The Magnificent Seven (2015)

MUM, LILY AND HER TINY BABIES

Our Magnificent Seven were born on Sat 13th / Sun 14th June 2015 to Lily who was living with her forever Mum, Barbara and new big sister, Micha, in Somerset.

It was all very unexpected but Barbara was amazing and rallied to the cause getting everything prepared for the imminent birth. The dining room part of her lounge diner became Lily’s pad for 9 weeks. This was where she was to give birth to her babies with the help f Barbara and her very good friend Gill.

DETAILS OF THE BIRTHS

The times and weights at birth were:-

It seemed like it was a double mating. We were thinking that Lily and Magic must have been mated at the puppy farm producing  five Golden Retriever pups but, then, Lily must have also had a paramour, the unknown father of the 2 black dogs!!!! 

All 7 were doing well and putting on weight.

The white dogs were all given coloured collars to identify them. Bramble and Briar were easy to dentify by their markings.

AS TIME WENT ON

The babies were beautiful but two white dogs with blue eye and the tail carriage got pennies dropping as the time went on. We now reckoned there was just the one mating but and, undoubtedly, with a Husky.

On Sunday 12th July 2015, Lily’s litter at 4 weeks old were now all over 2kilos. The exact weights and collar colours for the “faux goldens” were:-

With eyes open, the puppies were also becoming more lively and playful although they zonked out again as soon as they felt tired. They started having more and more visitors which meant they were well handled and very used to people.

Lily, their proud Mum was always happy to share them with the visitors and Micha looked on with interest making sure she still got her fair share of petting too. They were a very happy little family and the babies soon all had really lovely homes lined up for them. 

Three of them were to be re-named. So here are our seven youngsters with their adult names.

AND LAST BUT NEVER LEAST

The various puppy parents each came for a cuddle and went away excited and full of expectation for the future. The puppies continued to grow, were weaned and became even more lively (and a bit naughty). They became less reliant on Lily but all still remained close. 

Then the time came for Lily’s children to leave home. The first two to go, on 2nd August, were Rosie and Bramble (to become Meme Rose and Axl respectively. Those two best friends were going to remain near neighbours in Bedfordshire and were going to be doing exciting things like Competitive Agility. 

Although Axl’s folks (Ron and Julie) were novices, Meme Rose had experienced folks (Sandra and Owen) and equally savvy dogs (Brian, Bond and Casey) to show them the way.

Then Daisy went off to Wiltshire with Denise and older, doggy companion, Molly on 6th August followed closely behind by Shamrock on 9th August, going to a different part of Wiltshire, with Paula, Julian and Barney.

It was the following Friday, 14th August, when Briar (who became Bobby) went to his home with a lovely family, Helen, her husband and the three children (plus two cats and a rabbit) but he was staying in the same village as sister Poppy and Mum Lily.

Then, always last to leave her home comforts, on Sunday 16th, it was Honey’s turn to say “goodbye” as she went off to live with Julie (the late, much lamented Ricky Three Legs’ Mum) and Megan in Gloucestershire. 

That same night, Poppy went to live next door with Gill and Barbara, Lily and Micha breathed a sigh of relief …. peace at last!!!!!

The puppies are all doing really well, still getting bigger and are all developing their own little personalities. Our Magnificent seven: Poppy, Daisy, Shamrock, Axl, Meme Rose, Bobby and Honey were growing up.

AND THEIR MUM, LILY, WAS VERY PROUD

TAKE A LOOK AT THE GORGEOUS ADULT VERSIONS OF OUR MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Honey Granger

Shamrock Harvey

Daisy Atfield

Poppy Underhay

Meme Rose Edwards

Bobby Armstrong

Axl Waldock