Introducing: The Knights and Lady of the Round Table

We have PUPPIES!!!

For pricing, more pictures, puppy contract, and other details, please visit Sandspur Ranch Border Collies

I am ecstatic, excited, overjoyed, delighted and thrilled to introduce our first litter of purebred Border collie puppies!  Sorry for the crossed out list of adjectives...  They all came to mind when making this announcement.  :)

Duncan and Cleone have 6 healthy, beautiful puppies:  4 black and white males, 1 black and white female, and 1 blue merle.  They were born in the wee hours of Sunday, August 13th under our house.  Cleone took me by surprise because I am used to Inez, who always gave me several days of warning before she actually had her pups.  Cleone's only warning was that she didn't eat, and since all of our dogs are finicky eaters anyway, I didn't take that seriously.  That and I've jumped the gun so many times, and gotten all excited way before babies are born that now I don't trust myself anymore.  But I should have locked her up overnight at least and checked on her a couple times.  Oh well...

Anyway, since there are so many males, I went with an Arthurian theme and named them all after knights of the round table.

Of course, the handsomest had to be Lancelot:

Sold.

And the one with the most white on him is:

 Galahad.

Percival looks most like his papa, Duncan.

Gawain is very traditional. 

Sold.

And so is Lionel (now Tommy). 

Pending.

And of course, since there is only 1 female, she has to be the queen:  Guinevere (Gwuh-nuh-veer).

For some reason our animals seem to like to have babies or get into trouble on Saturdays.  Cleone did both quite effectually when she shredded the AC ducts under the house to build a nest for whelping.  As a result, Daddy, William, Justice, and Russell had to go to town and get window units for the house (which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as our old AC unit was horribly inefficient.)  Mama wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home with the little guys, and there were only a few of us at church.  I drove home between services to check on the puppies, found that all was well, and drove back.  Mama, Emaline, and Duncan kept an eye on things until I got home after the last service.

Emaline has declared that Percival is her favorite.  Anna Frances prefers Lancelot, and I think Justice is torn between Percival, Galahad, and Guinevere.

Duncan standing guard outside the doghouse.

Cleone is a very laid back mama and doesn't mind the other dogs, or even the roosters, being near her puppies.  This is very handy since it makes her much easier to handle.  The only downside is that she is so people and work oriented that I have been worried she isn't spending enough time feeding and cleaning her pups.  I am monitoring their growth closely and I think she's already getting the point that she needs to feed them frequently, so I think she will learn to be an attentive mama.

For several months we kept these extra roosters in the dog pen because we didn't have an extra coop for them.  Now they think it belongs to them and tried to go roost on the doghouse as usual when I left the door open.  Cleone has totally ignored their presence.  This is proof that Border collies can be taught to live in peace with chickens, because there was a time when she would chase and herd them.

Silly doggy!  She likes to lie on her back - even after having puppies!

And, I have an announcement:

Introducing:  Fiona!

Fiona is a lovely red merle Border collie who is about to join our farm.  Though she has not yet arrived, I'm sure she will be a wonderful addition, and can hardly wait till she gets here.