Another Family Member on the Way

We lost our beloved Rottweiler Samba in July -- one of the saddest events of our lives. After several months we realized we would simply never stop missing him and not having dogs in our home was making things worse. We decided that our next dog (dogs, really, because we plan to have more than one) would be a Labrador Retriever. We searched for several months, made one false start, and finally found a breeder we are happy with in October -- Susannah Joy, who operates Top Form Labradors in Sedalia, Missouri. Susannah has been breeding, and showing, Labs for 35 years. We were fortunate to find such an excellent breeder so close to Kansas City. (Sedalia is about 90 minutes southeast of where we live.)

We met Susannah in early October, and also met Bing (BISS CH. Waifin's Topform Conundrum RN, WC), and Emma (Topform Patience Pays) and Zena (Topform Face The Music N’Dance) who Susannah planned to mate with Bing for litters to be delivered in December and February respectively. We put a deposit on a male puppy from Emma's litter, or, failing that, a male puppy from Zena's litter.

Here are some pictures of Emma, whose breeding with Bing was successful, just days before her litter of puppies was born.



In this second picture, Emma is staring (hungrily, Susannah believes) at a lovebird.

Emma had ten puppies Wednesday, December 10. She had six yellows and four blacks. Elly had her heart set on a yellow male and there are several in the litter so we will get a yellow boy. The puppies won't be ready to leave their mom until they are eight weeks old, so our new puppy will come home in February. We get to visit the puppies for the first time on Sunday, January 4, 2009.

Susannah has posted several videos of the new puppies on YouTube and has links to them on her website.