Infindigo Finnish Lapphunds: March 2017

Thursday 30 March 2017

welcome to the kuume litter

Ok, I take it all back. Since these puppies were born, approximately 15 hours ago, I have been saying I had 2 black dominoes, 2 brown dominoes and varying numbers of black ones that maybe were turning out to be brown. Well I can now confidently report that, apart from the 2 black dominoes, the rest of them are all brown of one kind or another.

You may wonder how it is I can't tell the difference between black & brown.

Well, it's not so easy 11pm at night under artificial light. Then in the morning, in good daylight, things usually become clear. However, these poor puppies were wet for a solid 10 hours. No sooner would they start to dry then Kaija would need to go outside for a wee. And, as we live in Devon, it was raining all night. Of course. So, damp puppies once again.

Finally it stopped raining. Finally the puppies dried (mostly). Finally we got some photos of them. Finally I figured out that we have 2 black dominoes, 2 brown dominoes and 3 browns. 4 bitches and 3 dogs. Pretty sure. But to be honest, it was a very unsettled and sleepless night for the new family and for me, so I reserve the right to change my mind on the sexes.

I'm calling this litter the "Kuume" puppies (pronounced koo-meh, approximately). Kuume is Finnish for fever, and represents how ill I was (with pneumonia, as it turned out) when I returned from California at the end of January. I immediately jumped in the car, drove 30 miles to Plymouth to pick up Kaija then turned around and drove 200 miles to Shropshire to mate her to the fabulous Terhakan Jallat. I was more or less incoherent the whole time and, in fact, I can barely remember the trip at all. So I really must say many thanks indeed to Elaine & Steve for having us, facilitating the mating and feeding me Lemsips.

Anyway it was all worth it for 7 fabulous little puppies. They are pretty little, but strong and noisy, so hopefully they will go from strength to strength.

In my sleep-deprived state this morning I wasn't able to settle on any baby names for them, but Jay came to the rescue and suggested some of our favorite jazz singers and musicians. So, here they are, the Kuume jazz babies.