I’ve really slipped since my last journal entry. Almost 3 weeks! It’s been a busy time and so much has been going on, it seems so long ago, and only just yesterday at the same time. At the last entry, Prue had had her pups and since then Abbey has had hers too. Unlike Prue’s delivery, which in retrospect, went incredibly well, Abbey’s was not so good. Her first pup was a breach-birth, coming hind legs first and needed a great deal of help. Unfortunately the pup, a male, was still-born. Her second pup needed a little help too, but the others she managed to deliver on her own. Five live pups, two that were quite large but three that were a lot smaller and seemed weak. One of the three had a badly twisted leg. We and the vet have hope that her leg will straighten out in time and there does seem to have been a little improvement. Since the birth most of the pups have progressed, including the one with the twisted leg, but one of the other small ones was continually weak and hungry and, despite Dazzle doing all she could in nursing it, he died today. Without Dazzle’s help the poor pup wouldn’t have survived as long as he did. 😥 Between the births and in the last few days I was home, I’d been working on the kennel. I thought I’d had eveything in hand, but after leaving it’s come to light that I overlooked part of the roofing that needed to be done. Dazzle had to mobilise some of her friends today to get a temperory repair done that will hopefully last until I get back. Yes, I’m back on the boat again. An early recall had a mad panic in the last day to try to get things finished off, but obviously from the above, not completely. The only ray of light at the moment is that it would appear that due to pressure from Norwegian unions I’ll only be on the boat for a 3 week trip which is good in that I’ll be back home again sooner than I expected, but bad in that, as this will only happen in Norway, the likelyhood is that the length of trips is going to vary a great deal, depending on where the boat is. That’ll make planning things and holidays to fit in with my “off” time very difficult.
