The End

I don't know how to end this. Since I'm out of the Labradoodle business it doesn't make sense to keep this diary going. Perhaps I should end it with a recap. Oh boy...how in the world could I recap these past 6 years? There were so many ups and downs. With the exception that is destroyed our house and broke up our family, I wouldn't trade it for the world. It allowed me to stay at home and home school Bryony. We had so many good adventures...several trips to San Francisco and New York City and Florida. I also went to Texas, Chicago, Vermont, Washington DC, and other places. Oh, and don't forget, I can tell what is wrong with a dog based on the looks and smell of the poo! Aww...and some people wonder why I don't ever want to breed again.

You know, I sure would like a Toy Poodle...

THE END

Brrr it is cold

Our bathroom sink water pipes burst today while Michelle and I were at work. I wonder what Velvet and the Chi's were thinking while the water was gushing out like a gyser. Actually it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Most of the water ran under the bathroom cabinet and into the basement. The water ran into the Christmas storage room and left about 1 inch of standing water. Most of the stuff down there was up off the floor on shelves. We cleaned it up and now we have a squeeky clean floor.

Update

It has been so long since I've posted that I almost forget how.

We didn't keep the North American Retriever puppy very long. I am totally and completely out of the Labradoodle business now. We have Velvet who will be 10 years old either tomorrow or April 1st. We also have 2 Chihuahuas and 2 kitty boys. I moved out of Michelle's house last June and moved in a townhouse. A couple months ago Michelle and I bought a house together and we have been living here happily since. It is a big and old house. We love it. We rescued the 2nd kitty last week from the local no-kill shelter. He is so cute and cuddly.

Look what we got yesterday

Look what we got yesterday! This is a North American Retriever (1/2 Labradoodle 1/2 Goldendoodle) we are temporarily guardian home for Helene of Westwood Labradoodles.
getting ready for going in her crate at night.
she looks so much like her new sister and best bud, our Chihuahua puppy.


We can't decide on a name. I'm thinking about:
Harriet Tubman (Harri), or
Florance Nightingale (Florie), or
Margaret Chase Smith (Maggie or Peggie), or
???
What do you think?

Indy is on the mend

Indy's mom sent me this note today:

"Indy is doing great! We brought her home yesterday after 3 days in the doggy hospital. They had to remove her spleen in the operation..but my husband does not have a spleen...so I guess she does not need it much. She also had a heart arrthyrma..I guess due more to the removal of the spleen.

She is on heavy meds and is starting to eat again. So every thing looks good. We took her for a walk this afternoon and she actually pulled on her leash.

We just want you all to be aware of the symptoms...because she did not cry or whimper...the vet said she was in a great deal of pain...she is a tough dog!! So beware of the symptoms and take your dog to vet fast if you see anything out of the ordinary!"


Thank you Indy's mom for keeping us up to date and for the heads up.

From out of the woodwork

Some of my past puppies have been writing to me these last couple of weeks. It has been so nice. I feel like a grandma sitting here in the quiet house in the morning hours looking at pictures and smiling while the rest of the family is still asleep. This is who we have heard from:

This is Beau, from Tinker Belle and Da Vinci's 11-16-2006 litter .
Beau is a North American Retriever. Tinker Belle is a Goldendoodle and Da Vinci is a Labradoodle. (after seeing how well my north american retrievers turned out, other breeders around the country and canada are breeding them now)(oh, since i was first i got to choose the name)(i'm proud)

Next we have Oski from Velvet's first big litter with us. Oski is one of prettiest dogs ever.
Baby Oski
5 year old Oski. Man...can you believe my babies are 5 years old already? I can't. At 82 pounds, Oski is one of the largest Lincoln Manor puppies.

Do you remember Ashes and Meeko's litter with 2 of the puppies that got so sick? Lester was a Puppy Junior that the vet thought was going to die. Ellie also got really sick but is perfectly healthy now. Their mom sent pictures but I don't know how to convert that format so I can post it here. This is the update: Lester is nearly 60 pounds and has a tight curl coat. He is gentle and loves to bark at horses when riding in the car. He is a lazy-butt and won't get up in the morning. Ellie is 52 pounds. Her coat is much more wavy and soft. She has a TON of energy and loves to bark at mailboxes when riding in the car. They simply adore each other. They are both very bright and can occasionally out-smart us. Though the picture doesn't show it, Lester's eyes are pure black, Ellie's eyes are a lovely shade of light chocolate. We appreciate all the care you gave to them as babies. They continue to be loved and spoiled on a daily basis! What would we do without our dogs!!
Clancy is Ellie and Lester's littermate who moved to the desertHe is 77 pounds and doing well now. He did have a kinked colon, but it worked itself out.

Jake, aka The Professor, is from Mera and DaVinci's second litter. He went to school and is going to get a job as a part time job as a therapy dog. He was one of the last in the litter to be chosen...because...well don't tell or his family please...he wasn't one of the most beautiful pups in the litter. Well just look at him now

We have also heard from some of the pups in Lacey's most recent litter.

I do love the updates you send, keep 'em coming.

from breeder to guardian

I'm going to be a temporary guardian for another breeder. I'm really excited. I'm getting a female parti, brown/white/, North American Retriever puppy. She is so cute. I love the North American Retrievers. They are 1/2 Labradoodle and 1/2 Goldendoodle.

Happy terrible birthday Indy

Today is Andria and Koby's 4-15-2005 litter's birthday.
We heard from Josie She is doing very well.

We also heard from IndyShe didn't have such a great birthday. She had Canine Bloat. This is from her family: "Indy (Andria and Koby) 4/15/05 was taken to the hospital yesterday diagnosed with Canine Bloat. We caught it in time. She was operated on last night and they corrected the problem and also took out her spleen. The symptoms were dry heaves, constant pacing, lethargic, she would not sit or lay down and was disoriented. In case your want to contact her siblings or if any other dogs have these symptoms, please let them know to get them to the vet right away. We caught it in time but if we had waited a day she would have been gone." "That is the stomach flip. It seems like we caught it in time. Her symptoms were typical, and if you look up canine bloat on the internet, theres a lot of information. There is also a possibility that it could be common to siblings. According to a Purdue study, this will happen to one of every twenty five susceptible dogs, those being dogs with large chests. That includes retrievers and standard poodles.
The good thing is, shes improving. We'll keep you informed."

Wow that is scary. Please pass the word out.

What do I do?

What do people with biPolar that are finally medicated and somewhat rational do? Do I go back and apologize to everyone and make ammends? Is there like a 12 step bipolar program? Do people with epilepsy apologize for having seizures? Do diabetics apologize when they are hypoglycemic? This isn't the same thing, or is it? No it is not the same. We have to be able to control ourselves from doing irritional and stupid things. Medication can do wonders for that. I supposed the trick is to know there is something wrong. If we don't know it is broken we won't fix it. I had no clue I was bipolar until Rick told me a couple of weeks ago. He called me a bipolar...ummm I don't remember what all he said. It hurt deeply, but also got me thinking. ...this doesn't have a thing to do with doodles so I will stop....

Peanut Butter started her period today. I would love to breed her to a tiny poodle for Poochies. Anybody want a Chihuahua in a few months? I have to say that I love me some Doodles...but chihuahua are ever so much easier to breed and raise.

BiPolar

I've been going to an intensive evening therapy program and have been diagnosed with Bi Polar. Hmmm...whodda thunk that? That makes 2 (out of 3) of my siblings and me that have it.

Bridge

This has been an extremely emotionally rough week for me. I thought about driving off a bridge on the way home today. Mom talked me in to making a phone call for help and Michelle took me to a psych crisis center.

Today is Bryony's 17th birthday. Happy birthday HunBun I love you!

Is this The End?

Now what do I do? Do I make an end of the diary entry? I've been thinking on this for a long time and decided not to. As long as I have Velvet it won't be the end. Plus, I do have more paperwork to complete. I need to make booklets for all the guardian dogs and officially sign over the dogs to the families. Plus...well writing in a diary is therapeutic for me. Since I stopped being controversial and stopped making regular entries not many people read it anymore. That means I don't have to be afraid of what I write.

The last Lincoln Manor Puppy goes home

This morning I got up bright and early before the dawn lights and took the puppies to the airport. We have a new airport that is farther away. The cargo is at the old one and I was happy knowing I wouldn't have to drive to the new one. Well, I was driving along listening to the radio and contemplating making a final diary entry when I found myself half way to the new airport. If I was a cursing kind of woman I would have said a curse word. There was no way of turning around and once I actually got to the new airport I still couldn't just turn around. I had to actually go all the way around the new airport and curve back to the highway and drive to the old one. I wanted to call the cargo area but didn't want to stop and take the time. I hurried...and made it. Of course they gave me a bit of a hard time and also almost didn't accept Harley's new crate. The puff of this head hair touched the top of the crate and they said he was a bit crowded. I was practically holding my breath, and they did accept him. Whew...bye bye Harley have a good life. He is going to a family with 3 children and the father is a youth pastor.
Now on to Bernie. Bernie is actually scheduled to come back at 3:00 pm today. I ran on over to another airline that accepts walk-ins and they were able to get him on a flight right away. It has a longer layover than I would like, but it is shorter total time than Harley's and is acceptable. Bye bye Bernie...have a good life. Oh man....that was the last puppy ever....that is truly sad. I'm sad. I almost cried. If I was a crying type of woman I would have cried. I wanted to go back and give Bernie extra hugs and pets and squeezes and let him lick my face, but I didn't.

We went to the pet supply store today to get the crates to ship Harley and Barnie home in. We also got a few other things. It cost almost $200, man! At this rate I'll be paying these people to take the puppies. That is how it goes. I know it at this point. I've been doing this for 6 years now.

Harley and Bernie went to the vet today for a thorough check up and to get a health certificate for their flights home. Harley weighs 23 pounds and Bernie weighs 25 pounds. They are big boys. It is funny how they are so much bigger than the pups from Lacey and DaVinci's 2nd litter. It cost over $100! Man, I was not a happy camper. I surely do miss my old vet in Chesterfield. Today's trip was mainly for the health certificates for the flights. They didn't give shots or anything like that. I already gave them. My old vet charges $10 for the certificates, this one charged $25 each, plus over $25 each for the check up. Oh, well, it is her business and she can charge whatever she wants. It is so nice because We can walk to it instead of a long drive. She is also the one that diagnosed Peanut and didn't charge nearly what she could have for that one. I guess it all evens out.

I spent quite a bit of time on the phone trying to get their flights organized so I would have to make only 1 trip to the airport, they would have direct flights, and it would involve no driving through rush hour for the families picking them up. The most important is direct flights, the other would just be bonus. No such luck. They were not able to get direct flights. Oh, I also tried to get them out for tomorrow. That didn't work either. They are going home wednesday.

Puppy swap

Ok, this is it. There is no changing my mind now. Lexie went to the guardian family. They are her forever family, not me. The other 2 boys came with me. Harley is going to move to California and Bernie is going to move to New Jersey. They are both going to families with 3 children and all 3 will have great spoiled lifes.

Lacey and DaVinci's guardian family does want Lexie. We are going to give her to them and they are going to give us Harley and Bernie.

When it rains it pours

Today a puppy goes home to Illinois. A family in California wants a puppy. Now there is yet another family who wants a puppy. They are in NJ. What is a breeder to do? Do we even have an available puppy? I told the guardians they could have Harley, their mom wants Bernie, and just offered Lexie to them. I will ask if they want all those puppies.

Wow, that didn't last long

I made a mistake. I can't handle another puppy right now. Four dogs are just too much for me. Lexie is a great puppy and she is keeping her poos on the pee pads which is great. She also doesn't chew stuff, and is quiet. ...but still... Just the smell of her poo brings flashbacks and floods of yucky emotions back. I just can't handle it now. I emailed the guardians to see if they want her.