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JAVA - Whelped March 1995
Sire: Boulder Brook's Blazing Lee out of Dixie Blair and Sassie Sadie. |
Thank Goodness, that is over!! Dam: Bent Tree's Brandywine off I'm Randy's Forehand and Goose Creek Samantha |
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF OUR FIRST LITTER
There I was, sleeping on the kitchen floor, anxiously awaiting the blessed event. At least I was waiting until I fell asleep. I would doze off and Brandy would come over, lick me on the face as if to say, hey, wake up, I'm going to need help here. You breathe hard and I'll push every third breath. We were getting ready to double the population of Boykins in New England.
It had started two years earlier when I drove to South Carolina to get a puppy. You have got to be slightly nuts to drive a 1000 miles for a puppy but I just could not have a puppy shipped. I thought it would be too traumatizing on the puppy. Being away from his siblings and mother, and probably not getting properly fed and watered during the trip. Besides I wanted to see the litter and the bitch, and my son would help me pick the right pup. We came equipped with a pheasant wing so we could find the best retriever in the litter. Yea, right, wishful thinking. Since when do 6 week old puppies retrieve?
When we arrived the pick of the litter had just been chosen by the owner of the stud. There still five puppies left, 3 males and 2 females. The stud owner had been kind enough to leave us a frozen pigeon to test the pups. Maybe we were not so crazy to bring a pheasant wing after all. We played with the pups awhile to get to know them and narrowed it down to two who had a friendly demeanor. Actually they were all very lovable and friendly. These two seemed slightly friendlier.
Having narrowed it down to these two, we had to pick one. So here we go, getting ready to look dumber than dumb and throw this dead frozen pigeon across the yard. I just knew the breeder was going to fall off her porch laughing at these fools from New England trying to get this 6 week puppy to retrieve a pigeon as big as himself. Maybe we were confused about who the pigeon was. We teased the first puppy with it to get his attention, and tossed it. By gosh, the little guy ran after it. He sniffed, picked it up and brought it back to me. A six foot retrieve at six weeks! It must have been an accident. I repeated this act for the second puppy. He also ran after it and brought it back. Two puppies and two retrieves. No forced retriever training would be necessary for these pups. Now what to do?
My son and I finally picked one we thought would grow to have the coat and coloring we wanted. One pup was liver and the other was more chocolate colored. The chocolate one had a color similar to our female Boykin. And we hoped, would result in pups with that rich dark color we loved. Kind of like those chocolate Easter bunnies - dogs so good looking, you want to eat them.
We do not know what happened to the pick of the litter, but the pup's sire won the National Hunting Test while we driving North. And he won again the next year as well. On the bitches side, there were also some well known ancestors who had excellent reputations and had done well in the National Hunting Test. Thanks to the help of Margaret at the Boykin Spaniel Society, we had clearly located a litter that had great potential.
After waiting two years, Blaze discovered what all male dogs discovered. There were female dogs in the world. If you were patient, you might get really lucky. At least he thought it was all his doing and his perseverance, but why tell him?
CONTACT Bill at BOULDER BROOK KENNELS
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