Summer delivered 9 bouncing babies overnight. 
We're thrilled to present our B litter: 5 handsome boys and 4 pretty girls. 4 of the 5 boys are wolf sable and the remaining boy and all 4 girls are black and tan. 
I guess that answered the question on whether Summer carries the brown gene. No, she doesn't.

We messaged Leo's owner, Kirsi, in Finland with the exciting news and when we awoke after a nap a few hours later we were greeted by a photo of the lovely Leo himself posing with a bunch of red roses with a message which read "Roses to beautiful Summer, mother of our sweet babies" 

We are so excited to watch these babies grow up and will be updating photos weekly on their own page

The FLCNSW's inaugural specialty show has been and gone. We entered the show mainly to show support to the club, not actually expecting to attend, even entering Summer who is woefully out of coat after having a litter in November last year. But at the last minute we decided to make the trip. We'd entered all our dogs but took 4 up for the day (3 to show) and were met by Lexie (Summer x Dolce daughter) also competing on the day.

It's been almost a year since we've been at a show and there were a few exuberant moments with the dogs so excited to be out again that they forgot their show training.

We had a nice day out with some nice results.
Aslak Av Vintervidda (Imp NOR) awarded 1st place Baby Puppy Dog (of 2) and Baby Puppy in Show. Not bad for his first show. We hope his success and enjoyment of showing continues.
Caleebra Armani Acqua unplaced in the Baby Puppy Bitch class (of 5). She was happy to have the judge go over her, happy enough to move, but staying still in a stack is still a work in progress. She takes after her mother, in that respect. 
Ch. Lecibsin Sametti (Imp UK) awarded 3rd place Intermediate Bitch (of 6).
Ch & Neut Ch Armahani Bloodstone Bilaidit RA 2nd place (of 2) Neuter bitch after skipping around the ring in her general excitement to be showing again. She was also awarded Best Coated Neuter (of 3).

Alleria (another Summer x Dolce daughter) also came along for the day to visit and spent most of it wrestling with all the other dogs, including Lexie and Aslak.

We were packed up and in the car straight after the show and headed home, arriving just after 2:30am.

June FLCV Specialty Show

It was my first time handling Aslak again since the NSW show and I messed him up in the Friday AM show, with him taking 2nd place (of 2) in his class. By the afternoon show we were working as a team and Aslak won his class and was also the Reserve Dog Challenge winner. 
Megan handled him for the rest of the weekend and he continued to do really well, winning his class and another Reserve Dog Challenge, before taking Minor Puppy in Show at the FLCV Specialty.
I'd entered the Spitz show months ago and bumped Aslak up into the older class to avoid clashes with Fenix in the Minor class (who was absent on the day) and he did pretty well, taking a 2nd place (of 3) against older competition. He didn't miss a beat all weekend and is so easy going we just love seeing this little guy doing so well. 

Summer also did really well on the weekend being awarded 1 x Best of Breed, 1 x Runner up Best of Breed, 2 x Reserve Bitch Challenge and Opposite Intermediate in Show at the FLCV Specialty. She was a little star the whole weekend too and was very happy to come home and receive cuddles. 

Mischa was also entered as she enjoys earning treats and showing off, with practice shows (and 2 x Neuter of Breed) on Saturday and taking 2nd place (of 2) in the Neuter Bitch class at the Specialty. She won a bottle of Chardonnay but as she's too young to drink, we'll toast her when we open it later.

Aslak from Vintervidda Kennels in Norway will soon be calling Australia home.

Christian selected this ridiculously chunky monkey to come to us, believing it 'not fair' that he have all the fun and spoils, having two half brothers of Aslak at home: the very successful Ukkonen and handsome Elias, both of whom Aslak closely resembles, and we really are incredibly grateful to have been afforded this opportunity.

Those who know of our heartbreak last year with the loss of our beloved puppy Titan will notice that Aslak shares the same Dam, Lumiturpa Tytön Tyllerö and this was a huge factor in our decision to import this handsome boy. We adore Tyllerö and were devastated to lose Titan at not even 16 months old. With my heart still raw with pain, our own litter only 2 days older than Tyllerö's, and then notice of the impending changes to Australia's quarantine laws all crashing in at once, I submitted an Import Application with quarantine, effectively a place holder, giving me time for the litters to grow up and to think about what I wanted to do.

Not sure i would actually cope with having such a strong reminder of Titan in a half sibling of his at home, I approached Megan of Aetherglow Kennels about the option of co-owning him with us. Megan had also been a fan of Titan and understood exactly where i was coming from: delighted to be able to recapture some of him but anxious that i wasn't emotionally ready. We also have different lines at home and feel Aslak will be complementary to both of our breeding programs without overlapping pedigrees or compromising on those ideals we hold important. And so Aslak will be co-owned with and live with Megan and the Aetherglow crew, though we will be having frequent visits from him here at home too. 

The last few days, i've seen and heard more and more and had a bit of time to appreciate this puppy for himself and i'm really delighted that Christian has agreed to let him go. He's drawn a lot of comparisons to Ukkonen and suggested that he'd be perfect for his breeders team (a common show entry in Europe) alongside his two half brothers. We're just very lucky that Christian likes us enough to send this little guy our way and we are excited to finally meet him in a few weeks.

On the tails of such recent sadness here, it is nice to share the news that we are expecting puppies from our lovely Lappies Summer and Dolce.  Of course, puppy plans never fit in with the mere mortals, and as it turned out, Summer was in season whilst we were moving house. I half expected that the stress of the move might put her off, but i should've known better. Summer doesnt know the meaning of the word stress. So we watched and waited. As Summer became more and more glued to the kitchen, we suspected she may be carrying precious cargo, and this was confirmed via ultrasound.

The puppies were born 11th November - 7: 4 girls and 3 boys, 6 black and tan and 1 cream boy. This was our Armani collection as a nod to Dolce's breeder (Armahani)

I don't know how long it will take me to write this post as its been weeks and i'm still not coping with the loss of our beloved Titan.
We love that precious boy so dearly and were so looking forward to being reunited with him. 
But it wasnt to be.
Titan was taken from us by a suspected snake bite. After a week of frantic searching, his body was discovered by park rangers on the 24th September on the edge of the forest. Not a day goes by that we don't think of him.
I know, right now, that i can not do him justice, and i hope that maybe one day i will revisit this post and be able to put together something more fitting for our handsome little puppy.

Our lives are certainly poorer for the loss of him and we miss him every single day.