Teaser

 

Go ahead, guess where I'm at right now?

Well, we've checked into our room up here in Canada, and promptly ordered some Chinese for dinner. The introductory Icebreaker will be held promptly at 7PM tonight. I am making a loose pledge here, and please don't flay me if I don't come through... but I am going to aspire to have an update each night this week, as we make our way through the Rhodesian Ridgeback World Congress 2012. 

So long as the wireless in our room holds out, that is. 

And as a bit of a teaser for an update coming out once we've returned home from Canada...

Say hello to Cortana! That's right, I made my final decision this past weekend, and we will be bringing Lyra, the dark pink collared puppy home on the 30th of August!

 

-Vague

Fun in the Sun

Puppy napping is a very serious and very dangerous phenomenon sweeping through our great nati- Oh who am I kidding? No one can resist the puppy nap!

As is obvious from the above pick, jam packed with seven sickeningly adorable puppies, another visit was made this past weekend. I believe between the almost 3 hours we stuck around in the RStar back yard, the litter went through about 4 or 5 play and rest cycles. An admirable effort, to be sure. Pups are approx. 5 weeks old in these pictures. Eyes are fully open and functional. They've also started in on some dry food to spell Mommy Saba when they get too frisky with those puppy teeth!

They were investigating the usage of this strange structure in committee when we arrived on the scene...

And quickly lost interest in the thing. There was something else in the yard, flashing...

And it seemed to be attached to one of the food-bringers...

Who, despite what she may have been told, isn't actually *made* of food as well.

Why So Curious?

Escape artists in the making. Frightening part, there are only 3 females in this litter, and your looking at two of them.

Here is the third, egging one of her brothers on as he unties Bekah's shoe.

Yawn or growl? You be the judge.

Wasssssaaaapaaaa?

Someone got caught mid-breakout... Timeout for Carina.

Ever wonder how a pack of puppies subdue a food-bringer...

...It goes a little something like that.

MUGSHOTS:

PAVO

ZUEBEN

CARINA

VEGA

HERCULES

ORION

LYRA

Quick burst of energy...

And the resulting crash...

Some curiosity...

Roughhousing...

 

And of course, no one wanted us to go home...

Some made a stronger case than others. Boy Hercules is going to be a heart breaker, if this expression has anything to say about it.

The rest of the photos that I haven't uploaded on the blog can be found here.

The next few weeks are promising to be busy, but I'm hoping to have a few more posts up in the coming days.



'Big' Brother

Copper Hill’s Sardonyx of Kyler’s Atticus out of Copper Hill’s Shalimar... But you can call me Dill.

Now that we've established some sort of a baseline here on the blog, I think it's safe to bring in some outside breed perspective. Pictured above, is Dill, in all his glory. He is a recently turned two year old Boxer, Brindle in color with white markings. And no brain. Why, you may ask, is he now prominently featured on this, a blog of Ridges? Well because this dazzling specimen happens to be the future Cortana's big brother.

I assure you, the novelty of this... Sibling concept... will be absolutely lost on him.

Since Dill projects as being a significant contributor to Cortana's progress once she comes home, I felt it was time to introduce him here onto the blog and to brief you, the readers, on his particulars...

I almost said 'on what makes him tick'... Can you believe that? Surely one look at the photo above and you can safely assume that there is no ticking what-so-ever going on in that thick skull of his.

Dill carries with him some European blood from his Sire, but he hails from far-away Alaska and we do our best not to hold that against him. He is every bit the Better Half's puppy, and falls to pieces faster that a celebrity diva when she leaves the house. I suppose that adoration is to be commended, though. He *is* a Boxer after all. Here's a couple shots of the two of them:

Here we are on our way home from a vacation out east. This particular stop found Dill facing down his first elevator ride... Ironically, it was also his Birthday and he was introduced to the wonders of room service leftovers as a special treat!

No one is quite sure how this particular injury occurred, but during a playdate with one of his best buds, the uber-beta Boxer known formally as Phineas, he somehow lost a bit of skin on his back paw. Courteous as always, he had no intention of breaking up our friendly bar-b-que by letting anyone know there was a problem, instead opting to leave blood stained paw prints wherever his carefree romp took him until someone called for the two medics enjoying their brew downstairs.

While we do have a running gag about his lack of a brain, Dill did just turn two, and lately he has been showing signs of finally starting to grasp some concepts that have been consistently eluded him most of his brief puppy life. Problem solving skills flash and disappear more elusively than comets, but we are working on that.

One issue we've spent some considerable amount of time on is a mysterious, late developing form of Leash Aggression. We aren't at all sure what brought this on. (there is some suspicion that perhaps while he was still showing and with his handler, that maybe he was set upon by another dog while on leash and was unable to get away/properly respond)  For all intents and purposes, Dill is an absolute Beta of a dog. He and Phineas often have little sub-fights about who is the biggest wuss before they start playing, because neither of them wants to take charge. Dill is a lover, not a fighter and if he is off of his lead he has no issues or qualms about much of anything...

(Except the wind, of course, his mortal enemy, the wind monster, is always one step behind him... with the blowing, and gusting, and whistling, and taunting.... Above you can see me, the author, attempting to console him while he is coming under attack from said monster.)

So yeah... that's pretty much Dill, in all his glory and none of his decency. We're all looking forward to watching what happens when Cortana arrives and begins developing. Dill has shown that he is very good with puppies, but what we're most curious about is whether Cortana, or Dill will become the Padawan...

To be revisited...

-Vague

Invictus

Passion and Eloquence.... It sounds like an advert for some fancy diamond necklace at your local jeweler, right? Well don't worry, I'm not about to try and sell you an over priced rock that you're told is a symbol for something greater. Nope.

Passion and Eloquence are the two words I think best describe what you will find after this jump. If you want trouble... It's the title of a blog, written from the perspective of a Rhodesian Ridgeback breeder up in Canada. The blog follows her, her pets, and the kennel, Invictus Hounds. It's unfortunate to note, that shortly before I started this blog, she finished hers. Choosing instead to continue her own personal blog here, and to simply include some of the dog escapades there when it seemed natural.

Just because she's no longer updating the blog, however, should in no way discourage you from bookmarking it. And visiting it. Often. I may have found out about the Rhodesian Ridgeback through wikipedia, but I fell in love with the Rhodesian Ridgeback through the vicarious experiences I had thanks to Tamzin's blog. It was her passion and love for the breed and her dogs that drew me so far into this thing that I doubt I'll ever find my way out.

The blog is set up with the most recent post first. So if you're like me and need to start at the beginning, simply find the archive one the left hand side of the page and click on 2007 to start. You will soon be embarking on a journey, an epic journey that covers 5 years, 1184 blog posts, and eleventy-billion heart wrenching high quality pictures of Ridgeback's in all of their glory and shame. Tamzin pulls no punches as she opens the door and invites you into the last half decade of her and her pets lives.

You will be rewarded with unprecedented access to the daily life of a pack of Ridgebacks, and you will live through several litters of Invictus puppies. Helpful tips on training, feeding, playing. The information, insight, and experience that exists in those 1184 posts, in my humble opinion, is invaluable to a current or future fancier of this great dog breed.

Tamzin's way with the english language, her skills behind the shutter of the camera, and her devotion to the four legged is intoxicating. I dare you to visit the blog once and never go back. I refuse to believe that it is possible. If you don't fall in love with the simple minded, but huge hearted Raimi (aka The Boy), then surely the confident, conniving and snooty Foundation Bitch Halo will command your attention. If they aren't your cup of tea, then the effortlessly gorgeous but uniquely... odd Leeloo is bound to steal your heart. Not to mention the youngin, baby brother Archer who you should feel privileged to watch struggle to grow up in the shadow's of the rest of the Invictus hounds.

I'm not sure I can continue to throw words of praise down without simply gauding up the post with my exuberance. Please, her blog will speak for itself. Do yourself a favor, and visit it. I can only hope that someday, Pawed-Equivocality might help even a single person develop an appreciation for this great breed. Tamzin and the Invictus Dog Blog have already done so, in spades I'm sure.

-Vague

3 Week Puppy Visit

So the waiting wasn't unbearable... and frankly, that was starting to concern me slightly... Then we visited.

Now it just needs to be September. Now. Can you blame me? It occurred to me just about the time that this photo was taken, that if I didn't have such a firm grasp on what it takes to keep these seven puppies fed, cleaned, and content, I would have taken them all home with me. The urge was almost insurmountable. Almost.

As you can see above, the better half and I made the trip out to Ellsworth last weekend to see the puppies. And Bob and Vicky, ofcourse. Naturally Mommy Saba was a bit reluctant to grant us some visitation time, but she was soon coaxed out of the whelping room so that we could introduce ourselves, and the pups promptly chomped down on any fingertip they could find in search of sustenance.

This little gem is Carina. She and her sister Lyra are two of three puppies in this litter with Liver colored noses. She was also the first puppy to come say hello to me before immediately demanding food. :P

 

This here is Lyra. She was the first pup to find her way out of the whelping box (with a little help from Vicky) and into my lap.  

 

And then the napping started, followed by the inevitable slide...

 

 Maintaining a position even remotely near the lap starting point proved to be too much and before long...

 

Lyra settled on simply curling up beneath my legs for some beauty sleep.

 

Ofcourse, Lyra isn't the only puppy to have mastered the Ridgebacks penchant for unorthodox napping positions, here is Pavo doing his best to fall off of the Better Half's lap in a similar fasion.

 

I believe that is Zueben showing the world just what he thinks about the concept of modesty...

 

 Eventually my joints gave up and I needed to relocate from the floor to a chair... Lyra could not be bothered to join me.

 Carina was quick to take advantage, however and quickly found a place to snuggle in for some warm snoozing.

 

Here we have some rare photo-graphical evidence of the Ridgeback Triquetra.I believe Pavo, Vega (the third, black nosed female) and Lyra who finally got cold and found herself a new lap...

As I said at the opening of the blog post, I was doing fine in the patience department... but after this, not so much anymore. I want Cortana to come home. Now. However, since I'm more than aware of how important these first eight weeks are for a puppy to spend with its momma and siblings, I will persevere... somehow...

I'll try to get some more 'development' pictures up in a later post. Also we'll be having some spotlights on books about ridgebacks, another blog and more on the way...

Stay tuned!

-Vague