Spanish Water Dogs: Perro De Agua Espanol

Ripple's diary
Updated : Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:09:26 GMT

Gone Home
The pups asked me to put one last entry in this diary to tell you that they've all gone off into the big wide world with their new families. Sprockett was the first to fly the nest. Rather fitting as she's always been the first to be off exploring new places. She has gone up to Yorkshire with a lovely family, including four children who already love her to bits. After long family conferences it's been decided that her new name is Molly. Mole went next, off to a wonderful home with a couple who are keen to involve her in everything, so much so that they have even got her a trailer so she can ride behind the pushbike! What a great way to socialise your puppy. Her new name is Muffin. Last but not least, off went Teasel. Not such a long journey for her, just down the road to the Forest of Dean. She's lost an Auntie and Uncle and gained a mum and dad! Teasel you see has come home with me and Titch. She's been Teasel the teaser since the day she was born so no name change there! Wanda assures us that Ripple has settled back to her old life and is enjoying her rest! As you can see, all of Di's dogs had some comment to make on the pups departure, although none seemed very distressed to see them go! I hope you've enjoyed reading about the pups progress as much as I've enjoyed watching it and writing this diary. Enjoy the final pictures but rest assured that you're bound to see the pups again at a Spanish Water Event in the future. Love Kylee xxx
Publ.Date : Mon, 12 Jun 2006 22:35:27 GMT

Seven and a half weeks
Hi again! We've persuaded Auntie Kylee to let you all know what we've been up to this last week. We've been very busy exploring new places and meeting new people. On Monday we met our other two legged Mum who came to stay. She was very nice and gave us lots of fuss. She came with us and our other two legged Mum, our Mum and Uncle Miguel to visit the Beaver Scouts and Scouts. We had been to the hall before when we met the Brownies so felt very at home. There were lots of Beaver scouts and they were very excited and quite noisy but we didn't care. We chased around and went up to say hello. some of them had puppy kibble to feed us which we appreciated very much! Auntie Kylee had to keep a close eye on the parent helper as he was very struck by Sprockett and wanted to put him in his pocket and take her home! There weren't as many Scouts and they were much quieter than the Beavers. Mole showed them how good we all are at untying shoelaces and we all showed them how fast we could run round the hall. Our two two-legged mums have let us play in the training area this week. There's so much room to chase in there and a wonderful bank to run up, with a willow to hide under before we roll back down the bank to attack our mums! Sprocket found a way out under the fence and went for a wander but soon came back again! They also took us for our second visit to the vets. He fiddled with our necks and made us squeal a bit but we still like him! We've all been out in the car on our own this week. We were all a bit fretfull at first as it seemed very strange to be out without our sisters or our mum but we all settled in the end. Teasels been very lucky as she's had an extra trip. She went with Auntie Kylee and Uncle Titch to see her new home and to meet their dog, Ben. She checked out her crate (cosy) and the garden ( full of Dandelions - She has found her mission in life, the Dandelions must die!) She even checked out the neighbours (nice people, trainable children and cat). Ben came to say hello through the crate but was more interested in the treats Auntie Kylee had. Yesterday we had to say good bye to our other two legged mum as she had to go home. She's taken our Mum with her because she said it's time she went back to work for a rest! So now we just have our two legged mum and Uncle Miguel to keep us company. She says not to worry as we'll all be going to our new homes this weekend anyway, and then there will just be her and Miguel left! We're getting up too even more mischief now Mum has gone. We've been watching Uncle Miguel do his tricks and have tried to copy him. We got our two legged mum's mobile phone from in the house and took it out to the garden too her. She didn't seem very impressed! Auntie Kylee says she will try to get some photo's of us with our new owners before we go to our new homes and will post them on here next week. Love Mole, Sprockett and Teasel
Publ.Date : Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:04:30 GMT

Six weeks
Hi, Well we're six weeks old now and learning more about the world every day. We've got very big and active. You wouldn't believe that our white and black lamb brother used to be bigger than us, now we throw him around all over the pen. Our two legged mum has ensured we've had another busy week. We went out in the car to visit a whole pack of two legged pups called Brownies. They gave us lots of cuddles and watched us play, they even gave us some kibble. We think Brownies are good fun. Auntie Emma gave us some new toys. They are called Babble Balls. One makes lots of different animal noises and the other talks to us. We were a bit scared of them at first but now we think they're great. We have to keep them away from Uncle Miguel as he's a bit boisterous with them. We've had lots of visitors and so lots of cuddles and lots of shoes and laces to chew. We have a new favourite toy, a kitchen roll tube, which we like to fight over and entertain the visitors with. We've started training our two legged mum. We whinge and pace along the door of the pen or the back door when we need to toilet. She's a bit slow on the uptake but seems to be getting the idea that she should take us outside when we say we need to go. Yesterday we had a very exciting day. We went to the coast to visit our human brother Marcus. It was a long car journey but we were good as gold and just went to sleep. Mum and Uncle Miguel made more fuss than us. We went to the beach. It was very windy and hardly anyone else was there so we could run around and play. It was great! We made everyone work very hard keeping us together as we love to run and can get up quite some speed when we try. We had a little look at the sea but our two legged mum said it was oily and we shouldn't go in. She wouldn't let us drink from the puddles either but when she wasn't looking we dug up shells and sucked on them instead! They tasted different from the stones in the garden. We were quite tired after our adventure and slept all the way home so we were fresh and ready to greet Uncle James and Auntie Adele when they visited in the afternoon. Uncle James kept threatening to piinch one of us but it was ok because Auntie Kylee kept guard and counted us when he went! Our two legged mum says she's going to take us on solo trips this week and also introduce us to the clicker. That all sounds very interesting. Can anyone tell us if a clicker has two or four legs? Or is it something to eat? Which reminds us that we got very cross with Auntie Kylee this weekend. Our mum thought that we weren't being fed enough so when our two legged mum was out of the room she scattered some rice all over the floor. We thought it was very exciting but Auntie Kylee found us and pushed us all away and swept the rice up. We tried growling and barking at her but she just wouldn't listen! As you can see we are really enjoying life and getting up to mischief. Mum and Uncle Miguel have had to tell us all off this week but we still keep trying it on! Please keep visiting us, we do like to show off to an audience! Love Mole, Sprockett and Teasel xxx
Publ.Date : Tue, 30 May 2006 17:27:17 GMT

Nearly five weeks
Hi, Our two legged mum says she's still too busy to update this, we think she just hasn't passed the developing high acheivers programme so isn't as clever as us! Uncle Titch took more photo's of us yesterday though so she's persuaded Auntie Kylee to update this again. We are still keeping busy and gettig into mischief. We had some more special visitors yesterday as Martin and Judith came to see us. We had a lovely time playing with them and they seemed to think it was pretty cool too. Auntie Kylee and Uncle Titch thought they'd be clever when they came to see us.She had velcro on her shoes instead of laces and he tied his in a double knot. Well now we are all learning how to work velcro and Teasel soon mastered untying double knots. She's going to make a wonderful scout dog! Mole has been watching Ripple very carefully and has perfected her 'victim' look. Don't fall for it, she's very capable of bossing us about! We are looking forward to more adventures this week. Our two legged mum has promised us some trips in the car and some visits to see some two legged pups. We'd like some more visitors to come and see us too, especially if you have interesting shoes! Love Mole Pocket Rocket and Teasel.
Publ.Date : Sun, 21 May 2006 11:55:22 GMT

Four and a half weeks
Hi Our two legged mum has been very busy working and looking after us and hasn't had time to tell you how wonderful we are. We'd be happy to do it ourselves and, now that we've completed the developing high achievers programme, are more than capable but there's a whole world out there to explore and that's much more fun. So we've asked our Auntie Kylee to post some new pictures and tell you what we've been up to. We've had a very busy week. On Saturday we had some special visitors called Ann and Dave come to see us. They were very kind and brought us a lovely blanket to sleep on in our pen. We went out onto the patio for the first time which was great fun. Mildred and Chaos peeked over the fence at us. Chaos wasn't very interested and Mildred seemed to think we were too fluffy to be real puppies! We've had lots of time out of the pen exploring the front room. Mole has been living up to her name, delving under the chair and behind the sofa to see what she can find. We've all learned how to escape through the dog gate but can you guess which of us did it first? Yes it was Pocket Rocket of course! We're all enjoying kisses and cuddles from our visitors but think Teasel is the biggest flirt as she's always giving kisses. We're eating solid food now and it's getting lumpier every day. We like to find new things to chew. Toes are fun to nibble but now our teeth are coming through people don't seem so keen to play that game. We've found a new one now, untying their shoelaces instead! Our two legged mum has made our pen much bigger now so we have lots of space to do our own thing. We have a crate with a bed in it, another bed and that lovely blanket Ann and Dave gave us so we have lots of room to chill out. We also have lots of toys to play with when our human slaves are doing other things. We had another trip outside this week to see Jonathon and his little two legged pups. We think this outside stuff is good fun. We wonder where we will go next. We really enjoy playing and playfighting with each other and are getting very good at growling and barking. Mum has started to play with us too. We really want to play with Uncle Miguel but he isn't quite so keen. We've been trying very hard to persuade him but he seems worried that we might steal his toys or bite his bits! He did join in with our play a little bit yesterday so maybe he's just shy! We hope that next week brings more adventures for us to share, more outings and visitors would be good,especially if the visitors like having their toes chewed! We'll ask someone to update you all with our news again soon. love Mole, Pocket Rocket and Teasel xxx
Publ.Date : Fri, 19 May 2006 14:54:58 GMT

Day 12
It’s day twelve today and The Mole and the Pocket Rocket have opened their eyes on the world. They can’t actually see much of it yet and, as you can see from the pictures, their eyes are still cloudy. It will be quite some time before they can actually see properly. Teasel has decided there’s nothing worth looking at and therefore is keeping her peepers closed for the moment. She has a glint in her eye, though, so it won’t be long. Teasel has already learned to “roll over” but there is a consensus of opinion that it only happened because her belly is so fat! Kylee thinks it was because she had trained her to do it!! The Pocket Rocket has developed a wonderful ”singing voice” with which she is going to impress over the next few weeks, I am sure. The Mole is very contented and as laid back as ever although she does like to go “walkabout” around the box. The Developing High Achievers programme is going well, so well in fact that they now know how to use spell check and helped me out with “consensus”. The white and black “puppy” is not developing as quickly as the others – although its eyes are open it doesn’t seem to be growing and is in no hurry to learn to walk. Its “stays” however are stunning! It needs a good wash but Ripple says she can’t spare it for long enough to dry out so I’m afraid it will have to stay a “dirty little lamb” for the time being. Will hopefully update with news and photos in a few days time. Bye for now. ps from the pups Uncle Miguel has been showing off and insisted we add his picture to show that he is a Spanish Tree Rat
Publ.Date : Sat, 29 Apr 2006 19:26:42 GMT

Day Six
Hi World, We are six days old today and we have started our "Developing high achievers programme". Our second Mum (the one with two legs) held us in all sorts of funny positions and tickled our feet - it's supposed to make us stress-proof and help us to be more clever!! Seems to be working - this computer is easy-peasy. We'll see!! Feeding is far more important as far as we're concerned. Uncle Titch has taken some more pictures - we hope you like them. Lots of love for now from Mole, The Pocket Rocket and Teazel. XXXXX P.S. Mummy Ripple sends her love and a regal wave. We had to put her picture in as well or she would have sulked, so then we had to put Uncle Miguel's piocture in, too, in case he got depressed. He wants to talk to us but Mum won't let him yet.

Publ.Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2006 21:39:24 GMT

Fourth day
Have put some new pictures on but not much actual news. Mum really doing a good job. Won't leave them for long and guarding them with enthusiasm. She's looking really good - you would never know what she's been through in the last six days.
Publ.Date : Fri, 21 Apr 2006 22:32:21 GMT

Third day
It's the tird (sorry, third - do you think that's a Freudian slip?!?) day and Mother and babies are doing fine. They all look like little Persian Lambs and, speaking of lambs, we have a new addition to the family. Ripple managed to find the lamb that she thought was a puppy when she was in labour and has added it to the family. She takes it with her when she leaves the others and is absolutely devoted to it! She's very fond of the "real" ones, too, but it obviously isn't quite the same!! The pups are all feeding well and growing at a good rate. They're quite active (it certainly isn't like rearing Bullmastiffs!) and I'm enjoying them immensly. Have taken some more photos but need Steve to put them on here - he and Sue are coming tonight so watch this space. Miguel has seen the pups and is fascinated. Mum doesn't mind him looking - which is a surprise considering she tried to kill him for simply walking by when she had her "phantom" puppies on Sunday and Monday. To say he's a trifle confused by it all would be an understatement. Never mind, he's a man - it's his job to be confused. Will write more in a day or two.
Publ.Date : Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:52:03 GMT

Today's news
Ripple started showing signs of early labour sometime Sunday morning when I was away and Sue was in charge. Perfect timing! Eventually three puppies have been born, whose arrival has filled my Vet's coffers by some considerable amount I should imagine (trust her to wait for a Bank Holiday and a "middle of the night" trip for personal attention) and no-one has any idea where the other "two orthree" have gone. Scans!! We have three lovely girls, two black and one brown. All well and thriving beautifully - see pictures. After a shaky start as a Mum (having shown a marked preference for "puppies" that don't squeak and don't eat) Ripple has realised that Motherhood may be for her after all! She is now doing a grand job of looking after her babies and happily feeds, cleans and comforts them. Recently she decided that the best way to stop them crying (knowing they were not hungry) was to wrap them up in a nest of vet-bed in the corner of the box and lie next to them. It worked, so who am I to argue? Her personal servant, Kylee, has been doing a sterling job today so Ripple has everything she needs, including her trained team of helpers!! Sue was here all day yesterday and was a great comfort in her time of need! What it is to have people running round after you just to keep you happy.
Publ.Date : Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:22:08 GMT

Countdown - birthday minus six
This is the first entry in Ripple's Diary. This is being done a) to show it works and b) to shut Kylee up who keeps moaning that I haven't written anything yet!!!!