AND THEN THERE WERE....

One would think
that when you have a lot of puppies
you wouldn't miss just one,
but then just one turns into
just two
and then
just three
and then
well, you get the picture.

The next thing we knew,
there were only three left -
Todd, which you can tell
because of the blue collar.
Jazzi and Sophie-
we're not really sure which one is which.

Then one, stormy, rainy afternoon,
a strange car came,
and the next thing we knew,
Sophie was going
up the road in it -
and she didn't even look back.

That left Jazzi and Todd.

Then
Jazzi
left
and
now

Todd is left to eat alone,
but
on the other paw,
he gets all the food,
all the toys,
all the petting,
all the rocking,
all the lap-time
and has the big puppy box
all to himself.
He will leave us later
in the week.

Since Mom feels sorry for him,
she's been really generous
with the peanut butter Kongs!!

Miss Ivy would like to go in
and keep him company
but Mom and Dad, the meanies,
won't let her.
She saw the Vet this week.
When we got her,
she weighed 3 pounds 4 ounces
and on Monday
she weighed 9 pounds 14 ounces
and we haven't even had her 4 weeks.
We think her name should be
"Poison Ivy"
because
she is growing like a bad weed!!
BOL!!

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh, Ruairi,
Ivy and Todd

PS - We're sorry we haven't been around to visiting
your blogs, but our secretary has been a bit overwhelmed.
We think things will calm down a bit now -
at least we hope so.

WE'RE HAVING A GIVEAWAY!!

Mom was asked by the kind folks at
Milkbone
to read a book,
Through a Dog's Eyes
by
Jennifer
Arnold.

Arnold, founder and executive director of Canine Assistants,
a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing service dogs
for people with disabilities, educates and inspires i
n this transformative guide to training and celebrating service animals.
Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 16,
Arnold was encouraged by her father
to start an organization devoted to helping people with physical disabilities.
Now after 20 years of dog training,
she shares her methodology and stories of canine intelligence,
sensitivity, language comprehension,
and prescience bordering on telepathy.
She offers shining examples of the heroism of service dogs,
from anticipating seizures to resetting a ventilator switch.
Along the way, she emphasizes choice-based,
positive-reinforcement-only teaching methods
and shares valuable insights that every dog owner should know.
Engagingly written with a perfect balance of science and observation,
this book--soon to be a PBS one hour special and series--
is a worthy tribute to our canine friends.

If you would like to win a copy of this book,
please leave a comment.
The drawing will be next Friday
and we will let our last departing puppy,
Todd,
make the choice
of the winner.

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh, Ruairi, Ivy
and
The Five Remaining Babes

PS - we apologize for the lack of blogging-
we have no excuse,
but we have a secretary problem.

A FOND FAREWELL ON GREEN BANDANA DAY

Last year,
the day before our first pup
left us,
we had our first annual
Rocky Creek Farm puppy show.

This year we decided
to forgo it in light of the fact
that the Porties
were celebrating
their
Annual Bandana Day.

Since the color of the year 2011
is green, we decided to give the pups
a chance to play a bit -
so they got their first chance to dig
in the grass and the dirt -
you might notice
as you go through the pictures
that there are a few dirty noses
and mouths full of green grass.

We bid them a fond farewell
as they start their departures tomorrow.

And now we introduce them
with their new names
and their destinations.

(#1 - Jazzi)
Miss Jazzi
might just keep her name.
She will be moving to Washington, DC
and her people really like the name she has.
She will tell them if she wants it changed.

(#2 - Lynzi)
Stirling
will be going to live
in
Eastern Virginia.


(#3 - Bonni)
Sophie Scott
will be leaving us
to go live in Vermont.

(#4 - Jock)
Todd
will be going to live
in
Northern Virginia
and
he will share a blog.

(#5 - Fergus)
Liam
(named in honor of Sweet William)
will be living
in
Central Virginia.

(#6 - Mackie)
McIntyre
will be living
in
Maryland
and he will have a
black Scottie brother
named McGee.

(#7 - Kilts)
Parker will be going to live
in Northern Virginia.

(#8 - Guthrie)
Arlo will be going to live
in North Carolina -
he will have a
black Scottie sister
named Abby.

Ivy
will be staying
on
Rocky Creek Farm
but
she wants to award
all of the puppies
with the title of
"Best in Show".

We'll miss you all.

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh, Ruairi, Ivy
and
Their Peeps

EXPLORING A BIG NEW WORLD - WORDLESS WEDNESDAY EDITION

The Sweet Babes
get their first adventure
into our outside pen.

XOXO,
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh, Ruairi, Ivy
and
The Sweet Babes

OUR MOM HAS FALLEN IN LOVE - AND A BIG SURPRISE

For quite some time,
we have been looking forward
to a visit from
Rory and Fiona.

They rode, with their peeps,
down I-81
through numerous traffic problems
to come see us and
spend the night
at our house.

Their Mom says
Fiona is the brains
of the couple,
but Rory has the
dashing good looks.

Our Mom is absolutely smitten with him.
He speaks with a Scottish brogue
and that drives the ladies crazy.
He and Piper even became great buds.

And he was ever so nice
to the Sweet Babes.
Fiona, on the other hand,
just took a look and was off
about other business.

And now for our surprise.

Since we lost our
sweet JavaMan
over a year ago,
we have been trying
to find another
Chocolate Lab
to be our
farmdog.
It hasn't been working out for us.
We knew that we had to
get a puppy
so that it would grow up knowing
the real bosses of
Rocky Creek Farm.

Last week,
one of our Dad's student's presented him
with an end of year gift -
a puppy.

She has been in quarantine
for 10 days so we get to meet
her today, just like you.

So please meet

Miss Iverness
"Ivy" for short.
Yes, Bertie, we did leave a letter out-
on purpose -
we wanted a Scottish sounding name for her
but we didn't want her nickname to be "Iny".
Her breed is the most popular -
Heinz 57;
it appears she will top out
at about 100 pounds.

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh, Ruairi, Ivy,
and
The Sweet Babes

YOU ASK US HOW WE DO IT

Many of you leave comments
asking us how we get group shots
of our puppies.

Along the way,
you get a few
really cute "accidents".

This is Lilly's only litter -
it will always be one of our favorites photos.
Dad,
the patient parent,
sits on a stool and waits
and waits
for just the perfect shot.

When Mom decided that she wanted to
do this photo shoot,
it was utter chaos.

And one smart aleck puppy,
who we won't name,
but it's a girl,
kept jumping out of the wagon.

Dad took over as wrangler
and
Mom sat down on the grass
to be the photographer.
Sometimes,
he didn't make it out of the way
before Mom clicked the shutter.

This is the only one that we've
ever cheated a bit with -
we can hear you all going
"we knew that".
Murphy,
the second pup from the left
was looking the other way
and we turned him around
to face the front.

Still,
it took about 100 tries
to get this photo.

First,
Mom tried taking this photo
from across the room
and Carrleigh ran through -
of course that got the pups attention.

Once Mom decided to sit down,
then Ruairi joined in
which helped get more of them standing up.

But then Ruairi
jumped up in
Mom's lap for a second.

It only took about 50 tries
to get this photo.

Sometimes it's just
"dumb-luck".

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh, Ruairi
and
The Sweet Babes

A SPECIAL DAY ON ROCKY CREEK FARM

We love special days on
Rocky Creek Farm,
even though sometimes
we act like foolish children
and have to be kept in our beds.

But we were involved in the prep work
and got to taste test
and try out a quilt or two.

We snoopervised the squeezing of lemons
and the making of our famous
Rocky Creek Lemonade.
Mom loves it,
but we're not too crazy about lemons.

We got all of our dishes
and utensils set out
but didn't get a picture
of any of the yummy foodables.

And here are our sweet guests of honor -
all the way from California.

And now for a slower pace,
however,
it is very exciting to us.

You all know our Mom has chased

and chased that illusive photo
until

*

*

*

she finally got it!!

And now she can only identify 2 pups -
can you help her out??

(we got a little closer -
girl, Mackie, Fergus, girl, Jock, Guthrie, girl, Kilts)

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh, Ruairi
and
The Sweet Babes