Hello everyone,
first apologies for not keeping blog up to date but we were away at the carvan for 2 weeks at the end of September after work on the new store at Garstang finished and there is no internet connection there - so we had a lovely quiet time just with walks down to the lake and through the woods. One day we went for a ride round Ullswater and walked up to Aira Force waterfall which was really nice - we had never been there before. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera but Neil had his and took some photos so I'm just waiting for him to download and e-mail them to me to put on here.

One day the week before last I had followed my ususal routine of walking Sally then having breakfast and settling her down before I go to work. However when I got back there was a scene of destruction greeting me - tissues all over the floor, her food bowl, magazines that she had got off the dresser and the shade of my favourite lamp which she had removed and chewed up. She had also chewed the corners off a photo album - this is the beginning of a bit of a saga with photo albums. I started the album last year with newspaper cuttings following the progress of the Booths store at Garstang that we were building, and had it in the meeting room at work but Sally found it and chewed the corners off it, so I bought another album and transferred all the cuttings into that and that is the one in the photo below, so I bought another new one and had it on the dresser but she got that one as well so when I get another one she is not going to go near it. Below are photos of the destruction she caused in one morning - as a result she has been to work with us lately so we can keep an eye on her except for a couple of days last week when I had a cold so didn't go to work. This lamp was found on the floor without its shade.

Note photo album on floor!!!!!!!

Sally was at the vets again last week to have her blood taken to see if she had developed antibodies against Rabies - she didn't like that at all - it took 3 of us to hold her still while the vet shaved her a bit of her leg and took her blood. We are hoping to go to Spain in March or April next year but we have to wait for the blood results yet - they should be ringing us soon.

Sally is completely out of her phantom pregnancy now and so she is eating more. When we weighed her at the vets she was 43.5 kgs so we will see what she is on the 11th November when she goes in for her operation.

Well that is all for now - I'll write again soon

Sally, Neil and Johanna

Hello everyone,
Had to take Sally to the vets again yesterday as she is having a #phantom pregnancy'. Her mammary glands have not gone down at all and she has started 'nesting' - scratching at her bedding so it is all over the place. Anyway Neil thought the vet could give her an injection to help her but she said they did not do that anymore. She examined her thoroughly and said she should be ok in a couple of weeks. When she had finished she gave Sally her rabies injection so she will need a blood test in 3 weeks time. Before leaving I put Sally on the scales again and she was about 42 kg again, it was difficult to be accuate as she would not sit still on the scales - so no gain this week but she has not been eating as much as usual and the vet said that is due to the phantom pregnancy. Poor thing - she does appear to be suffering - she has started whining a bit today so she must be feeling off as she has never done that since the first few days she was here.

Otherwise Sally has been doing great - she is fully housetrained now and can be left alone for about 5 hours while she has a sleep and I go to work. I take her to work occasionally but there are too many distractions for her to get enough rest, especially when Holly is there as Sally just wants to play. She will be going to work in the morning as Carolyn and Isobel are coming to clean and they wouldn't get anything done with Sally chasing the dusters and hoover. When they have finished the house they come to the office to clean there so when they get there I bring Sally home to catch up on sleep.

That's all the news for now - will add more after her her blood test and tell you how she went on with that.

Sally, Johanna and Neil.

Hello everyone, me again,
here are a couple of pics of Sally 'sat' on the chair - this has become a common occurance lately.

Sally will be 40 weeks old on Tuesday and now weighs 42 kg - just over 6 and a half stone. She does not seem to have grown much more but does appear to be filling out more in the chest area. She still has a scar where the tick was weeks ago - I don't know if it will go or she might always have it - hope not!

When I took her to the vets last week to be spayed the vet recommended not doing the operation yet as she was still in season, her mammary glands were still swollen so she said she still had some hormones circulating which would mean the tissues were still more delicate and may make the operation more risky and also she might be more prone to phantom pregnancies in the future and we definately did not want that as Katie suffered badly with them. So weare now waiting until the end of October or beginning of November to have it done - there is no rush as she will not be due another season for 6 months. Instead we are starting on the programme for applying for a pet passport; Sally is already microchipped so that is the first part; next she has to have a rabies injection followed by blood tests. We are hoping to take her to Spain next year and the passport taked about 8 months to be final. It is not a problem taking her out of the country but bringing her back she would have to be quarrantined for 6 months without the passport.

That's all for now, we have just come back from the caravan and Sally has had a couple of hours rest and is now playing with Neil.

Sally, Neil & Johanna.

Hello all,

Well I am back from Spain now and had a lovely week in the sun with Sarah, Dave, Holly and Matthew. Sally had been acting a bit different while I was away and Neil thought that maybe she had been missisng me - she certainly went wild when I walked in the door on Sunday night. She continued to bleed for a full 2 weeks, so it could have been that making her act differently too. Anyway she is back to normal now and back in her usual routine. I have made an appointment to have her spayed on the 26th August so I'll take a couple of days off work after until she is back to normal.

The photos above were taken since I came back of the damage Sally did when she was younger - chewing a little table; destroying DVDs and chewing the plug off the iron - there has been no damage for several weeks now and no accidents in the house, work or caravan.

Bye for now

Sally, Neil & Johanna

Hello everyone.
Just a quick entry to let you all know that Sally is a big girl now - she has come into 'season' already. The information we got from the breeder and the vet and the books we read led us to believe that she would be 9 1/2 to 12 months before she would start so I had planned to have her spayed at just before 9 months and was going to arrange it the week after next when I came back from Spain. So she took us all by surprise by going into season so early, so now we have to wait at least a month before having her spayed. It was Neil that noticed it as he was first home on Monday and noticed small drops of blood on the floor. This could be why she was a bit 'off' over the weekend.

That's it for now. Will put another blog up when I get back.
Sally, Neil & Johanna

Here is a little postscript to my blog of Sunday.
Sally likes apples - I had tried her on small pieces over the last couple of weeks and she liked it. Then yesterday I put her in the car after being at work with me for the afternoon and left her to lock the unit up and when I went back to the car she had pinched an apple off the passenger seat and was quite happily munching on it on the back seat, but she didn't eat much of it.

Another thing I forgot to mention on Sunday is that Sally is becoming a bit dangerous and I think we will have to get a child gate for the kitchen. One day last week after our walk I went upstairs for a shower and I could hear her barking downstairs. When I went down into the kitchen I noticed that the oven gloves were on the floor and there was a light on in the oven. Madam had been jumping up to get the oven gloves and in the process had caught the knob and switched the oven on - good job its electric - so now we do not leave the oven gloves where she can see them.

Another time last week Neil was in the living roon and heard a lot of clicking and when he went into the kitchen he found Sally up on 2 legs with a paw on one of the knobs on the hob - it was a good job that she didn't manage to turn it or she would have switched on the gas.
Anyway after having said all that she has been good this week being left in the lounge while we are at work. Long may it last.

Johanna

Hello all,

Here I am again with the latest update on Sally.

She has got so big now that Neil struggles to lift her onto the scales so yesterday I took her round to the vets to put her on their scales. With a little encouragement she got onto them and sat down when asked to, (isn't she a good girl!) She weighed 37.7 kgs which is about 6 stone, so there is no sign yet of her weight stablilising as we thought last month. The last time we were at the vets she weighed only 29 kgs so they were happy with her progress for 32 weeks old - 8 months in weeks but in months it will be on the 25th July, if you know what I mean.

Sallys' diet is now more varied - she loves baked potatoes and carrots and will happily lie down and chew a raw carrot (and make a nice mess in the process, but at least its good for her). She also has bread and rice and other vegetables depending on what we are having at the time.

Whilst on the subject of food, Sally has started to pick up her dish and bring it into the lounge when she has finished her food, just to let us know and she will lick the empty bowl as if asking for more food. It's really quite amusing.

Above are photos of Sally taking her 'medicine' - as you can see she does not like it at all and it has to be mixed and given by syringe. I have that job whilst Neil holds her and strokes her throat until she swallows it all.

We didn't go to the caravan last weekend as Neil was chopping back a tree and we are not going this weekend as it is going to rain all night and there is nothing worse than being in a caravan when it is raining hard - it is very noisy and not much sleep is got so we thought it was not worth it. Hopefully the weather will be better next week and we can go then.

A couple of weeks ago we all went over to Ripon to see the new store before it was opened. Sally slept most of the way there (2 hours) and then we went for a nice walk in a nearby park while Neil got his work done. When we got back Sally reaquainted herself with some of the lads she knew and made friends with others - she definately loves men! The store looks great and we shall have to go again after opening.

Not really much else to say this week, as we haven't been anywhere. Sally is getting better as each week goes by and learning more and settling down at work better, but she still gets over excited and bites at times. We have tried all sorts to stop this but the only thing that works is to put her into her pen which acts as a 'sin bin' for a short while and she is usually calmer when she comes out. Apart from this she is great. Hopefully she will grow out of it eventually.

Bye for now,

Sally, Neil & Johanna.