Rabbit pics!

Thought you all might enjoy some cute rabbit pictures :)

Spring time at Shannon Down

Well move has traveled back to Arizona for another contract nursing job for the next 9 weeks so our Whippet activities will be minimal. Byelobog went with her and may hit a race or two while he is there but went more or less for company since she can't be without a Whippet :) On her way there (she drove) she took Alexa to her new home with Marco in Texas. She's settled in wonderfully and I'm sure there will be updates to come on her. Alexa's sister Fergie came back home for a while while her owner is going through a tough time with her mother. So Fergie is visiting probably for a couple of months at least and she's been wonderful. The dogs excepted her into the house like she's always been here. She's a goofy little girl that LOVES attention, she's always got to be with someone - she's been playing a lot with her brother Liam.

The National is coming up, mom will be stopping in to visit friends and check out the events since it's being held in AZ. We do not have any of our own dogs entered but there will be a few Shannon Down dogs there with their owners. Maybe we'll have some results to post when the time comes, hoping someone can get some pictures :)

The Charlize x Brooks and Helen x Rupert babies are growing fast. I can't believe how big they have gotten, seems like yesterday they were born. The weather has been GORGEOUS so they are spending a lot of time outside playing and sunning themselves.

Hoping I can get on here often enough to just update on what is going on at home and with the babies - but there won't be too much news reports on here unless owners of Shannon Down Whippets attend some events :) Once mom is done with her contract we'll be hitting the show ring, coursing field and race track this summer!

We also have 4 new additions to the Shannon Down family - 4 New Zealand rabbits. We will be switching to raw sometime this year so I will be breeding our own meat rabbits. It will be September before any rabbit babies are born. In addition to meat for our dogs I will also be tanning rabbit pelts and dehydrating rabbit ears to sell and for our own dogs at home - I can't imagine a Whippet that wouldn't love either of those things.

These are my 4 foundation New Zealands. These guys will hopefully live long, healthy, productive lives. The does are 3 sister that were born Feb 12 so they are almost 9 weeks old. The buck was born on Feb 5 and is almost 10 weeks old. They are doing wonderfully and growing quickly. They will probably max out between 10-12 pounds as adults. If I had to guess I would say they are probably around at least 6 pounds now.

The buck - Bialy

The does - Jeneva, Zurina and Vanora

Some recent news

Oh - I also much mention some recent news. Ralph (Leigh x Hudson) went to his 2nd and 3rd shows a few weeks ago and on Saturday he picked up his first point and on Sunday he won his first 3 point major!!! He's the first to be pointed from this litter. His sister Widget also earned her JC title last weekend. Caleb (Quincy x Dido) QC'd last weekend and ran in the AKC trial on Saturday (the only day we went) and he placed 2nd in the Open Stake of 21 for his first 3 AKC FC points! His brother Liam placed 4th - he's already pointed towards his AKC FC. Striker (Winnie x Bosley) also went to the AKC trial last weekend on Sunday and placed 3rd in the Open Stake for 2 points towards his AKC FC. Since mom has been home from Arizona (she was out there working) we have gone to a few NOTRA meets down in FL where Byelo has picked up a total of 9 ORC points and 1 NORC point! Tinsley also picked up 4 ORC points by placing 4th in a 51 dog meet down in FL!!! We also leased Raku's sister Kuruma who ran her first Jax, FL NOTRA meet and split the bottom point, ending up with 0.2 ORC points :) Last weekend Striker's sister Layla and Mya ran at an ASFA trial where Layla won the FCh Stake and was BOB on Sunday and Mya placed 4th in the FCh Stake. Claire (Rupert x Anna) went to her first UKC Show last weekend where she was Best Female and went on to Best of Breed and Group 4!!! There's more news to share but that's what I can think of right now - check out the news page on our website for all the news from this year :)

Wow - it's been awhile

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated anything on here. Sorry about that :( To much to update since my last post so we'll catch up on some recent stuff. In the last few weeks some of our dogs have gone to new homes. We had a litter out of Anna x Tigger and all of them have moved to their new homes as of this month, we also had the Winnie x Tigger litter that is about the same age. One of them has gone to live with our friend Dee Evans that also owns Winnie's son from her first litter (Striker) and Imagene from the Fiona x Rupert litter. Demetri is staying here with us and Makenna and Ludovic have arrived to their new homes in Holland as of today! Van (Flynn x Leigh) who had come back to us finally found the perfect home and is living in Georgia and will probably get to do some lure coursing with his new family (he's already AKC FC pointed). Caleb (Dido x Quincy) is also on his way to his new home and will get to meet his new owners tomorrow. He also is pointed towards his AKC FC as of last Saturday at his very first (and so far only) AKC lure coursing trial. They'll continue to do some performance stuff with him. Alexa (Dido x Quincy) we also found a great home for but it will be a little bit before she moves down to TX. So now we just have Benjamin and Embry left from our Winnie x Tigger litter and Benjamin may have a home he'll eventually go too. Everyone is doing wonderful - we currently have 2 new litters, an accidental litter out of Helen x Rupert and they are 4 weeks old and WONDERFUL. 5 babies (4 girls and 1 boy), they moved out into the dining room yesterday and are doing great. Not even scared of the vaccum cleaner - LOL Charlize had her first litter by Brooks which I am very excited about. She had a litter of 8 (6 boys and 2 girl) that are 2 weeks old today. Their eyes are starting to open up and they'll be eating mush in another week, Charlize and Helen have been excellent mothers!

And a little bad news - GiGi broke her leg (humerus bone) a few weeks ago, had to place 3 pins in her leg and we had some rough patches but as of today everything looks good. 2 pins have been removed since they started to back out but the other pin is holding things in place and x-rays showed today that the bone is healing! She's feeling much better, much less pain than in the past 2 weeks so things are looking up. She's being a strong little girl and taking things awfully well considering all she's been through. She won't race or course again but her daugthers Skadoosh and Mumble can take her place on the race track and coursing field in the future when they are ready.

Updates to come, I promise to keep up with the blog this time :)

Tragic news

I must post on the passing of Francois last month. It was a tragic accident and he was so young, his owner Deborah Nieborg of Holland, and the whole Shannon Down family still morn the passing of this youngster who had so much life.

BIF winners!

We have two new Best In Field winners in the past month of so. Mya finished her AKC FC a few weeks back and the following day, her first time running in FCh, she won BOB and went on to win BIF! (Her sister Layla finished her AKC FC that same day) Then the other weekend Cricket won her first BIF up in Canada and is currently the #1 Whippets in CSFA!!!! Way to go girls! Cricket and Blair are pictured after winning BIF!

Monty

Got a new picture of Monty the other day - littermate to our Brooks, Leigh & Scarlet from Sweet Pea's first litter sired by Blaze. He looks so happy! I can't believe they are 7 years old now, time flies.

Nigel news

Nigel won his first AKC Ch. point today by going Winners Dog and Best of Winners under judge Mr. Frank McCartha in Deland, FL! Way to go Nigel and Emily! Good luck in juniors today!

Anna pregnant pic

Here is Anna, taken tonight - at just over 4 weeks pregnant. She's growing by the day, actually more like by the hour. I'm scared....

BIG news

Well, it's time to announce it since we have confirmed the news today. Anna is pregnant by Tigger. Anna was accidentally let outside with Tigger (Tigger was hiding) when she was in season, day 10. He bred her and the tie broke before 2 minutes was even up - well we took her in for an ultrasound today and though she counted THREE times, she counted THIRTEEN puppies each time. So it looks like we are going to have a very large litter mid October. I am working on making a litter page for them now to get the news on the website, but here it is. Anna will be a momma again in October and it looks like she's quite the brood bitch carrying huge litters - her first litter being a litter of 12 (11 surviving).

Krys