I intended to post something each week - I failed :-))
so now its time to bring things up to date.
Rafiki - now more often known as Fiki - is well- established here now - she's been the easiest of pups - so keen to please but with a great sense of humour and so loving.
She's grown into a real beauty and looks like she's going to be close to her big brother Zurie in size.
Her coat is gradually clearing to silver but, at present, she appears to be shaded from a lovely soft blue on her mane to palest silver on her face and legs - with dark sparkling eyes which look like someone has put eye-liner on them.
She loved her first Christmas with us - the visitors, the presents, the food- all great!
She loved her first experience of snow - and her first free run on the beach a few days before Christmas too.
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| Zurie + Rafiki (jan 2011) |
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| Fun in the snow - Dec 2010 |
 Christmas morning This last week has seen our poodle population grow again. Three days after Fiki was born at Itzapromise a litter of apricot standard ups were born - all the pups ran together once they were "out of the nest" and made one big happy family of 16! In the apricot litter one little girl was found to suddenly develop cataracts at 6wks old ( the eye specialist said he thought it was probably due to an infection encountered at day 40 of pregnancy as there were changes in 6/7 pups altho both parents were certified clear of hereditary cataracts)- fortunately the silver litter had avoided the infection at the crucial time. The blind pup was kept by Jane at Itzapromise while the foundations of training and socialisation were laid down and the quest for a suitable home for her was begun. She was named "Frankie" and I followed her development closely on Janes blog over the next 4 months. My head told me I shouldn't even think about having two pups so close in age together - I needed to get Fiki well established here and bonded with us . My heart told me I really wanted to be the one to give Frankie that special home:-) Over the months between August and January I was really struggling with health problems and hardly able to cope with just day to day living so I knew I couldn't take on any extras until I had some idea of what was ahead for me. At last, after Christmas, a diagnosis was made and treatment begun - after a couple of weeks I was feeling much more my old self. In the meantime, though, we'd decided to sell our vet practice so that I could retire at the beginning November - so now I have lots of spare time to put into enjoying my "poodling around" AND , at last, the energy to put into it too!   She's fitted in so well it seems like she's always been here- Zurie is very proud of his little "harem" of girls and Fiki is overjoyed at having her "sister" to play chase and tug etc. Even Little Ebs and Caspurr (theCornish Rex) get on well with her - she's so sweet and gentle. Thanks to all the work put in by Jane in those early months, she's settled and adjusted here really fast and leads a happy full life- her sight is not nearly as bad as we thought it would be- sometimes its very hard to see she is "visually impaired" at all. An added bonus- they've made us laugh so much this week watching their games and antics I'm feeling better than I've felt in years too. |
