Maggie's Hunting Training Begins

Maggie is 6 months old now and had her spay operation two weeks ago so now it's time to get into her retrieving duties. She can't wait to have a job to do. She has so much energy she's wearing us out.

Yesterday was the first time swimming in the creek behind our house. She took to it immediately and was TOTALLY under water a couple times only to pop out and dog paddle like a fiend! She found out swimming is a lot harder than just running around so big nap followed.

This morning we introduced the air gun and a dummy laced with duck scent. It was irresistible! She had a few really good retrieves and one PERFECT one. She wanted more....but quality was starting to suffer so we called it good for today. Keep her wanting more is the ideal.

Tomorrow we'll take the .22 and make a little more noise.

The Magster

Little Maggie is now over 40# and is such a sweetie! She just came back from a walkie and as usual she found a huge branch to drag home.

This one was a real mouthful!

And three times longer than she is.

She's running with it back to the house---I can't keep up with her!

Our New Girl at Four Weeks

This dear little soul is our next official "Chessie of Catfish Corner". We found her people parents, Ruth and Butch in Pelican Lake, WI, and their female "Gem" had a litter of five pups four weeks ago. Three females and two males. Not a big litter so that could be very favorable for the lucky five---lots of mommy's milk!

She is the darkest of the litter and we're so excited to be looking forward to this little "dark horse" to be part of our lives.

Ruth called us last night to say "she" (we haven't picked a name yet) wasn't moving her head much on Tuesday. She investigated and found the pup had a swollen area by her neck.....so off to the vet they went. The doctor wasn't sure what was going on speculated it might be a .... spider bite? So here she is at four weeks taking this little dose of antibiotic. Hope it doesn't undo all the good of that momma's milk.

Sweet Helga

I'm about 95% done with this pastel of Helga and one of the ways I can gauge if I'm done or not is how it looks in a photograph. It's been said that the camera doesn't lie so it is the truth detector for pointing out weaknesses, areas that don't make sense, or just colorations that aren't believable.

No, I'm not telling what places I'm going to fix!