Happy Birthday Lucy!

Today is Lucy, Reg and Ricci's first birthday and we all celebrated with cake!
Tunacake for Lucy and Pippa as above, we blew out the candle for her, but she kept a close eye as you can see.

Very good at standing on her hind legs is our Lucy! She can just reach the edge of the dining tabl e and kitchen worktops... Also still very keen on ''visiting'' us on a Sunday morning when still in bed. And also continues to be nervous of going back down by herself, still.

Birthday kisses mwah mwah mwah.

Oh stretchy mirrors. ''OK , then I'm halfway down, now what? It's too steep those last 3 steps....?''

Calico dachshunds seen on Regent st on Thursday 25 February.

SEE? I thought they were cute, except the tail is a bit on the short side?

Yes OK there were other dogs also, but the dachsies were the cutest!

A few recent photos of Lucy to celebrate how MUCH she's grown since the post here and here.

How she LOVES the snow!

Once there was one and now there are two: Lucy's head is larger than her mum Pippa's.

Muddy river water is always yummier than fresh tap water at home.

'' Hi there, aren't I cute? What do you mean I'm supposed to be on the LOWER cushions of the sofa? Preferable the OTHER- doggy special- sofa???? Mummy's doing it too- oo.''


CHEERS LUCY THANKS FOR A FABULOUS YEAR and here's a toast to very many MORE of the same.

You are energetic and fun and cheerful and charming, friendly to all dogs and humans and outstandingly loyal, faithful and sociable. You have the waggiest tail/ bottom and the longest wettest, roughest tongue. You always come find us when we are sad to comfort and cheer us and you ask to play just when we need a break the most.

We don't really mind the chewed seatbelts, the wiring or the very many cushions ( >10)you have now chewed the corners off and have disembowelled, the ankle chasing or the handbag- any bag!- searching and nibbling, the stolen bread or the raiding of the log basket...

JJ luckily was not too fond of the wool tartan picnic rug which is now a lacy structure with a pile of perfect frayed wool squares right besdie it...

You have the best nose for food or drink for you come running when we open a cupboard and your brown eyes and pleading expression are so hard to resist!

I simply adore it when I talk to you and you tilt your head to one side as in concentration of my possible meaning?

And you KNOW simply KNOW the meaning of many words but one learned in just a day is: TUNACAKE!

Thank you also for being the first of our Sluijter family dachshunds to have perfect RECALL.

I call and you come FLYING along from wherever you are and gladden my heart at such devoted obedience. Ears a- flapping and long body stretched with front and back paws kicked out at full power : you get to my side as fast as you can: good girl!!!!

We all adore you totally: man's best friend and all we could ever wish for:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCY!!!!

Ps and this comes at a very very difficult time for us when the comfort of Lucy has been very needed and extremely welcome to both JJ and myself. ( as well as the girls).

New Lucy and coulibiac recipe

Here's LUCY!!! Fresh from her grooming session. Jenny very kindly came to hand strip her coat and to initiate me into the mysteries of wiry coat hand stripping.

: AAh a person with or without camera: must ''present tummy!!!''

''What's going on?'' Put the camera away and rub my tummy!!!

Just look at that silky gleaming undercoat! She's oh so beautiful and FABULOUSLY soft and silky but not wirehaired now, not until the topcoat grows back. Pippa didn't want to be left out.

A mother/daughter moment. They often clean each others ears lying side by side on the best sofa. Why is it theyhave the better, more comfortable sofa?.....Our fault of course; we gave it to them!

Yummy! Treat time for me: I have discovered this and it's DELICIOUS!At last a chocolate spread- FAIRTRADE and Organic-which nut allergy sufferers can EAT! YUMMY.

The Christmas boxes left the school today, there was a large mountain of them which was a joy to see. Here go the hat/scarf and little Brian. Underneath are all those pencils,soap,paper etc.

Ta dah! MY salmon coulibiac.

The family gave it ten out of ten and it's easy but a bit time consuming: want to give it a try?

Serves 4-6

418 g can of wild pacific salmon

1 large leek

1 large onion

100g butter

150g cooked rice

6 oz button mushrooms

Fresh or dried Dill

Lime juice

2 large eggs

seasonings, salt and pepper

375 g pack of chilled puff pastry

extra flour for dusting

1 beaten egg in a mug/ bowl

a greased baking tray: 30x40 cm

Preheat oven to 180 Centigrade/350 F

You can use fresh salmon, but I wasn't that organised and I had this in my store cupboard.

Gently sautee the onion- chopped finely- with the leek( washed and sliced) in a knob of butter.

When nicely sweated and cooked, remove to a bowl and fry the sliced mushrooms.

When the mushrooms are nicely browned, remove to a plate and add a but more butter to gently fry the cooked rice.

After this scramble the 2 eggs in butter .

Now roll out the pastry as flat and large as it will go, but not too thin.

About 55 cm by 40 cm.

Now the fun starts and you layer in whatever order you fancy!

I started with the salmon, combined with the buttery rice and plenty of seasoning, dill and lime juice to taste.

A nice layer in the middle of your rectangle of pastry.

Then the leeks and the onions.

Then the mushrooms and the scrambled eggs.

Add seasonings as to your own taste to each layer.

Use a lattice cutter on the 2 sides of pastry , where there is no food or cut thin rectangles out with a sharp knife. ( see photo above)

From the pastry thus created shape small fish to decorate- or do dolphins and whales which my kids joined in with- have FUN!

Now fold over the 2 side flaps of pastry and using the beaten egg as ''glue'' stick the lacy flaps down over the layered food in the centre.

Crimp the 2 ends with a fork to seal ( top and bottom ends)

Brush all pastry with the beaten egg and decorate with your created pastry shapes.

Gently lift onto a well- greased baking tray and bake for 20- 25 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from oven and leave to rest for 5-8 minutes before cutting into slices.

Serve with green beans or a crisp green salad and some Hollandaise sauce if you so wish.

We had it with sweetcorn,julienne steamed carrots and baby brussels sprouts- also steamed lightly.... And the kids ate ALL of it, including ALL vegetables. It was a very colourful plate with nicely contrasting shapes.

ENJOY!

Hope to see you again soon, there's Lucy's antics to come and some more crochet.

Dachshund diaries day 12: wash day

The puppy above is JACK who has not yet opened his eyes but still loves a cuddle, which is part of our weighing in routine.
They have ALL now TRIPLED their weight as compared to the day they were born.

Today I want to talk about this most amazing of doggy routine: that of washing the puppies bottoms prior to feeding. I knew nothing of this until I read about it in my whelping book and then whenI observed it actually being done several times a day, well it's just so clever!

There's no mess at all in the whelping box as Pippa washes the puppies bottoms and in doing so stimulates them into their wees and poos or number 1's and 2's if you prefer. She actually drinks it all up as it happens so they stay amazingly clean at all times. No nappies for these pups!

It starts with a nudge at their hind legs with her nose, then nudge nudge NUDGE she tries to roll each on it's back which works for Jack and Lucy but Tom doesn't roll so Pippa just licks under his tail and pushes him around a lot.

Here she is nudging Tom

Harder nudge , nudge, NUDGE!!!

You can hardly see him, Jack is on his back being bathed by mum, her nose is in between his rear legs.....

She's still at it, very thorough she is and here's the view from the side...

And this is Jack still half on his back recovering his composure. Usually this wakes them up and they then want to feed again straight away.

This leads to feeding and then towards the end of a feed Pippa will wash each again and then leave them to sleep.

She has an inbuilt instinct as to who needs to feed next and who to leave to sleep. They have all gained about the same % of body weight day by day on average and when one of them has a low gain day one day , that puppy then doubles the gain the next day to catch up. Amazing!!!!

As stated above they have all now gained 200% of their birthweight and the difference between the 3 puppies has stayed the same over these 12 days.

It is expected however that the boys may catch up a bit more to Lucy when they start being weaned onto solids. Topm especially may gain from this as he is still not especially adept at feeding, he was found to be lustily sucking on a flap of skin yesterday , making poor Pippa very sore!!! ( nowhere near a teat)

Ps : First night since Saturday in a bed last night- LOVELY! No more sofa , they can cope with less vigilance now. Pippa still wanted feeding at 5.30 am though.....

Dachshund Diaries day 4

Good evening all: day 4 draws into night and all is well in the dachshund world in my home at least. Above is Lucy practicing her best ''swimming'' action to get back onto a teat for her next meal. She's put on an extra 21% of yesterday's body weight and has clearly been sleeping and feeding all day long.

If you look very closely you can see the markings of a ruler I borrowed from my kids so you can see how big she is now- well over 18 cm.


This is Lucy also -but being so large, quite strong and extremely wriggly I was not quite able to get a good shot of her with camera in one hand and this mass of silky slippery writhing wriggling puppy in my left hand.....

''No , NO!Not yet and definately NOT from THAT angle, it's not my best side you see, away with AWAY I say''- paws akimbo she waves her front paws frantically.....

Such vanity at such a tender young age.

The boys on the other hand: MUCH more laid back about the whole thing and by now I had also roped in the aid of my youngest - while Pippa was doing her essentials in the back garden we snook in and took these 2 photos:

Here's tiny TOM in the tender hands of my daughter , I'm behind the camera.

And here's Jack junior cradled in my hands , protesting mildly while A takes the photo.

If you look carefully you can see he has a white line on his chest. Can you see it? Would you believe my ''beloved'' told me off for putting tippex on him so I could tell the boys apart!!!!

AS IF I WOULD! ''NO it wasn't me ''I cried defiantly and yet he carried on about the toxic qualities of tippex and the possible harm done to the puppies and what could I be thinking of and so on - I'll not bore you with his rantings....

He'd ''found'' a stripe on Jack and a dot or spot under Tom's chin :purest white it is and of course it was all my fault and the white stuff used to cover up one's little mistakes.

Hours later he gave in that maybe just maybe I HAD NOT actually done anything and these were natural markings which we had not noticed on day 1 due to the stresses of the day and the exhaustion prevailing.

This evolved into a yummy bag of Doritos and a bottle of champers to celebrate the puppies birth, toast to their health and happiness and also celebrate my eldest getting a place in her chosen - all time favourite- grammar school!!!! HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!

ps I did get my apology as well but best to ensure the treats were for those reasons above than to dent that fragile male pride?

ROLL ON DAY 5!!! See you tomorrow ? I'm off to bed as it's JJ 's turn to mind the pups tonight- I've done 4 nights in a row.

( one night with half hourly observations, 2 nights with hourly checks and last night it started at 2 hourly and lengthened to 2.5 hourly- ie 3 checks when one should have been sleeping on)

Puppy LOVE or DACHSHUND DIARIES-1

What a FABULOUS day : I still can't believe how serene, content and utterly happy and joyful it has been.

I had been up hourly all night from 2 am checking on the dog with her puppies because just after dinner she'd sat on a puppy and ignored the ensuing squeals. This was a tad worrying to say the least so I decided to keep watch- with ears all night- and with eyes once an hour between 2 am and 6 am.

And yet . And yet : I awoke to THIS WONDERFUL MORNING!

Bright blue skies make my heart sing, it's just so cheerful! I could have danced in the garden at 6 am in PJ'S and a wintercoat and crocs when supervising the dog on her first trip out since the op.

Blue skies, buddding branches and crocuses too! Not a cloud in the sky and all day at home to potter and watch the puppies, do some crochet, some sewing and lavish lots of TLC on the dog and her pups.

As my eldest was off at 7 am on an outward bound week with school our little family was down to 3 people and 4 dogs but where I expected I might be sad or worried I was not. I was glad and hopeful that she was going to have an amazing time. Big hugs in the kitchen, a lovely breakfast together and then a quick tear or to as off she went for the first ever time away without parents.

Then after the school run with number two it was just me and the dogs: I have never seen such young puppies before so to have 3 all to myself to watch over all day was amazzzzzzing!!!

They have 7 teats to choose from but they fight over the same one. They squeak a lot but they can't hear it; it's purely for mum's benefit....After feeding little Tom always climbs up mum's neck and hides his head under the flap of her ear: soooo sweet!

When mum want relief from swollen engorged teats she licks their bottoms vigorously until they sqeal and ''swim'' across to her- they can't walk or crawl properly yet so it's a paddling motion mostly with the 2 front paws: cute is not the word for it LOL!

Tom also likes it UNDER mum's front paw.

It's day 2 and they are starting to wag their tiny tails whilst asleep and on waking they ssssssstttrrrretch out the front and back paws so far: you'd think they were made of elastic! This is accompanied by a grrrrruuuunt which is not dissimilar to that which eminates from my beloved most mornings.....AAAAAAAaaahhhhhhh

When feeding they ''paddle'' their paws along mum's skin to milk the teat: tiny paws and even tinier claws constantly raking up and down.

Below is Jack junior having a bit of shut-eye while keeping a paw to be sure of big-sister's whereabouts. These two are seen feeding side by side above.

And finally here's Tiny Tom getting to grips with the serious business of learning to suckle, in this case he had a helping hand from me - those breastfeeding lessons of 11 years ago very useful again sooner than expected!-the teat was engorged so I milked it a bit until he could ''get a grip'' and helped him latch on. Surpisingly it's the same method as for human babies and nipples....


Aren't his ears cute? I trust- and hope!- they'll grow and drop to hang down eventually.

Stay close and I'll be sharing the development of these little treasures with any who visit here.

The cast are Tiny Tom, Jack junior ( dad was also a Jack) and Lucy- Loubi-loo or even Lulu and their mum of whom I am soooo proud I just can't find the words.

We've survived the first 36 hours and now let's hope it goes well onwards from here.

For me it's been one of those magical mystery days, discovering and learning by watching their behaviours whilst also tending to mum's needs and relaxing with some crochet and sewing- more of that later I promise.

It's back to work tomorrow after watching over them again all night but I'll try to come home as soon as possible to watch and report. It's JJ 's turn to watch over them 9am-3pm tomorrow- that's hubbie NOT the puppy.