Welcoming Pricilla Pixesticks (Pixie Stix)

 Thinking long term in the breeding business is difficult. There must be a number of females to give us puppies, while at the same time there is an upper limit to how many dogs we have here. Our girls are limited, though not strictly, to three litters spaced two years apart and starting at two years old. So if things go as planned (and they rarely do)  our last litter is at eight years old and then the girl retires. We once thought it a good idea to rehome our girls when they retire, but this only worked once out of the two attempts so we gave up on the idea. We have her spayed and she will stay with us as an aunt to the other girls. Right now we have Laffee Taffee and Bit o'Honey retired with Abba Zabba with her third litter today. But this proposes a scheduling problem if we are to be both a good home for our dogs and a thriving business as well. As of yesterday morning our upcoming litters would be  from Dulce DeLeche (Lilly, who had her first this year) and Lemonhead Lucy (who is one and a half years old). 

But we found a third girl to bring to the Farm and she arrived yesterday. Welcome Pricilla Pixisticks (Pixie Stix) to our Rocketdog Kennel. She comes from a breeder in Port Angeles, Washington who took her back from a family which, for whatever reason, did not wish to deal with a minor health issue. The Brothers gave her to us and requested only a transfer fee and transportation in return. This was both a good business move and also a good humanitarian act, worthy of praise. They found a good home for her. we found a good girl to bring into our tangle of hounds. 

The health issue spoken of earlier is something called "Cherry Eye", which is a problem with the interior eyelid. It becomes swollen and protrudes from under the outer eyelid and becomes red in color. It looks much worse than it is, and is a problem of structural significance with health outcomes, but mostly is cosmetic if left uncorrected. We took her with the agreement that we would have it taken care of and she will see the vet this week. But this post is about showing her off.

I deliberately took her profile so as not to show the Cherry Eye.

This is the problem side, but it doesn't get in the way.

She took only a short while to raise her tail and wag it a bit.
But this morning she was running with the dogs.
She was also wondering how it is that they sing together.