My English dam and her pup. The pup was 6 months old here. I thought I had added my last Lab put this past April but it was not to be.
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Sad story starts here. I bred my current English bitch above via A/I. The stud had died at age 15 but was collected at age 9, about 2013. The stud was out of the last litter I bred using my first UK bitch and I stud I bred. THAT stud was out of the sire/dam that my buddy and I used to start our line. So through AI, her paternal great grandparents were the two great Labs we started our line with back in the late 90's. On the bitch side, she brought together the lines of the English woman who bred my first import, Kate, and present dog Misty, the dam.
I kept an absolutely beautiful, smart, biddable, joyous yellow bitch out of that litter. Never had a dog easier to train. Learned SO fast. Anyway, a month ago, she was out, doing her business, came back in smiling, laid down and took a nap. About 20 minutes later, she raised her head, gave out three long terrible howls and died right there. I ran over and had her in my arms at the end of her third howl and she died in my arms. Could not resuscitate her. Autopsy found nothing. Sent organ tissues to the state vet school; nothing found. Just sucks. Sent the food in to be checked at the vet school even though she and her dam ate the same stuff and nothing happened to the dam. Changed foods that same day anyway. Jessie was gone in a flash at 9 months. The vets don't autopsy the brain so speculation is some kind of brain aneurysm. We'll never really know.
I am still grieving deeply over losing the pup, Jessie. Damn, she was IT. She had it all. Temperament, confirmation, personality, biddable, excellent nose for birds, you name she was topline. She was to be my last dog. Jess was taken from me...at 9 months. I'm still angry at Fate/The Universe/Satan....something. If I dwell on her very long I can still breakdown. Damn, I loved that little pup.
But I'm never getting her back. All I have now is some pics and videos. And her ashes. All that love I had for her has to go somewhere and my wife feels exactly as I do. Misty has always been showered with love. She's an amazing dog herself but she's almost 7. If I outlive her without another Lab to love, it'd be the end of me.
So, we went looking for another quality English lab. Thanks to Covid rule changes it now costs about $5000 just to transport a dog from the UK to here. So a tip of the hat to
Westksbowhunter for mentioning the UK line Lab he got this year. It was whelped at Riverview Farms, an excellent UK Lab kennel near Nashville. You never know when something you post here will help another guy out. A big THANKS to Westks.
We're lucky they just happened to accept us as buyers I guess. Had to fill out a 25 question questionnaire. Must have done it right because the girl that called said we get to pick from two yellow bitches. She says that never happens. The woman running the show reads the applications and if accepted she figures out which dog in the litter is "right" for that applicant. Lady said the boss woman was impressed and let us have a choice of the two she picked for us. The catch was we had to hustle down ASAP as the litter was just short of 8 weeks and they were going to new homes. Turned out we were the first to pick.
So 5 days ago we picked this one. Now I'm starting over. Very good lines. We love her already. Has transitioned to our home almost instantly. Never did cry for her lost littermates. Just to go outside at midnight and 4 to do her business and back to sleep. Seems pretty dang smart. Catching on to how things work quickly. This pic is her first nite in the hotel on the way home; the nightstand made a good sleeping cave so we stuck some vet fleece in there and that's where she wanted to sleep.
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So, yes. I've added a dog this year. Certainly not the way I planned though.
