November 7 2008: Trick or Treat, and Immaculate Conceptions
It's been a busy week. We've been out hunting for a home and have spent countless hours every day scouring the internet. As we go to see different farms, we are full of hope, anticipation and optimism. By the time we have finished a whirl around various places, despondency and gloom clearly outweigh all other emotions combined! The current financial crisis over here in the UK is not helping...and that might be the understatement of the week. We are beginning to wonder if we will ever find a home. Perhaps we are doomed to continue our nomadic lifestyle. We hope not!

On the bright side, last week was halloween. We went to the store and got some treats. Amazingly we even managed to not eat all of the treats before halloween night but no one came knocking at our door!!! Perhaps it was because we turned the lights off to conserve electricity. We did, however, get a phone call from 5 year old Iestyn, one of Mike and Nora's grandchildren. He very helpfully told us one of our dogs was out. Now we had Kenny staying with us and immediately we wondered if we had shut his kennel door properly...or was it a pup? The little devils worked out how to open the door to their play area in the shed and all 5 were found running around the house (thank you Ace for letting us know the devils were lose in the yard). As we raced outside to put the dog back in its rightful kennel we were greeted by this:

We were well and truly tricked - much to the delight of Iestyn and sister, Fflur.

Iestyn and Fflur had also come over to say goodbye to Roy before he left to go to Denmark. Roy totally adored Fflur and it was mutual admiration. Big lump in our throats when we too had to say goodbye to Roy. We sure miss this lovely boy. (We heard today that he is totally loving his new home, he loves living inside and he is being a good boy - just as we told him to be).

Roy wasn't so sure about Fflur not wanting to share her pumpkin with him. He thought it looked like a heck of a good ball to play with.

...and here is Roy with Helga in his new home.

Speaking of balls, Jasper found his own 'ball' to play with today.

And when he tossed it in the air, he thought all his Christmas's had come at once.

He even left a little bit for Bailey. Perhaps he was hoping that if he shared this egg with her, she would be his friend. Faint hope!

Pups Kevin and Gwyn went off to Denmark as well last week. They are now enjoying their new homes and have settled in quite quickly. It sure is nice to know that Roy, Gwyn and Kevin arrived safely and are well-loved and cared for by their new owners. We look forward to receiving updates and posting news of them to our website. We hope Roy does well on the trial fields of Europe with his new owner in the coming year. It is hard selling dogs we love!

Brynberllan News:
Mike and Chip completely slaughtered Ace and Angie on the trial field last week with Chip clinching his first nursery win! Ace still leads the head-to-head challenge 3-2 but Chip is ahead on points. The challenge continues tomorrow...looks like we are in for wet conditions.

Mike had another 'distinction' this week, dubious as it may be. He was out feeding his dogs one night and afterwards he came in and told Nora that his bitch, Floss, was having a phantom pregnancy. A hour or so later, Nora was out feeding her dogs and noticed Floss had had a pup. Phantom?!! Yeah, really. Who, you ask, is the father? Good question!

That's it folks.