Weds 10th May: Expectation versus reality

Drake and Dawny 

Best news of the day to start with was the double adoption of brother Drake and sister Dawny, who came to us as two of a litter of newborns and who are now a year old.  Others from this litter were also quite recently adopted, and there's now only one remaining, namely Duke. 

Della before arrival 

I'm sure many of you have seen the funny photos of items ordered online, and the expectations versus the reality of what actually arrived.  This is almost always the case when new small dogs are coming, as the photos I'm sent in advance have clearly been taken quite some time ago.  At least you can see the "before and after" look, but in reverse.  For example poodle Della had just been groomed when her "before" photo was taken, but she looked rather different on arrival today. 

Della after arrival 

Still, even looking somewhat overgrown and in need of a good bath, the dogs are sweet and will be ready for adoption after their trip to AFCD for microchipping and licensing. 

 

They're staying at our Kennedy Town Centre, 13-19 North Street, after some space was hurriedly prepared for them.  The ages shown are just estimates based on their teeth (actually only photos of their teeth which were sent to me), so when they go for a health check at Acorn we can see if the vet agrees with my own guesses.  

It's actually quite hard to know an adult dog's age as so much depends on their diet and general care, and many ex-breeder dogs have shockingly bad teeth (and general condition) for their age, as do the very small breeds.  A lot also depends on the shape of the dog's jaw and the alignment of the teeth, so for example some of my older Lamma dogs have very clean teeth while others have tartar, even though they all eat the same food and get the same level of care. 

What we can see is that poodle Dusty is blind, so we would really appreciate a foster home for her so she doesn't have to share her space with other dogs.  Blind dogs cope extraordinarily well once familiar with their surroundings, but in this situation it must be quite terrifying for Dusty.