Update

Here is the scoop from the last entry:

-Noodles had some dates with Kami and Bonnie's sister. They didn't like each other in the romantic way and maintained a platonic relationship.

-Chevy is a daddy! Kami had 9 puppies. They are all cream and beautiful. That means Mera is a grandma and Velvet is a great-grandma again.

-Holly is a grandma and Meeko is an uncle and Mera is an aunt and Velvet is a grandma. Kenia is Holly's son and Meeko's littermate. Kiwi is a Velvet/Koby puppy from their first litter together. She is Mera's littermate. Kenia and Kiwi live together with a breeder and just had 12 puppies together.

-Robbie and Steve have gone to their forever homes. That means Rosie and Pepper's pups all have their own families now.

-Tink's girl pup has been chosen. She is going to live with the same family who has Steve. That mean only one pup is left without a family.

I'm thinking about giving up the diary. What do you think?

Here are my reasons:

1) Face it, every breeder deals with poo, worms, wacky customers, and sick puppies. Most breeders who have been around long enough will end up with an accidental pregnancy and perhaps even an instance of poor judgement. However, most breeders do not talk about it. Since I do talk about it, it can look like I'm the only one with these problems.

2) I'm getting tired of the diary. It is no longer fun, it is just another chore. It is boring. How many times now have I said "I can't believe how quickly they are growing up" "They got spayed/neutered today and are playing like nothing ever happened." "...."?

3) I'm putting personal stuff in it that I'm sure should not be shared with the world.

4) I've had people tell me they decided to get one of my puppies because they appreciated the honesty of the diary. Really though, I have to admit that I'm sure I've lost even more sales because of it.

5) Maybe I don't want to tell all anymore. Maybe I want to keep secrets like everybody else. I've never been good at keeping secrets though.

Noodles' date

Holly was hung over this morning when I picked her up. She was miserable and swore she was never having a retirement party (getting spayed) again. Thank goodness she got better as the day wore on. By the time her family picked her up in the evening she seemed just fine.

Noodles had a date today with Kami's littermate/Bonnie's older sister. She played hard to get and he respected her wishes not to...well, you know what. Finally, after 2 years, I have a halfway decent picture of him.Noodles the BrideGroom.

Holly's retirement party

Holly's official retirement party was today. She partied so hard that she couldn't even drive home and had to spend the night there. Do you know what the Lincoln Manor breeding dogs do for their retirement party? They get altered...spayed or neutered...fixed...the big snip snip. I was going to pick her up this afternoon so she wouldn't have to spend the night. I ended up having them keep her over night. I was afraid she wouldn't get enough rest if she came back here. She is such a sweet dog. It is hard to imagine she is the same dog we brought back from Oklahoma. She was so skittish at first. Her guardian family has done a terrific job turning her around. She is not at all skittish anymore. She comes up for affection and even bumps my elbow with her head while I'm typing. Today I put together a booklet for her family. It has her test reports, a little blurb about where she came from, and who and where all her kids are. She has 9 puppies, 3 are breeding dogs now. Meeko is her pup so that means she is going to be a granny next month. That is funny. Have I mentioned lately what a big girl Holly is? I had forgotten how tall she is. No wonder her kids are so big.

We need help

Here is an email I sent out this evening:
"Help guys,

"Someone who has three Labradoodles from me just now called me. She was in tears asking if I could find someone(s) to foster her dogs for a minimum of 2 months. She really does have a sob story (I'm being serious). She and her husband have a set of 8 yr old (maybe they are 9) triplets plus a 6 or 7 yr old son. The mom has health problems and now on top of that, she just got out of the hospital. She broke her leg in four places and is in a wheelchair. She will have a cast on for 6 months. It will be two months before she will be able to get out enough to be able to walk her dogs. Her husband is overwhelmed between taking care of her and the kids and working. He simply cannot take care of the dogs too. They are in a kennel right now. They are asking for someone to be able to keep them for about 2 months, possibly a little longer. They want to make it very clear this is only temporary and they absolutely do want their dogs back.

"About the dogs:
"Coco and Rascal are litter mates from Zion (Leather) and Noodles (BrideGroom). They are one year old and house trained. They are Australian Labradoodles around 40 pounds. Coco is intact and is going to breed for me next year. She just had her heat cycle about a month ago and isn't due for at least another 5 months. I can possibly keep Coco here if I can ever find a guardian home for Bessi. Rascal is mellow for a puppy, but the most active of these three. He wasn't neutered until last month. Pumpkin is an F1B from Rosie's Feb litter. He is a standard size and the most mellow of the three. He is a real sweetie and is neutered.

"Please let me know if you want to help. No need to respond to this if you can't or don't want to help. I am sending this out to everybody and I'm not keeping score. Some of you, I realize, there is no way you can take in another dog. I sent this anyway just hoping maybe you know someone who would like to try out a doodle for a little while.

"Oh by the way, I do need a guardian for a 10 month old F1B black and white Parti Labradoodle girl. I have more guardian dogs coming up in the spring.

Thanks guys,
Jane Stanger
www.lincolnmanor.com
765-642-8287 "

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I have made the difficult decision to sell Robbie as a pet. There are several for this decision. 1) I'm running short on guardian homes 2) I don't have a Poodle and that is what he would need bred with 3) umm...well we really need the money now.


Most of the pictures of Missy have been of her sleeping, like thisMissy
So I finally got some of her awakeIs she yawning or singing the blues? See how white she is underneath?
See her white tipped tail?

Oh I got so caught up in the new baby yesterday that I forgot to mention that Noodles didn't get to work yesterday. Poor guy, his date won't be able to go see him until Monday.

Let's see, what else didn't happen yesterday that I forgot to mention? The prospective guardian didn't get to come see Bessie.

We've been Liudaless most of the week. Since we don't have many puppies right now I really don't need the help.

I took a nap today. That was such a rare treat. The only problem is I've been sick and that is why I napped. It would have been better had I not been sick.

Zokora is here!

Really I have no idea how to spell her name. It is pronounced like Zoe-Cora. Who is she you ask? That is Jill's birth sister. Jill's birthmom and birthmom's husband had a baby today. The husband called me from the hospital just as soon as she was born. They hadn't even weighed her yet when he called. Bryony and I ran up to see her. I took Jill up later this evening. sorry, this has nothing to do with Doodles

Bessie is doing well. Here is her today's pictureBessie. She is such a puppy. She likes to chew things. She has already eaten a glass Christmas tree ornament, among other things. She reminds me of Kori. Oh speaking of that...you know what else she does that Kori used to do? She puts her nose down at the bottom of Bryony's bedroom door and makes these whine-cry noises trying to get to the cat. She is in the same position as Kori and the sounds she makes is exactly like Kori. Bryony and Liuda keep talking about wanting to go visit Kori.

Here are pictures of Tink and DaVinci's puppies.
Kris Kringle, the available boy.
Mistletoe "Missy", the available girl.
Beau, the chosen one.

Robbie and Steve are in jail I didn't have any help when I was trying to take their pictures. They wouldn't sit still and kept trying to follow me around. I finally put them in the puppy play pen so I could get far enough away from them to get their picture. They are so smart and so cute. Have I mentioned that yet today?

The puppies are all so cute. Tink's pups are playing now. They have these cute little baby barks and baby growls. I never get tired of it. Their coats are getting longer and curlier already. I'm still trying to decide if the girl is a Parti or just mismarked. I'm thinking she is just mismarked. She has that white patch on her head that goes down to her nose. Her tail has a white tip, and her front feet are white. She also has some white on her legs and chest. The boys have white patches on their heads and faces too, just not as much as the girl.

Rosie's pups are getting really big too. Robbie weighs 18 pounds and Steve weighs 19 pounds. They are almost as big as Tink. Well, they almost weigh as much, but she is taller.

Bessie is getting more comfortable with us. She is coming up to us for affection now. She has been sleeping in Jill's room at night.

Still waiting and waiting

Do you remember that stupid ILA surprise inspection I had October 19, 2006? Me to. I still haven't heard anything back on that. I was supposed to have a copy of the report within two weeks. Supposedly complaints were made against me. *coff coff* How am I supposed to know what to correct if I'm not made aware of the problems? The person I'm assuming ordered the inspection (I don't even know for sure it was ordered since I was never given a report) was no longer in office at the time of the inspection. The person who did the inspection left office very shortly after the inspection. Anyway, I'll report back when I hear something (or not).

Beau got picked

A family came today to look at Tinker Belle's litter. They knew they
wanted a boy and decided on Beau. They liked both boys and decided on
that one because his coat is just a little less curly. See, they are an
experienced doodle family. They know the curlier the coat, typically
the more difficult the maintenance. I like showing off my puppies. It is so much fun. One Tink puppy down, two to go.

Bessie and I have been stood up. Somebody was supposed to come Friday but called to reschedule for yesterday but was a no-call-no-show yesterday. I thought maybe I
misunderstood and that it was supposed to be today instead. So, I stuck
around all day today too but they were a no-call-no-show again. What a
wasted December weekend.

Tinks puppies started playing today! That is so cute. This is their very first toddelie play. Their eyes are all open now and they are toddling around like little baby dogs. I guess that is because they are little baby dogs.

My other babies, Robbie and Steve, are so big. They are 18 pound brutes now. They are going to be big gooder-ole-dogs when they grow up. They are so wonderful that I can't believe they are still here.

The night the lights went out

Today was part frustrating part fun. I started out working on answering emails. This is what some of the new emails were: 1) 2nd inquiry from a family that is interested in Steve, 1) a different person also with a follow up question regarding Steve 3) an application for a puppy, no specific pup 4) application for one of Tink's pups 5) new inquiry from a prospective guardian family (came accross to me as a half hearted inquiry, nothing to get too excited about), 6) Liuda is not coming in today. First I went through and read all the emails and deleted the junk mail. Then I went through and was answering them. I was in the middle of answering one when the power went out. Oh that is right, we were in the middle of a big storm. Our power frequently goes out and usually comes right back on. I wasn't terribly worried about it. Well, after an hour I started getting antsy. Somebody (probably a body that walks on 4 legs) chewed up my cell phone charger and I haven't replaced it yet. That means that in essence, I don't have a cell phone. Also, all our phones are cordless and that means they don't work without electricity. I was expecting a prospective guardian family to come this afternoon to meet Bessie, our new parti dood. She was supposed to call first. I had no way of calling her and she wouldn't be able to get hold of me. I also wanted to be available in case somebody wanted to call and get a puppy. So, I loaded up the girls during this high wind (it sounded like our roof was going to blow off) and went to K-Mart. I got a cell phone charger and a corded land line phone. Jill was funny. When we got home and I hooked the corded phone up, Jill went over to it and said "It is like a phone". Kids these days...
The power never did come back on today. The good neighbor called to let me know it was not expected to be repaired until tomorrow. That means I had no computer today! Holy cow! That was so frustrating. I couldn't go check my email while eating. I couldn't go read the forums while waiting for the power to come back on either. We are on well water and have an electric pump. That means that once the holding tank was empty we would have no water. I was in the middle of doing the dishes (between emails) when the power went out so at least we had 2 sinks full of water. I finished the dishes and left the water in there so we could wash our hands. I also filled up the dogs water bowls with the water that was left in the holding tank. The prospective guardian family called to say they would not be out today. They will come tomorrow afternoon instead.

Going without power is fun every now and then. This is one of those times. Rick fixed a nice steak dinner and we ate by candle light (of course). Jill went to spend the night at my mom's, Bry went to a friend's house, Rick went out with his buddy. Aahhhhhh, that meant the Doodles and I had the whole quiet house to ourselves. Ahhhhhhh....that is bliss. After I let the dogs and pups (Robbie and Steve are doing well with potty training) out to potty and back in, I washed their feet the best I could with the damp towel I used on them this morning. Then I layered up in warm jammies, gathered my blankie and pillows and fixed up my favorite chair for the night. I snuggled down with a flashlight on my shoulder and read "The Other End of the Leash" by Patricia B. McConnell until I fell asleep. Ahhhh...life doesn't get much better than that.