first big trip

The 3 remaining babies went on their first big adventure overseas today. Well......when I say overseas.....it was more over The Severn......as they went to visit The General in Wales!!! Not quite as exotic as mexico, but they enjoyed it! great to see TG and for the pups to all have a romp in the garden with him and the bassets.....and I can vouch that Glenys makes the very best bacon buttie Ive ever tasted!!!
After that I had to go to the depths of Wales on a bit of a mercy-mission......and brought home with me, what hopefully will be Tennants new partner in crime. I wont spill the beans just yet!!!

Lifes a beach....

Had these really fabulous photos today of Bailey (Farlap Crofter) on a day trip to the beach with his family.

Hola!!

well what an exhausting few day......Curate has nearly completed his marathon journey, and last night we finally got him to Houston USA. It couldnt have been more exhausting if I was walking there!!! Now he is in the safe hands of new owner Karla, and, after a night in a very posh hotel......they are about to make the final part of their journey to Mexico to join their other hounds.
Here he is after his 12 hour flight, soaking up the warmth of Texas!!
After British cold, we,t muddy, snowy weather, I think he is going to love the warmth and sunshine.....infact Im thinking that Id quite like to be adopted by Karlas family as well as their hounds have the most fabulous lifestyle with lakes and fields and constant sunshine!

home at last

A couple of weeks before Christmas one of our ferrets went missing....she was a new girl that I had bought for andrews birthday, and somehow she managed to escape from our ferret court. We searched around about for days but never managed to find her. Every now and then something odd would happen....like a pheasant or a woodcock that was hanging in the cold room would go missing....then the neighbouring farm had 3 chickens killed inside their locked chicken shed.....but we never had so much as a glimpse of her.
Then tonight I heard a commotion in the yard and went out to find Vivid with a dead rabbit in her mouth.....this rabbit (shot earlier today) had been hung in a locked cold room just an hour earlier so it was a complete mystery how she had got it out and shut the door behind her!!
Anyway a few moments ago Andrew went down to the cold room, heard a noise in the shadows, and there she was...."Miss ferret"!!! it must have been her that took the rabbit out of the cold room and dragged it under the door, where Vivid managed to get hold of it. How she has kept warm in all the snow, avoided being eaten by our hounds or the farm dogs, and not been run over, is a complete mystery. she seemed quite pleased to be picked up and cuddled as you can see in this quick snap of her a minute after she was safely brought in from the cold.

bath time!

Well some lovely puppy managed to pee in their bed last night....so everyone had to have a bath today! Luckily they all took to it quite well. Candle decided to do her Cleopatra impersonation and lie down in the warm water and let her minion (i.e. me) bather her in warm water.....she would have preferred milk but she deigned to suffer warm water instead! Curate, being a typical boy, took it all rather badly and sulked and looked miserable....especially when Andrew came in laughing and took his photo!! The look on his face says it all really....but they all smell so sweet now!

snow hound

Obviously we werent going to make a snowman when we could make a snow hound!! It all started going wrong though, once Generous lifted his leg on it and then all the others followed on......hes taken on a rather yellowy look now!!

A few more snow Pix of everyone enjoying themselves in our 2 feet snowfall.

Tennant the snowballer..

Tennant has discovered a new obsession of snowballing.......photo captions are
1) Got it!
2) Nearly!
3) Missed!

some drifts are deeper than we thought

Poor Gravity hadnt realised quite how deep this drift was when she tried to run through it!

its snow much fun here

Wow we had a really big snowfall today.......and everyone just loved it!!!
Heres Cythar and Tarnish.

let it snow.......

Well at last our snow arrived today....and what a lovely time everyone has had in it!!
The puppies played in it until they got cold and I had to force them to go indoors, Drizzle went sledging with her dad, and Envy and the bloodhounds just ran and ran for the sheer excitement of it.

Tennant "The Man"

Tennant is really "the man" now......on Friday he went on his first proper day at the shoot.
He was so good, we were unimaginably proud of him.....he never ran into shot, he returned on every whistle, he sat at my feet without complaint on the drives we were shooting, and he hunted well on the beating drives. he succesfully pointed a woodcock as well as putting another one up.
Unfortunately his only retrieve, was washed away down the river and so I considered it too tricky for him at this early stage. A bird came down about 20 feet from him (someone elses) and another dog was sent for it....he never flinched!!
he was a true star!

Do I look intelligent like this??

heres a fab photo of Bailey (farlap Crofter), sent to us by his new owners......looking highly intelligent with his new toy!!