Pictures

From Maggie and CiscoAugie and Rielly

From Cotton and Brogue
Two shots of Brody

What can I say? I just LOVE the way Whoodles look... 5 months or 17, full coat or clipped.

Em's Reservation List

If you haven't been on the website this week, this may be news to you! Since Monday's ultrasound was positive, the reservation list for Emy/Boon pups opened Tuesday (the 27th) and was almost filled by that afternoon. There is one spot available, for a female. Just about everyone wants a male this time around. Also, several people on the waiting list are waiting specifically for Peri's litter with Sparky. THAT ultrasound is scheduled for 4/16.

As always, I am getting a ton of email and numerous phone calls. For people who are new to Mountain Summit, I am on dial-up (for computer service) which means calls go to voicemail when I'm using the computer. Leave a message and I'll call you back (where have you heard that before?) But, honest, I will call you back.

And a reminder... I'm on dial-up. Average connection speed is 33-45 Kbps. That is K. FYI, one kilobit per second (Kbps) is 1,000 bits per second (bps,) one megabit per second (Mbps) is 1,000 Kbps or 1,000,000 bps and one gigabit per second (Gbps) is 1,000 Mbps or 1,000,000 Kbps or 1,000,000,000 bps. To put this in perspective: DSL ranges from 700+ Kbps to 7 Mbps and cable is 4 Mbps to 16+ Mbps. I absolutely LOVE getting photos but full size ones off your cell phones and most cameras make my computer freeze or, on a good day, can take a half hour or more to download. If you can, downsize. Downsize by 75-90%! Thanks!

News and Visitation Request

The news was good at the vet's this afternoon. Emy is pregnant with a "group" of pups. The reservation list will open for those not on the waiting list in a couple days IF there are slots available.

Visitation
Anyone with a Mountain Summit Whoodle near Philly or around the Jersey shore... I have people interested in meeting a Whoodle. I'll send YOU their contact info and you can take it from there. Thanks!

Weather, Etc

Too many record breaking days, temperature-wise, already this "Spring." We've been in the 80s since late last week. Last night, at 11 something, it was still 62 degrees. I moved up here to get away from heat but it has found me again. I have fans going in every room already... having a houseful of dogs is great in the winter. Their body temperature, especially when they are awake and active, helps keep heating costs down! But in air conditioning weather, it's a drawback. Luckily for me, most of my dogs are getting into middle age (and a few, OLD age) so their activity level is down.

In fact, for three days a tree trimming/brush removing company has been working on my "road," and the dogs are either so hot (or so old!) they stopped barking after the first day! Now here's the thing about that... the work being done, not the barking NOT being done... I live on a private road. That means the county doesn't maintain it. Period. There aren't even road signs or address markers. And since the road itself is a weird mixture of dirt, clay, gravel, some brick, a little black top here and there, it is a mess. Ruts are usually at least a foot deep... twice that after a good downpour. Every once in a while, my neighbor at the top of the hill will put his old tractor to work dragging the entire road. And this degree of maintenance is fine with all of us. We do not want the county in here. However, none of us knows who is paying the tree people for the extensive work they've done. The guys doing the work said they didn't know who hired them; they just go where the dispatcher sends them. I think the electric company hired them to make sure trees were not endangering the power lines. But that doesn't explain the clearing of brush back 10 feet from the roadway. It actually looks rather strange and not at all attractive. BUT it will grow back!

Which brings me to fleas. I've already had to treat the dogs with Advantage! I am NOT looking forward to when it "gets hot" this year.

Triple Crown Season
It's that time of year again! The 3 year olds are getting ready for the "world series" of racing. I've started my annual search for the ONE that I think might be able to finish in the front of the pack three times in a row in May and June. I've been on a few thoroughbred sites... blogs and forums... and gotten some back stories. One of the horses mentioned in several places is Union Rags. And what initially drew me to him is his connection to Barbaro... his trainer is Michael Matz who was Barbaro's trainer. (Even though it was 6 years ago, that whole thing still brings tears to my eyes.) So I looked up Rags' pedigree and all I can say is WOW! It includes such spectacular horses as Secretariat, Swaps, Seattle Slew, Native Dancer, Tim Tam, Bold Ruler... the who's who of thoroughbred stallions! I have yet to see a photo of Union Rags, but I like his background. Except it HAS occurred to me that what made all those horses great varies enormously and all those genes COULD be at odds with each other. Still, I think this is the one I'm going withfor the time being. And now I've found out he is considered one of, if not THE, leading contender this year. Which sort of reduces MY excitement about him. The Derby is 6 weeks away and there is a lot of racing during that time. We'll see how it goes.

Chomper, Still Lost in PA

But...
got this from his owner this morning;

ON March 2 I headed to Hughesville for one last look for Chomper...I called for hours....the next day he was spotted!

I headed back up there this Saturday and with the help of a local woman we found a lady who has been feeding him for the last 2 months....she lives on 40 acres and discovered him one day while walking...after that she has dropped food off where she and he met.....they do not talk though and the feeding station is about a half mile from her house....i went there and dropped off a towel that smells like me....someone did try to put a trap out last week (I just found this out) but it was not camouflaged and Chomper hates cages and did not show up for a week to feed...as soon as the cage was taken away he came back and left 3 bones (UGH) where she feeds him....we have set up a camera to try to find out what time he comes to feed and if he sleeps there....we have contacted everyone again in the area that he has been seen and where he has been the last two months.....he is very skittish and they are going to try a trap again but this time camouflage it and set it a little further away from his food.....and not feed him for a few days and see if he will go after the bate in the cage....he has been seen a total of 6 times since March 2...I hope we can get him...we are so close and I don't want him to get hit by a car....

Please pray!

Elizabeth

Everyone, please add your prayers and positive thoughts. It will be so wonderful when Chomper is back home!

Well!

So Sparky and Peri are doing their thing. They've done it twice. But that's all they've done it since Wednesday. Once Tuesday and once Wednesday. And even though they've been together twice a day every day since... and have been penned together 24hours a day since Friday night... that's it.

Now, it only takes once. If the timing is right. And that's the key. Without doing expensive progesterone testing, timing is hard to figure out which is why I usually let the dogs get together as long as they WANT to get together. Emy and Boon took advantage of the situation 8 days in a row, and when the attraction was over, it was over. On the other hand, Diamond and Boon did the same thing and the results were... zilch.

So, as usual, everything is out of my control. It's a waiting game.

Em's ultrasound is in another week and Peri's in a month. Fingers crossed!

Feeling his oats!

Zenyatta, Baby Z, Payment Schedule

I'm about to add this to the Article on Pricing and Payment and want to be sure it makes sense to people. Feedback appreciated! Please confine comments to layout and clarity Leave the pricing part alone! ;)

PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Diamond or Emerald RESERVED MALES

$100 waiting list fee
+150 balance of reservation fee when list opens
____
$250

+250 balance of deposit (1/2 pup's price) by 2 weeks of age
____
$500

+500 balance of pup's price by 8 weeks of age
_____
$1000 total price for Emy or Diamond reserved male


Diamond or Emerald RESERVED FEMALE puppy
and
Peridot or Maggie RESERVED MALES

$100 waiting list fee
+150 balance of reservation fee when list opens
____
$250

+350 balance of deposit (1/2 pup's price) by 2 weeks of age
____
$600

+600 balance of pup's price by 8 weeks of age
_____
$1200 total price for Emy or Diamond reserved female and
Peridot or Maggie reserved males


Peridot or Maggie RESERVED FEMALE puppy

$100 waiting list fee
+150 balance of reservation fee when list opens
____
$250

+450 balance of deposit (1/2 pup's price) by 2 weeks of age
____
$700

+700 balance of pup's price by 8 weeks of age
_____
$1400 total price for Peridot or Maggie reserved female


Please inquire about pricing on unreserved puppies.

---

Zenyatta's baby photo for identification puposes
Queen Z with her Bernardini son This boy has been dubbed "Prince" and "Baby Z" by his mom's fans. His official designation right now is "12 Zenyatta." Whatever his name turns out to be, he already has a huge following (and, hopefully, once he starts racing, his following will include the competition!)

More Pictures

Cisco and Maggie's pups

Millie and friends.


Macy and her friends, Lauren and Curious George.

And this is a Canadian bred Whoodle
Notice that the black is still black. How do they do that?
And it looks like the tail is docked. I know how that is done and don't see the necessity.

Pix of "Old" Pups

KOKO
2010 Cotton/Brogue daughter

Brady
2009 Cotton/Brogue son

Montana
2009 Diamond/Brogue daughter

Murphy and Zoe
(left) 2010 Emerald/Sparky son and 2008 Emy/Shadow daughter (right)

Thanks to everyone who keeps in touch and sends me pictures and updates on the family!

New Arrival

Zenyatta's dark bay COLT made his appearance at 10:10 PM March 8th. Mother and son doing well

Not Much

First, Peri IS in season, right on schedule. Such a good girl. I'll be breeding her with Sparky in a week to 10 days. These pups will be about a week younger than Emy and Boon's.

A friend sent me this:
Dogs Welcome

A man wrote a letter to a small hotel in a
midwest town he planned to visit on his
vacation. He wrote: I would very much like
to bring my dog with me. He is well-groomed
and very well behaved. Would you be willing
to permit me to keep him in my room with
me at night?"

An immediate reply came from the hotel
owner, who wrote: SIR: "I've been operating
this hotel for many years. In all that time, I've
never had a dog steal towels, bedclothes,
silverware or pictures off the walls. I've never
had to evict a dog in the middle of the night
for being drunk and disorderly. And I've never
had a dog run out on a hotel bill. Yes, indeed,
your dog is welcome at my hotel. And, if your
dog will vouch for you, you're welcome to stay
here, too."

Weather back to normal
Well, normal for THIS Winter! In the 60s, sun shinning, yard drying out... but still wet enough for muddy paws. LOTS of muddy paws! More rain scheduled for tomorrow night. Last year I put gravel around the perimeter of the yard, a 5 foot wide path all around. And it was quite enough to cut drastically down on how often I had to mop floors. This year, even if the entire yard was gravel, the floors would still be a mess most of the time!

Nice and Quiet Today

This is Greg Cook who found his dog, Coco, alive and well in what remained of his home after a tornado.
The picture is all over the internet, so you've probably all seen it already but it is heartening to look at.

Something last night that warmed MY heart: one of the weather guys was talking to a shelter director in a near by town and asked if people could bring their animals with them to the shelter. The reply was an offhand "Certainly." How great is that?! So many places won't let animals in.

I still think about the lady who called me about Cotton and Peri from the church where she worked and said they were going from door to door trying to get inside. She didn't let them in. Every time I think of that, I wonder what God would have to say.

Peri
The dogs... the boys... are hinting to me that Peri is starting to cycle....

Everything OK Here

The worse thing I had to deal with during the last 5 hours (6 PM to 11 PM) was the local weather guys prempting prime time tv. NBC and CBS (local) broadcast weather maps and updates CONTINUOUSLY... except for regularly scheduled commercials.
Which means I missed Grimm. A poster on the Brokeback forum told me the story line was about some... creatures... eating babies. And apparently, they were NOT airline passengers. I'll have to wait for a repeat to see it. Here's the deal: I didn't even have RAIN. Or wind. In fact, everything was calm. Until I let the first group of dogs out at 11. At 11:05 the rains came! A very heavy downpour which seems to be easing up 50 minutes later. Anyway, that's my gripe for March 2nd. I hope all of you faired as well.

Here We Go Again!

Rain. More rain. HEAVY rain. It's getting pretty tiresome. I would say boring, but the wild stuff we had Wednesday night was kinda interesting. And a rematch is scheduled for tonight. However, it started around noon today with the weather service issuing tornado warnings and watches in my "local viewing area," which is quite large and includes counties in Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina... none probably mumore than an hour's drive. And because of the hills around me, storms have a way of bouncing all over the place. My son lives 3-4 miles from me and has completely different weather than I do 99% of the time. Schools have closed early. I'm staying away from local tv to avoid weather reporting interruptions, scrolls and news flashes. Nothing I can do about it anyway. And I'm certainly not going to head for cover and leave the dogs to fend for themselves, so I might as well be surprised!

Peri's haircut
What a difference in the way she looks... and I don't mean that in a good way! I always have the dogs clipped all the way down... I leave long hair on their ears and the tip half of their tails. The rest is done in a burr, including faces. It usually takes at least a month for them to stop looking skinned. When they brought me Peri yesterday, she looked so much like her big sister, Emy, does when first clipped, I was glad Em was "groomed" 6 weeks ago! I would still be able to tell them apart, standing side by side both newly clipped, because Peri is about half Emy's size but they are like clones. This was Peri's first ever trip for clipping and she's still not happy about it. Boon is there today. Picture(s) coming once the yard dries out a bit.

Post removed
A couple days ago I posted some photos of pups from 2009. Something strange started happening... first, after a day or so, part of the post just disappeared. Then, when I tried to edit, a different section vanished. So I deleted the whole thing and will attempt a reposting once I download the photos again from my email.

Website updates
If you haven't been on the website recently, I just added a Diamond/Boon rematch I'm planning for when she comes back in season in about 4-5 months. And Penny is going to breed Maggie and Cisco again, not this heat but the next, toward the end of the summer/beginning of fall. We're going to do it the same way as last year... pups will be with her until weaned and then come to me. We both got a lot out of the last litter since the timing played to our individual strong suits.

Thought this was funny...
But people always say I have a strange sense of humor!