We're adding a new baby...

In September or so we decided it was time for a new little bundle of energy to join our family and so we began searching for a breeder. In November one of the breeders let me know that she had a litter of ten happy, healthy Ridgebacks and so I stopped on my way through Perth back to the US to see them and to meet with her. She was extremely kind, even picking me up from the airport so I didn't have to hire a car for the few hours I was there, and her dogs were beautiful.

The mom, Cassie, is a lover and a leaner. She took to me straight away and I've spent quite a bit of time giving her butt scratches, which all Ridgies seem to adore. If the puppies are anything like her temperament we're going to be very pleased!

I was able to spend a few hours between flights with the puppies and Kate, the breeder, and pretty much I simply cuddled a puppy and chatted away with Kate. She also had three other dogs at the house and all three were gorgeous, personable and happy. I also got to meet one of Kate's friends who has one of Kate's puppies from a different litter/line. Meeting her and listening to them talk about serious showing and breeding stuff was quite interesting. I got a very good vibe from the entire visit. I decided that we would take a pup from this litter.

At only six days old, they don't do much! But when they do finally wake up and go searching for food, it's fabulously cute to watch - their little eyes are still closed and they have no sense of propriety...they simply squirm under, over, around and through whatever obstacle in in their way!

I didn't choose a puppy from that initial visit as it was impossible to tell what each personality was at that age so we arranged for me to visit again when I flew back to Perth from the US in December. Oh what a difference a few weeks makes! The puppies were wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, as they say!

We took the six little girls out of the puppy confinement area (they have since learned to do this for themselves!) and let them wander about, play, sniff and generally explore. I spent about two hours with them so I got quite a good feel for the inidivdual traits of each puppy. All were loving, inquisitive, playful and happy...no negative personality traits to help narrow down our selection! I tried to take photos of each pup individually, though I now see that I didn't do that great of a job of getting good ID photos lol


One little girl kept returning to me over and over, so I kept my eye on her a little more closely than some of the others. She seemed to be all of those things we wanted in a pup: curious, playful, clever, cuddly, bouncy and not overly destructive. She's become our top choice, followed closely by two others whose mode of transport isn't simply walking or scampering - they bounce. Like Tigger from Pooh! It is too adorable! These are two of our top three picks - the first photo is the "first" choice from this visit.


This is our first choice playing with her bigger, almost identical sister...the darker puppy behind is also in our top three. It's hard to rank these cuties because each one of them had such a lovely personality and each one is so adorable in her own way - we will be very happy to have any of these girls!

I haven't been around puppies this young before for any significant length of time so these two hours were wonderful. I got to see them go from sleep, to play, to sleep again - they were so cute. They seemed to be on pretty much the same time table for getting tired after a romp. No matter where they were in the two rooms they had access to, they'd all scamper back to the blanket in front of where Kate and I were sitting and form a puppy pile for a nap! They'd snooze for five or ten minutes and then off they'd go again! I think they did this at least three times while I was there.


We are due to make our final choice on the 27th while we are in Perth to spend the holidays with the family. We'll pick her up to take with us back to Exmouth on the 29th. We are super excited and in the process of puppy-proofing the house!