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!