24th May 2009 Today we bathed the dogs in readiness for our trip to Norway.

20th May 2009  Happy 2nd Birthday to Elkie and her brothers Hudson, Tiggs and sister Hunny, this was Geilo's first litter bred by Graham and Pauline McAllister in Scotland.

9th May 2009 After having to visit our vet this morning with our Belgian female Casji she was admitted for treatment, we knew how seriously ill Casji was as she had been diagnosed with an intestinal disease a few months previously. During late evening we had a few telephone calls from our vet with updates on Casji’s progress, it was not good news and sadly she started to deteriorate quickly. We had given Casji every chance and the vet operated and again called us back, the news was not good for her, the Intestinal disease she was suffering from had advanced and she also had Peritonitis. We informed our vet that if Casji was in any pain and her quality of life was very poor we did not want her to wake up after the anaesthetic, so sadly she was given sleep and rest. We had imported Casji from Belgium, she was the first dog we had imported, she has given us two beautiful litters, she was 6 years 3 months when we had to say goodbye to our lovely girl..

8th May 2009 -  Today we received notification from the charity Pets As Therapy that our young female Elkie who had recently undertaken her temperament and character assessment test has been accepted by them as a Therapy dog. She is a daughter of our male Geilo and the first of his puppies to become a Therapy dog, Elkie will be joining Madi and Uschi visiting a childrens Special needs school where we visit  classes three times each week. During the school holidays all our therapy dogs will be visiting a forrest school for children of all ages. We look forward to Elkie having a successful time as a therapy dog and follow in the paw prints of all our therapy dogs and are sure she will be a benefit to the staff and all the children.

1st May 2009 -  On the Bank Holiday weekend of the 1st May we had the pleasure of the company of Carolyn Macgill from the state of Victoria in Australia, she came to visit us and the dogs for the weekend. On the Friday Carolyn arrived we were able to take the dogs for a short walk before it started to rain. The weather on Saturday was very good so we were able to take all the dogs for walks, this was an opportunity for Carolyn to take lots of pictures and video of the dogs to take home with her. On the afternoon we went up to the hills for a walk, we walked with Geilo up to Captain Cook's Monument at Gribdale, an interesting point for Carolyn's visit, it was here as we emerged from the car she heard her very first live cuckoo. After taking more pictures of Geilo and the beautiful North Yorkshire views we returned to the car and drove to Great Ayton for a special home made ice cream. In the village Carolyn also saw the school where Captain James Cook attended as a small boy. Our return trip home took us back via Marton where there is another connection with Captain Cook at the local church and in the Park opposite is the Captain James Cook Museum. On Sunday morning it was time to take Carolyn to the railway station for her return to London where she had to work for a few days before returning to Australia on Thursday 7th, she said she had a great time with the dogs and had enjoyed her visit.