Tuesday, March 15, 2016

A tomato by another other name...

I realize it's been well over a year since I've posted anything. Aspects of my life not pertaining to dogs took precedence, really since the fall of 2014. Very slowly I've been trying to turn my time and attention back to the dogs, who along with my husband, were incredibly supportive in the past 1.5 years. My attention was so focused elsewhere I completely forgot to mention we ended up keeping one of Lark's puppies from her 2014 litter, a litter I neglected to even blog about, I was so busy with back to back litters, even though the first litter consisted of only one pup.

Keeping a puppy from Lark's litter after deciding to keep Koan wasn't planned, and certainly wasn't a very prudent thing to do, and had I realized how much was going to be heaped on my plate of life since he was born I might have had the good sense to find him somewhere else (anywhere else) to go, but I liked him enough to think he deserved a show home, and then wasn't able to focus on that for a long time, and now I'm not certain I'd be able to give him up, he's become such a fixture. 

The last puppy born to Lark was a beautiful dark red male with white in all the right places. Unfortunately, the puppy before him didn't make it, and he seemed in danger of following suit. From the start, he was rather flaccid and not very engaged in nursing. I spent a lot of time in the first few days of his life rubbing him and making sure he had good access to Lark. Because Lark's 2014 litter was named after tomatoes, the last puppy was known as Mr. Stripey, a type of heirloom tomato (I swear!), christened with that particular moniker due to the lovely white stripe gracing his head. The others were Roma, Cherry, Big Boy and Sun Gold. Within a week or two, he had plumped up to match the other pups and was a very contented puppy. That's him in the middle, on his back in the whelping pool. 

I think he was over 6 months old before I registered him as Zephyr's Lively Baco Noir with a call name of Baco though he is still called Mr. Stripey, or Stripe and answers to that as well. Baco Noir is a type of grape found in the Finger Lakes, NY area but also in Ontario, where Baco's sire resides. 

Starting in the fall of 2014, I managed to get both him and Koan through puppy and basic obedience classes, and then through my agility club's Level 1 program.

Baco's coming up on 20 months old this week, and doing well in agility though his debut in the ring a few weeks ago left a lot to be desired! He also picked up his first major in January at a local show. I must admit it's been a bit strange to have a male Toller in the house. I've always kept bitches before. He's eager to please and engage but goes about things a bit differently than the girls do. I fondly refer to as my blockhead. So far I'm enjoying the journey with him.

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