Xin-Feng's Demeter (Demi)

For our next visit we went to Klaaswaal (near Rotterdam) to see smooth Demi.
She was very happy to see us and lives a good life with Ben and Ilone and all their Shiba Inu's. Demi looks a lot like her mother Chimay, she has the same deep red color.

Ben and Ilone live in a big old farmhouse and have fenced a huge pasture for their dogs. It is great to have such a private place to walk the dogs!

We went with Demi to the pasture and took Chimay and Gladdich, who had been waiting in the car, to walk them too.
Unfortunately Gladdich did not recognise Demi, so we put him back in the car.
Chimay was in heat, so she was not very interested in Demi.

I took some photos, here you can see Chimay, Demi and Ben:

Frank and Demi:

Frank, Chimay, Ben and Demi

Then Demi was brought back to the house, so Gladdich could run loose.
I have Gladdich always on the leash, he does not accept strange dogs near him. He fairly ignores other dogs on our regular walk at home, I worked hard to get him this far. With the flexi he does have some space to run, but it is not the same as running off leash.
Gladdich loves people, here you see him cuddling with Ben:

One more time Gladdich, running happely:

Then we put Chimay and Gladdich back into the car and chatted some more about dogs in general, Shiba's and Chows. It was a nice afternoon in Klaaswaal.

Ilone wrote about the visit too in her weblog (in Dutch).

Xin-Feng's Draupadi (Demi)

On January 25th we went to Herpen, there lives rough Demi (her smooth sister is called Demi too, that is why I add the coatlength).

Just like Dante she barked at us, but soon she stopped and came over for some hughs.
She is a very happy Chow. She only dislikes being alone. She rarely sits still, always moving around, so taking pictures was not easy...
Demi and Frank.

Do you like me? I like me!

Xin-Feng's Dante

On January 22nd we delivered the first pedigree. Dante lives with a Shi Tzu and two persian cats with a family in Putten.
At first Dante did not like to see us there, barking loudly and hiding under the kitchentable he seemed to say: I won't go back to Lelystad with you two!!!
After 15 minutes he decided it was okay to come out of his hiding place and was all happy to see us.
Dante is going to be a heavy Chow, his daddy likes the more heavy Chows, so this is a perfect match.

Puppies on Texel

Forgive me for redating this and the next few messages in my blog. A lot to tell about the last month, but I had a worse case of the flu and did not spend time at the computer for some weeks.

On January 10th Frank and I went to Texel to see Lobke's puppies, they were a little over a month old then.
a great litter! All social and livid pups.
A few haven't been sold yet.
We don't want a third Chow, but if we were looking for a smooth....

the pups of our D-litter...

...are doing well, some owners e-mail or call regular, others once in a while.
I received some lovely photos from Dao (Xin-Feng's Dao) and his aunt Ginger (Xin-Feng's Charming Ginger) by e-mail, here a nice one:

Smooth Demi (Xin-Feng's Demeter) was enjoying the cold weather before Chrismas:

And rough Demi (Xin-Feng's Draupadi) stil likes to sleep with her stuffed crocodile (Gladdich amputated the tail of the stuffed crocodile that stayed here):

Winter in Lelystad and catching up

It has been freezing for some days and the trees are white with the frost.
The pampagrass and conifers look great too covered in frost.
Gladdich would like to spend all day outside in the garden, he loves the cold and dry weather. But he likes company too and the other family members prefer to be inside. Chimay has not yet regrown her fur (the old hair is nearly gone, but the new coat is not completely grown back yet), so her fur coat is not as warm as Gladdichs.
Gladdich had some trouble with his right knee. We don't think it is a ruptured ACL (yet), but he was limping earlier this month when the weather was very wet. We try to make his muscles stronger and take him for a leashed long walk every other day. It seems to help because the limping is getting less. We have had enough ACL surgeries for the rest of our life with Nemo and Pandora a few years back!

Life has changed with Frank having a job. Yesterday evening I was thinking how much more he does and can do, a world of difference in comparison with a year ago!
Wednesday evening he went to work the night, had a few hours sleep there and slept 3 hours back home. Then we went to Naaldwijk (nearly two hours dive with a lot of traffic) to see the psychiatrist and from there we went to my parents. And yesterday (Friday) Frank went to Rotterdam by train to visit his father, did some shopping and went to café Haagse Bluf to spend the evening with some friends, took the last train back to Lelystad and was home at 2:00, tired, but not exhausted.
This would not have been possible a year ago, the trip to Naaldwijk and my parents would have been so exhausting, he would need a week to recuperate. It is unbelievable two times a day half a Ritalin makes so much difference...

I am getting used being without Frank two nights a week. It is a tremendous help that I have some people here who I can call if needed. Not that I needed to call someone, but knowing thay are available gives me peace of mind.