No More Puppies...

OK, not no more puppies forever or anything like that. I don't think I could live without a puppy.

No, you see, I got this email yesterday from Belle's breeder custodians. I really like Ken and Nancy. They're just wonderful people. I mean, I got a CD of pictures of Belle's "F" litter. A lot of the great little puppy pictures of Freya I have are from that CD. And when the "E" litter was born I expressed the want to have who would later become Epic. It might have totally worked out too if I kept my receive date the same. But this is only somewhat beside the point. The point is that they recommended me to the puppy raising department to raiser Epic. Of course I didn't end up with another Belle puppy this time, but I got the CD of their first 2 months of life all the same. So you can imagine my sadness when I get an email saying the Belle is going to be retired from the breeding program. So, no more Belle puppies. They had a whole bunch of options and opted to retire Belle right away with, I believe 4 litters. It might be 3, but I'm pretty sure she had one in between her "D" litter and her "F" litter.

So, no more Belle puppies for me. I guess it's a good thing and I am totally excited about it, but Mama Belle is a wonderful dog and I'm sad that her genes sort of stop here. Unless one of the "E" puppies is chosen as a breeder. I don't think any of the black ones are on breeder eval, so I guess that means our hope is in Epic.

I am a little sad because I would have loved to raise another Belle puppies, but it's time. She's almost 7 years old, so she's probably ready to retire.