Monday, July 13, 2026

Morning for our International Candies

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 The Candies are doing very well. Eight beautiful Basset Babies have their cute little tails on the ground. Lilly is eating well, as are the Candies.  There's enough of everything, sleep schedules are being maintained, and nobody needs to run into town for anything. Even the weather is in sync. The days are lovely and the nights are cool with a light Summer breeze. I could go on and on. All is well.

We will be posting new pictures and weights pretty soon. Right now there isn't enough change to make our first pictures different than what we see today. But things progress pretty fast and the first six weeks go by quickly.  We weigh them weekly to make sure they are thriving. If someone doesn't eat well we find a way to get them growing. The milestones for growth are pretty well known. At six weeks we do a final evaluation and can say pretty definitively what each puppy will become. They have personalities right now and characteristics show up early on. But everything else is in flux and nothing is certain until about six weeks. The only thing that doesn't change is the boy/girl question, but even that can be read wrong at first. Laffee  Taffee's first Bubblegum girl (Bubbalicious), is the best boy Basset (Bubba / Stanley) we have seen so far. . . 

We've had a few people coming out to meet our family in hopes of finding a new baby for theirs. We really encourage people to come meet the hounds prior to committing themselves to spending money on their project. It is hard to keep the scammers out of your pockets and the most certain way to protect everyone involved is to do things old school. Visit your breeder, read the contract, and trust your gut. We will certainly earn your trust and deliver on the promises we make.

One family has chosen a puppy (not out of the ordinary to have early adopters). Pending my sending them a deposit invoice Toblerone will no longer be available. We don't encourage such quick decisions but we do things on a first come and first served basis and deposits are never returned if minds change. Take your time deciding as best you can, that is the best way. If you have preferences as to who or how many of what, we will try to accomodate your desires if it is possible. 

So far this entire year has gone along as if we planned it. This is strange because we've been doing this for twenty years and so far nothing has gone along as if we planned anything. Who and when we paired Lilly and Rocky was planned years ago. The pregnancy went very well and Lilly was very happy right up until the final act played out. The babies took their sweet time finding a way into the world, but we had everything in place to handle a seige of any length. In truth, we made it look easy this time. I suppose experience counts after all, but it might be that we didn't have crops to plant so time was on our side. However occurring, even the food we did plant went easier and is doing better. So life is better than good here and even the fruit tress are cooperating. Would that the length of our long lives had always gone so smoothly during the difficult bits.

Saturday, July 11, 2026

Still more to do?

Update: Lilly has stopped laboring, panting, and having solid contractions, so we are assuming there are no more than the eight we have lounging around on blankets right now. We do everything naturally so we really don't know.  Any last babies are taking their own sweet time showing themselves. Right now there are five boys and three girls. This is a pretty good litter and easy to count. One more girl puppy would be nice, but another boy is certainly welcome too. So long as everyone is happy and healthy we are good with whatever the day brings. Eight is plenty.

Being able to count puppies easily is important because until their little eyes are open and they are up on their feet they are always in danger of bigger things. When they are very new they wander under their mom pretty easily and she doesn't notice. We will count them a lot and stay within close hearing range (twenty-four-seven) to avoid accidents. After they can keep themselves safe we will still count them a lot, but not because we're worried about accidents.

We are now accepting deposits from those people who wish to choose their new baby(s), but there is no hurry. People's preferences are being considered as we go forward and we will let you know if your preferences are in conflict with others. 




The International Candies Litter: Milka

10:20 a.m. Male Caramel Red and White named Milka. After five hours of waiting he came out with no note explaining his tardiness. 14.6 ounces and quiet.