Day 35 - A Sad Day

Today we heard the tragic news that Bran's surrogate chocolate mum, Dolly Doodle, had passed away :o(

Dolly had had a huge mass in her chest and went in for an operation to have it removed on Tuesday. The mass was removed and Dolly appeared to make an amazing recovery. She went home to her family - Wendy, Wiggle and Sir H - yesterday lunchtime and seemed to be quiet but ok. She passed away at 6.30 this morning.

Wendy and the boys came to spend some time with us today and it was just so very strange and sad to not have the chocolate princess trotting around behind her beloved mum :o(

Run free at the Bridge, Dolly Doodle. We will miss you always :o(

Day 31

And still he grows.................

This morning has mostly been spent digging up the gravel pit, destroying the lawn, delivering clods of earth to the hall floor and wrestling very loudly!

Thankfully, he is now having a rest and snoring!!

Day 26

After saying that I'd update Bran's measurements once a week, I've not done it since. Doh!


So here are his measurements after a 2 week break and on the day he turns 18 weeks:


Neck: 13 1/2"

Back: 21"

Shoulder: 14"

Weight: 13kgs


Bran's very mean Auntie Wendy has given him the new nickname of Biffer!


He has no puppy fur left anywhere now - even the last little bit on his ears has morphed into grown up dog fur :o( The time has gone so quickly...

Day 24

Bran's been enjoying going out for his daily walks and it is certainly tiring him out! He's done brilliantly at meeting lots of new dogs and people and is still totally unfazed by it all.

I've recently adjusted his food levels and he's started growing quickly again. Just to illustrate, I took this photo this morning..........

He's not much smaller than Flora any more!!

Day 21

Today was a very, very special day for Bran.

Firstly, his very special Auntie Loobie (who brought him to us nearly 3 weeks ago) came to spend the day with him again for the first time since bringing him over, together with her son Liam.

Secondly, he got to go out on his first ever real and proper walk. He took it all completely in his stride (excuse the pun!) and wasn't phased by the people or dogs he met. He strutted around the park as if it was nothing special at all.

Ok. So it was a walk in the park. So I'll leave you with lots of photos instead of babbling on....

Day 16

For the third morning out of 4, I woke up at 7 and before Bran. Woohoo!! We're getting into a lovely routine of waking up, playing in the garden, playing in the house, watching a few episodes of Animal Cops whilst having our breakfasts and then having a little nap ;o) And all before the children wake up!

I just thought I'd do a quick summary of what training commands Bran has learnt in his first 2 weeks with us because I'm quite pleased with him (in case you hadn't guessed that much already!). He knows Sit, Paw, Down, No, Wait and Go On Then (the command that the dogs have to take their food after Sitting and Waiting for it). He also uses his name at the moment as the command to Come which needs to be worked on, but boy does he run fast when he's called! He's also nearly there with Move (the most useful command that I've ever taught my dogs just to get them to move out of the way of whatever) and Fetch. I think that's quite impressive for a little boy of 16 weeks who has only been learning this stuff for 2 weeks.

Much excitement for me today too. I found my first puppy keepsake - a tooth!! Lots of people had told me to look out for them and to keep them if I could but I think he's probably swallowed most of the ones that he's lost so far, so I was really pleased to find one this afternoon. I can't get over how tiny it is though!

Day 15

2 weeks! He's only been here for 2 weeks. It feels as if I've know this (not so) little brown scrap forever.


Again, I woke at 7 to find that Bran was still fast asleep so I made a huge fuss of him for having slept right through again.


He had to go to the vets this morning for a follow up check on his kennel cough and to hopefully get his second vaccination done. Apparently, the decision to vaccinate whilst a dog is poorly is individual to the vet so I was very much hoping that they'd see how much Bran had improved and let him have the vaccination as he is missing out on so much socialisation.


Getting him there was fun to even start with! Because he's not had his second vax, he couldn't walk and he's far too heavy now to carry and my car is still broken. We decided to strap him into Sophie's buggy....



He wasn't very impressed! But he at least kept still whilst we were moving. He got lots of attention from dog owners in the park as we walked through and he got to see lots of different things on our journey.

He was an angel in the vets again and sat quietly on my lap to wait for his turn. The vet was sufficiently satisfied that his cough had improved enough for him to have the vaccination as he also said that at this point he was more bothered about the lack of socialisation than the cough! What a smart vet ;o) I asked him to make a rough assessment of Bran's age as his growth and development has been so rapid that I've been worrying a little that maybe the age we'd been given initially may have been off, but he concluded that yes, Bran is just about right for a 16 week old pup.


Bran was *very* happy to get home and to be able to run around the garden and Flora was thrilled to see him back. I can only assume that she thought we'd run away with him!

We went to visit my parents and my visiting niece this afternoon. My niece hadn't met Bran before so was pleased to meet him. Bran was far too busy investigating the "new" house and gardens to pay much attention to people. He was very well behaved and didn't even wee on Nanny's carpet! Neither did he try to go upstairs which was very impressive because we have a stairgate at home to stop him from going up, but obviously my mum doesn't. At home when we eat, Bran goes in his crate but whilst we were eating at Mum's I put him on his lead and secured it under my chair leg and gave him a rawhide chew. Some lab he is! He didn't even glance up to the table where all the food was :o)

By bedtime last night, I realised that there'd only been 1 small indoor puddle through the whole of today! More progress from my little boy xx