet and our little guy continued to grow…and grow. I spent alot of time reflecting on our choice as keeping a cleft puppy alive is not something that many breeders agree with. I would feed him at night and cry a few tears as I watched You Tube videos of people who took the same difficult but ultimately rewarding path we did.He drank from a bottle for 7 weeks and in the meantime Keely loved him and licked him while Darren and I fed him. At 12 weeks old he had a surgery to repair his cleft palate which has been successful. The lip is still split as it did not take to the repair as well. “Rudy” as he is now called (after a well known reindeer with a distinctive nose)lives with a wonderful family in Lethbridge who have a doodle from our first litter as well. He is pampered and loved and as Shauna says”will likely always be our little baby”. Another happy outcome of that litter is our stunning Hilo. She will hopefully join our breeding program in 2011. In the meantime she lives with Christa and her family and is a playmate to Kona. We are hopeful that she and Rudy will become pals however right now they both want to be the boss so their play dates are abit rowdy:)
We don’t know what lies ahead for us as we anticipate each litter with optimism and excitement. We know we will continue to breed as long as we look forward to each new litter and know that each of our puppies will go to exceptional families.
There are alot of little details of our puppies that I don’t recall but I do remember how each of them made me feel and that is why we continue to look ahead with hope and enthusiasm:)
Saskatoon
Darren feeds Rudy
the unforgettable Rudy
Hilo