Happy Birthday, Mona!!!

Today's Mona's birthday!!!! 4 years old already!

To celebrate her birthday properly, we decided to take her for a walk to the weekly market in the center of our village. She always loves to do that, so that was her 'present'. She behaved amazingly well, she had a lot of attention for the children playing at the playground and she passed every dog without any problem. We are very happy and proud of her that she behaved this way, because after her pregnancy she was always anxious. Clearly this fear 'for nothing' is gone now! We're so relieved!

After her walk she ate some birthday cookies and as diner we made her and her friends birthday pancakes!

The recipe is very easy. 

For three dogs you need:

- 3 eggs

- a cup of cream cheese

- +/- 200g of meat that is easy to mix (ground beef, for example)

- some flour 

You just mix it all together and you've got the dough, to make the dough smooth you can ad as many flower as you wish. Than put the dough into a frying pan or the oven and you've got your dog(s) some pancakes! 

Mona, Viggo, Grace and Shaggy enjoyed it! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHAGGY!!!!

Today we celebrate Shaggy's adoption day! 

Because he's a shelter cat, we don't know when he was born exactly, 

so we decided to celebrate the day he came to live with us! 

He's been living with us now for 2 years 

and he was still a youngster when we got him 

so he will be 2 and a bit years old! 

Happy Adoption Day, Shaggy! 

Enjoy your birthday meal! 

Shaggy, youngster, when he just arrived at our place

Shaggy, adult macho cat! 

Is what the dogs are saying! 

Grace is growing... growing fast!

Hi!

It's been a while since we've updated this page, so here we are...
First of all some bad news: most of our puppies suffer from kneeproblems; some of them have already had surgery, others are already put down...
Grace also has that same kneeproblem, but at only one of her knees, not both. Most likely she will undergo surgery when she's over 18 months old, that way she will be fully recovered from her kidneysurgery and bladderproblems. The most important thing is get her through that first and than we'll start thinking about the other surgery, because she isn't really in pain with that knee. After she gets of antibiotics for her kidney and bladder, we'll start giving her some meloxicam tablets. Thanks for this tip to our dear friend and breeder of Viggo, Iwonna!

Okay, enough with the bad news!
As I hear from my brother and mum, Grace is still the little pig she's always been. She wrecks everything she finds and teases her mum and stepdad. She's also copying everything Viggo does. Viggo's still the overprotective stepdad and Mona... Mona looks great, she's finally gotten over her pregnancy and motherhood. For a while she really suffered hormone swings with becoming incredibly thin and without any joy for life, she really looked horrible for some time and when she stopped eating, we were afraid to lose her. But now she's all over that stuff and found back how to be a great Newfoundland! She's not being the 'teaching' mum, because she allows everything little Gracie does, but she sure as hell is a very loving mum!

So to sum up, I really don't have to be afraid to come home to totally different dogs (I'm living in Italy for 6 months to go to school there):
Viggo is still the great, big dog he always was. Loving and carrying for Grace and Mona.
Mona is back her joyous self she always was. Playing and being completely crazy.
Grace is a playful, curious and 'love-to-learn-something-new' puppy.
Shaggy became a beautiful cat, he'll be celebrating his 2nd birthday soon. Also still loving and carrying for Grace and playing with her.

Some pics my mum sent me:

Sleepy Shaggy

Runnnnn!!!! Viggo - Grace - Mona

Like mother like daughter
Viggo - Mona - Grace

"Runnnnn, Mummyyyy!!! Dad's right behind you!!!" 

Beautiful Grace

New Rabbithome

We got our rabbits a new home, because the cages they were living in would not have lived through another cold winter. So we got them a firmer cage, were they can play properly. 

Yesterday evening when they just moved into their new home

    

New inhabitant

On Saturday we have welcomed Abraham into our family. Abraham is a telescope-eyed goldfish. We got his name from the sitcom 'Diff'rent Strokes' in which the main character, Arnold, has a petfish called Abraham. 


The picture is not very clear, we'll post a new one when we can photograph him properly:

Grace's bladder infection

Grace's bladderinfection was more severe than we had thought, white bloodcells were over 10 000 and they are normally not allowed to go over 25... 
BUT: She's doing great on the antibiotics the vet gave her! Now we have to have her checked every onces in a while to make sure she won't get an infection on her healthy kidney! 

Grace in de lappenmand

Grace got sick overnight... Yesterday we already saw she had difficulties to hold her pee and when she peed, it took a long time...
But tonight she couldn't hold it anymore, 5 pees!
We have a veterinaryappointment at 12:30! Probably some antibiotics and rest, we already know the drill!
I hope she gets out of this alright! It's not good for her to have a bladderinfection, seen that she has only one kidney left.
She still eats good and still has a lot of energy, but we know from her mum that those things can turn in just a matter of time. But she's a thoughy, she's a fighter, she has proven that already!

Picturetime!

Natte neuzen-show:

Mona's nose

Grace's nose

Viggo's nose

L-O-V-E

New pictures

Grace's favoriete plekje in huis:

"Zo kan ik alles zien!!!"

Grace ten voeten uit: mooi, aandachtig, slim, zot en speelvogel allemaal in 1 klein (groot) woefke!

"Oeps, sorry, mama!"

Copycat...

Mona protects her daughter

Tonight when we took the dogs on their eveningwalk, Mona showed us what kind of mum she is...
We usually walk down our street and take one of the side streets, we walk down that street and turn around when we come near the house where a very angry dog lives. We noticed last week that we hadn't seen the dog around anymore for a large amount of time, so today we decided to go passed the house...
When we came back, it turned out the dog was still living there. He started barking but we saw he was inside. But then: the owner was smart enough to let the dog out. The dog was barking and running up and down the fence so angrily, it scared the crap out of Grace. Right at that moment, Mona broke free, she just vanished, leaped over a large creek and ran to the fence, not barking. Viggo wanted to help her but he couldn't break free. Mona came right back when she told the other dog to back off. She jumped to the fence and came back.
We're sure she did this to protect little Gracie, because normally she'd never ever do this kind of stuff and when she came back she firstly ran towards her and 'nose-to-nosed' her. And then when she came towards us, she put her tail between her legs because she thought we were angry with her, which obviously we weren't, we were/are angry with the pighead that let his dog out while he knows we were there with a puppy. He just stood there, letting his dog do his thing, of course the dog can bark and all (after all it's his territory), but he's a real pain in the ass for all the other dogowners that want to walk passed his house.

Pics of the kids 2

Mr Light Blue: Cape Lewisporte Joy Ride 'Falcon':



Ms Yellow: Cape Lewisporte Just Shoot Me 'Pistol':



Falcon (left) and Pistol (right) live in the US, at Top Shelfs kennel.


More info and pics: http://www.topshelfnewfoundlands.com/

Mona at the vet...

Mona stopped eating a few days ago so we took her to the vet yesterday. He said he thinks nothing is wrong. We came home, gave her some food and yes, yes, she ate it. Almost as if she thought 'Ohoh, they took me to that vet, so maybe I should try to eat...' And again at night, she ate... Weird girl, our Mona!

Pics of the kids

Mr Orange: Cape Lewisport J Gandalf 'Gandalf'
Gandalf lives in Vendeuvre sur Barse, France, at kennel 'L'Etoile de Cyrice'


Ms Purple: Cape Lewisporte Jelly Bean 'Jelly Bean'
Jelly Bean lives in Ontario, Canada, with Pat Johnson at By The Creek Newfoundlands.


Mr Red: Cape Lewisporte Jabulani 'Jason'
Jason lives in Veldhoven, Holland, with Wijnand, Gisela en Keanu.

'Skinny-dip'

We went swimming in Westenschouwen, NL. We had a verrrrryyy good time! The dogs didn't hesitate for one moment to get into the water. Grace also loves to swim, she followed Mona and Viggo into the water and she swam tremendously!
Afterwards when we got home, they gave us a 'snoring-concert': three dogs, all exhausted, sleeping and letting us know they had a GREAT time!
***
Gisteren zijn we in Westenschouwen, NL, gaan zwemmen. Westenschouwen ligt net aan de waterkering 'Neeltje Jans' en dus aan de Oosterschelde! Het was er ge-wel-dig! Zeker met die drie zwemmers van ons was het een echt feest. Die drie aarzelden natuurlijk geen moment om het water in te gaan. Blijkbaar zwemt kleine Grace ook heel graag, want ook zij ging gezwind het water in en zwom perfect!
Toen we thuis waren, hebben ze ons getrakteerd op een heus 'snurkconcert': onze drie honden, compleet uitgeput, lagen heerlijk te slapen en zo lieten ze ons ook weten dat ze het echt wel naar hun zin hebben gehad!














Crazy Mona:





















Wij zijn mooooeeee!!! / We are tired!!!