relief

i thought i was busy earlier this year with all the training, racing and goings on at work, but nothing prepared me for chobe's pups!

born on the evening of 26th july, 9 tiny, blind and deaf rhodesian ridgebacks came into being in their cardboard whelping box in the kitchen of our cotswold cottage. i received a call from fiona who was responsible for the bulk of the puppy rearing for the following 3 months, to tell me chobe had delivered 2 pups. i was in the gym at the time, but was soon in the car heading out of town for what was to be an intense week, with little or no sleep. training was blinking hard - after 3 days of being days house-bound i sneaked off for a 2 hour cycle, but hit the wall after about an hour and spent the following 60 minutes in a weird state where i felt like i was dreaming, could not pedal and would start to wobble before almost falling off the bike!! anyway, photos and more on this story can be found on chobe's blog - she's pretty handy on the ipad ; )

anyway, the next 3 months was crazy. finishing work on a friday, i would train before heading down to the cottage, take fiona to the station, then give chobe and pups their final meal, clear up poos, wees and then eat something myself before going to bed at about 1130pm. pups would wake at around 7am, so i would be up at about 630am to prepare the food before they went mad. however, the sound of footsteps would alert them, so i was greeted with cacophony of barks, wails and howls!!! but nothing quite matched the sound when i turned the food processor on, oh my goodness!! the noise was deafening, i really needed ear defenders. never being brilliant first thing in the morning, this was a nightmare!!!

the pups fed on chobes's milk for 8 weeks, but the weaning process started after 2. however, during this time chobe ate 6 meals a day, a mix of dried food and raw mince. once the pups started on dried food, they too ate 6 times a day!! they were going through a bag of dried food a week!!

i would still sneak off for an hour's cycle in the afternoon and this became easier after i had built a large pen for the pups in mary's garden. this also allowed me the space to clean the kitchen - i had to dismantle the 2 cages and metal fencing, before scooping up all the shredded newspaper, poos and wees, then i would start the floor washing and disinfecting. so the routine continued until sunday evening, which would be the reverse of friday; pick fiona up from the station and then drive back to london. 

as much as i was tired, i was always very sad to leave the pups and chobe; we'd never been apart for such a long period of time. i was also sad to miss watching the pups grow each day - they were growing up so quickly.

pups needed worming, injections, weighing, registering with the kennel club, micro-chipping and of course advertising to sell them! i ended up with pups on 9 different websites, the hare and hounds and others. i was very worried by week 10 as i had only sold 2 or 3 and thought i was going to be stuck with 'old pups' but suddenly i was inundated with enquiries before i was suddenly stuck with the dilemma about which pup to keep.

i had originally wanted to keep a boy so i picked out deka, the breeders thought pemba was a stunner, but i loved sambona from day 1..... i had to ask mum to help with the decision as i could not decide. she  said to go with my gut, so all logic and advice aside, i took sambona under my wing.

sambona on the front seat

mum and daughter in the courtyard

but during this 3 month period, i still continued my daily training, weekly physio,  competed in 3 x 2 day rallies, the 24hr dawn to dusk, a day on the dunkirk beaches, as well as the all important work - we're moving offices - which enables me to do all of this!! i think this is the first weekend since july that i had no obligations, other than to spend some special time with my dogs. i really needed this pause.