I hadn’t posted earlier because I felt my next entry should come with a Fancy update, which I couldn’t do for reasons I’ll explain in a minute! Firstly, we transport ourselves back to Friday the 15th and off we go to yet another championship show!

I can hardly believe it, but we actually didn’t get wet 😮 It threatened it once or twice but never actually managed it. Most refreshing not to get soaked for once, after the last two! Her ladyship (Sarah) was at home (in season) so it was just Sam, Solei, Jason and Tosca. Jason didn’t place (but bizarrely the DCC winner is almost his double!) Sam got another 2nd in Junior, Solei 5th in Limit (on a roll!) and Tosca 5th in Puppy. Morris won Limit again and a dog of S & T’s breeding got the Bitch CC 🙂 So overall not a bad day! Solei was in the Stakes as well, there were about 30 there and he made the cut down to the last <10 but then didn’t get in the cards. Still a great achievement though!

Now he’s showing better I’m noticing other things, and one of the main problems is yes his tail is up…but 99% of the time it falls to the wrong side 😆 No pleasing some people! Obviously I’m ecstatic he’s going so much better, but if I was standing I’d just stand him the other way round (the side his tail naturally falls) because he doesn’t have a better or worse side otherwise, and he looks so much better with his tail plume visable. However, because I’m in the chair I can’t stand him the other way without having my back to the judge, which not only looks rude and can be awkward (because I can miss instructions!) but also looks so obvious that if I was judging I think I’d wonder what I had to hide on his other side. Can’t win!

Last Saturday we went to a fun doggy event & companion show. Our ringcraft club was doing a parade of breeds and so I took Solei & Storm to represent the Phalene & Papillon. Solei also did the companion show, Storm being ineligible because he has his Junior Warrant. The fantastic irony is in Solei’s AV Non Sporting class he showed better than he EVER has – ever. Seriously, he has never gone so well in the last year. And he didn’t place 😆 How many times has he been out of the cards recently? I just found that so ironic that he put on the performance of his life and was chucked. To be fair the class was large and the judge did keep looking at him but even so…amused me in an ironic way. He did get a 6th in Most Appealing Eyes later in the day 😉 Despite deciding the way to win that was to sit with his back to the judge and look up at me – I had a perfect view of his eyes being appealing!

And then there was Fancy. I know I’ve been a bit quiet on that front! Within a few days of the mating I was convinced she was pregnant…up until about 7 weeks. T came and looked at her and thought she was too, even thought she could feel a head. I didn’t mention it during this time because I didn’t want to jinx it! I was waiting for really firm proof.

Then a few days ago I started to have doubts….I wouldn’t have sworn that she is but I wouldn’t have said she’s not either. We mated Flora two weeks before Fancy and I’ve spent a lot of time around her the last week so I though that may be skewing my view a bit – they change such a lot in the last week or so, and even though I’m not conciously comparing them I think I probably am subconciously.

Fancy wasn’t showing at all so unless she’s carrying them high I don’t think it’s a big litter – wouldn’t be surprised if it’s only 1 or 2 – which wouldn’t help because if there are that few she may not show anyway!

If you’d asked me yesterday I would have said I’d still be inclined to say she is.  I’m losing all sense of everything now (ie can’t remember what she was like pre-mating!) but I think her behaviour is slightly different, her tummy is firmer and she’s slightly up underneath. Plus, Monday evening I was watching her and I caught her suddenly sitting down and lifting her leg like bitches do to lick their vulva, but she was just looking at it as if something was happening and she wasn’t sure what.

Then this morning I looked at her and I suddenly really think she is again (not that I ever actually thought she conclusively wasn’t). I think she looks bigger than yesterday. Which isn’t out of the question – she’s not close to enormous but they can potentially go from nothing to explosion overnight!

She’ll be 8 weeks pregnant on Friday, which means her due date is in 9 days. As she just had the one mating and it was right at the end of her window I think it should be pretty accurate so unless this whole thing has been a phantom something or other I think we could have puppies anytime after the weekend!

Fingers crossed Fancy isn’t just messing me about, she is pregnant and there’s a champion sitting in there!