An overcast but just-about-dry day greeted us all in the garden here at Belatarr HQ for our second Belatarr reunion. The wonderful turn-out included sixteen Belatarr babies along with their mum, Phoenix and Dad, Mingus, together with Copper the HWV and Oz the Lab.
Much splashy/hurtling/chasing mayhem ensued and all the dogs seemed to have a thoroughly good time exploring the river and the garden with one another. It was a wonderful day and we were, as ever, immensely proud of what beautiful and happy young dogs they have all grown into.
Many thanks to all who attended, and particularly to Sarah, Kathy & Vivien for sharing some of your photos of the day…mind you, getting all of the dogs (or even a large proportion of them!) together for a photograph or two proved a trickier prospect!
A few weekends ago we had a very exciting not-quite-Birthday-Party day for the Belatarr babies, and 9 of the 12 pups (all minus Charlie, who was on hols in France, Ella, who was in season & Otis, who was working) returned back here to their birthplace for a wonderful reunion afternoon.
The Wire Gods were definitely smiling on us all that day since we somehow managed to stage it on what was the only sunny & dry day that we’d had for weeks, and, indeed it feels like it’s been raining non-stop ever since then too…
Cakes & snacks were eaten (by humans… and very probably by puppies too), everybody had a good chance to compare puppy notes and catch up on wire-chat, and, most importantly, much highly excited puppy play was undertaken (on land and in water) as a whirlwind of bouncing, swimming, chewing and hurtling was unleashed!
For us it was also quite wonderful and a source a great pride to see the boys & girls back together and all now grown-up into such beautiful, confident and happy young dogs. We were struck by how lucky we were to have found such lovely and loving homes for this first Belatarr generation – and huge thanks, once again, to everyone for bringing their pups to the reunion.
Tim’s camera unfortunately managed to conk out early on in the proceedings, so we are extremely grateful to Marcus & to Emma (thanks guys!) for kindly both sending on their many pics of the day, some of which are included here.
After seemingly endless rain the sun has finally made a return, so what better time to take everyone to the beach for a sandy romp! Little Django is now 9 months old (time certainly flies…) and is looking not so little and all-grown-up all of a sudden….looks can be deceptive, however!
Django in a rare moment of stillness.
This is a more usual pose.
Racing with dad.
…and with mum too.
The family emerges from the surf.
Django leads the charge.
A brief pause to pose with a stick.
…and swiftly back to bounce mode.
Strutting his stuff, showing off that awesome stick, whilst Phoenix looks on and hatches a plot.
In tandem with Mum…who, having hatched her plot, now has ownership of the stick.
We’re extremely lucky to have the very handsome Finley living approx. 2 miles from us here at Belatarr HQ. This means that, right from the get-go, we’ve been able to see lots of him. He and his brother Django (along with their parents) have enjoyed many romps together as well as both having been obedience trained by Tracey and her team over at Puppy Gurus, just like their parents before them:
Finley arrives home.
...and re-arranges his furniture.
Settled into his new bed.
Christmas!
It's a tiring life...Finley takes to the new sofa - the one that he wasn't going to be allowed onto 🙂
Another favourite snoozing spot.
Growing up.
Finley, now 5 months old, takes a seat at the kitchen table.
Yes, like the whole of the rest of the UK, the snow has finally arrived here in Wolfvalley. Approx 6 inches fell overnight with mild drifting creating around a foot of depth in places, rendering the road/lane impassable (no change there then…) and once again transforming our valley garden into a “Winter Wonderland”; to whit:
Early morning sun across the garden valley.
The bottom of the garden.
The lane - a dog-only zone for today.
Arctic romp.
At the garden gate heading into the woodland.
Phoenix waiting at the gate...
Phoenix in a snowy point.
Phoenix catching snowballs.
Mingus makes snowy progress.
Mingus the Snowbeard.
My, what snowy eyebrows you have.
It's never too snowy to dig for voles.
But this is the result - A Yeti? or a small breed of Highland Cattle perhaps?
Phoenix in the Redwood Grove.
Our river - almost monochromatic today.
The weir & water glinting blue in the sunlight, as viewed through the trees from the bridge at the bottom of the garden.
Hard to believe it, but our “little” girl is well and truly grown up now…To celebrate her 2nd Birthday we took advantage of some unseasonally warm and sunny weather to hit the beach where much canine/human romping was done:
After spending all of Saturday at a hot, crowded urban dog show, we thought it only fitting to head out to the beach – in this case Crow Point at Braunton Burrows – for some doggy (and human) down-time…
Mingus tries for lift-off using his newly retro-fitted "Helicopter Ears."
After combining forces to dig a huge sand-pit comes a rare moment of stillness.
Phoenix: sandy + wet = happy!
Mirror Phoenix.
Adam commands Phoenix with the power of his Blackberry...
Mingus shows that he can do sandy & wet just as well as Phoenix.
“Experts” tell us that today may be the last scorching hot day for the foreseeable, so the only possibly course of action was clear: head to the beach!
The scene of today's adventures - at Northam with the golden sand of Braunton Beach in the distance.