Tuesday, November 20, 2007

late puppy update

I haven't been able to post due to the rash of excitement the pups have caused, but now I have a spare moment.

To give a brief summary, Minnie's pups were born on November 14th. We stayed up all night helping her deliver. (I had to skip class the next morning.)
She had seven pups this time around, and to our great surprise, six of them are males.
We had quite a few problems keeping the little runt strong and healthy, but he's the cutest little bugger now, at three weeks old.
So, For preliminary names, we have the little girl, who we are calling Eowyn, and the boy, who we are calling Bilbo. One of the pups is late to develop his black, and Mom enjoys referring to him as Albus.
The other four puppies are so far unnamed, though I'd like to call one Gimli or Legolas.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

About Us

Hi all. This is the first post in a hopefully long line of them from Honey Ridge headquarters, Radcliffe IA.
So, first off, about us.
Honey Ridge is our farm, on which we raise a multitude of animals and attempt a variety of activities, the most major of which is our current puppy-raising project. Our goal with this project is to provide buyers with puppies that have the best and most loving personalities on the market. We raise our dogs in our home, sharing our table scraps, our comfy chairs, and even our beds with our pets.
The animals we have in the house (currently) include our four breeding Bichons (Minnie, Saul, Rose, and Fawkes), Lupin the lab mutt, and a Burmese mountain dog named Alice. In addition we have two 'inside' cats, Ember and Cat, and a sweet little rescued potbelly pig we call Dexter.
Outside we have two horses, two sheep, several llamas, a few peacocks and turkeys, lots of rabbits and chickens, and a multitude of stray cats.

But the real excitement is in the Bichons.
Last year, Minnie had a litter of six puppies which we found to be quite a handful. Our experience in breeding from the home helped us through raising the little monsters, and after their first eight weeks of life growing up on the farm, the pups dispersed to their respective 'forever homes'. It wasn't surprising when Minnie got knocked up again this fall, however we tried to prevent it. This time around, we plan to provide a day-by-day journal of how the puppies are doing, to let those interested watch the way puppies are raised outside of a mill.

we're very interested in hearing from those who are interested, so leave a comment on how you think we're doing, and give us your views on the topics we might address. if you're interested in eventually adopting a puppy, or even if you already have one and need a few training tips, let us know, and we'll give you our expert advice. Cheers!

~ Kim