Blog
Welcome to our Amalek English Toy Terrier Website Blog.
27 February, 2010. I must admit to reading with great pleasure a report that the RSPCA’s “unreasonable ”attempt to claim all of a rightful inheritance of a lady of her parent’s farm failed in the Courts. That it is ordered to foot the bulk of a £1m legal costs bill would give no satisfaction if it was paid out of their funds at the cost of their animal welfare work. We must all agreed that this organisation does the bulk of the essential work in that field (the reason this charity was formed) but also balanced against that are their other activities such as the part they played in the one sided “Pedigree Dogs Exposed” programme; their actions that brought about the ill famed Hunting Ban; and, nearer to our own breed interest, the tactics used to bring a successful prosecution against an ETT breeder a few years back which lead to the lady’s 15 year ban on keeping dogs. Contrast the Court’s sentence in that Case, for an infraction which did not adversely affect her dogs, which was deliberately blown up out of all proportion by the vindictive RSPCA Inspector involved and with the sentence passed recently on the police dog handler for neglecting his two GSD’s who died in an unventilated car left unattended for 7 hours, and to whom no ban on dog owning was given. 20 February 2010. We were at all systems go for a 'crack of dawn' start to the day, expecting to be early in the ring at the Ilfracombe show in Exeter, but awoke to find about 4" of snow already laying, big flakes still falling and the sky full of it. After much 'humming and hawing' decided to play it safe and not risk getting stuck halfway up our hilly narrow road and had a decent breakfast instead. Need I say that a couple of hours later the sun came out, the lot melted away, and later I was able to walk dogs up that very same hill? Sod's Law of course. Pity to have missed the show as Frank Kane was judging and his opinion is always worth having. Always a good lunch available in the market caff too (beg your pardon 'Livestock Centre'), which costeth not a lot and saves Mary cooking evening dinner (or cheese on toast if I'm doing it!).
18 February 2010. We are always pleased to see any of our old puppies and today Juliet Glover popped in with her "Diva" (Amalek Magical Moments) a cracking little bitch in lovely condition who is so obviously loved and well looked after.
14 Febuary 2010. One good piece of news, as far as the birds are concerned anyway, is that some of the tits whom I suspected succumbed to the perils of the icy spell have now returned, so it was "Welcome Home!" and away to the pet shop to stock up on peanuts and fatballs to celebrate. The puppies have mostly gone away to their new homes so a bit of peace has now descended on the household, and nipped ankles and chewed slippers are just painful memories .... ah, but we love them don't we? Actually there is just one left that was due to go out to Australia at a later date but whose trip has now been cancelled .... a lovely little chap who is now seeking a nice pet home here in the U.K.
31 January 2010. The respite from the cold weather was short lived - once again the cold and some snow showers have made an unwelcome return but at least we are not being snowed in this time. One of the penalties of living down a narrow country lane is that it the Council does not considered worthy of sending a grit/salt lorry down what it considers is a non-essential road. It may not be "essential" from their pont of view - but it dam well is from ours! NB: we have to pay the same amount in Council Tax; that goes without saying of course.
20 January 2010. The snow and iced up roads are now a thing of the past and a couple of days of milder dry weather has given opportunities for exercising outdoors for the ETTs and roadwalking up the hill, which is good for their muscles - but I can't really say the same for mine! Tempus fugit, a few years ago I used to run up with them! The batch of puppies continue to do well and are now weaned off Mum and getting ready to go to new homes. 'Angel' really has been a brilliant Mum; she loves her kids and has really done so well raising them and giving them all she's got to produce fat puppies with gleaming coats. Meanwhile,the stories of puppy farmers mass producing puppies in appalling conditions continue to be reported on. Of course it was not that long ago, just 3 or 4 years or so, that our crackpot politicians were encouraging and supporting farmers in Wales to diversify into dog breeding to supplement their falling incomes. When the 'pedigree' puppies from these people, sickly and ill bred, inevitably need veterinary attention it reflects onto all the conscientious breeders who do their best to produce healthy sound companion dogs and who get lumped into the mantra of the anti-pedigree dog brigade that "pedigree dogs have dozens of genetic faults, so buy a cross-bred (mongrel). Oh yeah?
12 January 2010. A slow thaw has cleared the ice sufficiently for us to get up the hill in the car to the main road which is always kept well salted, for a foray into town to replenish food stocks; and not forgetting seed, nuts and fat balls for our family of wild birds who depend on us to tide them over this lean period. Unfortunately the tits seem to have been badly hit by the weather and haven't been in evidence for the last couple of days. We used to have a strong community of them and the peanuts used to be eaten almost as quickly as the holders were replenished. The numbers were quite a bit down last year and these arctic conditions seems to have really hit them for six. We have quite a strong showing of blackbirds though, at one time they were never in evidence, and they spend their time stomping around the ground food trying to keep off smaller contenders for the goodies. Our woodpecker sadly killed himself by diving headlong into a window pane, RIP woody.
7th January 2010. With a 6” (15.24 cms.) layer of snow with ice underneath that, even our intrepid ETT’s refuse to venture very far to relieve themselves or spend very long doing it - and who can blame them? – so the stock of old newspapers put down on the floor to absorb the inevitable ’accidents’ is rapidly depleting. Actually it’s about the only time I get round to reading newspapers and from what I see in the ‘red- tops’, putting them down for the dogs to poo on is their most appropriate use.
4th January 2010. Well, it didn’t take long to have a piece of good show news to come in: Judi Cross’s ‘Amalek Making Magic’ – one of Merlin’s daughters and owned jointly with ourselves - took a hotly contested Group One at the Weston-Super-Mare C.S. two day show under judge Jill Peak; so that certainly warms up a very cold-weather start to the year. We certainly have not had such a long frozen spell as this since we have been at our present address here in Devon, and that’s going back over 25 years. With more cold and snow expected it looks as if the electricity and gas suppliers are going to be the beneficiaries of it with the rest of us digging deep to meet the increased heating bills trying to keep warm. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good – but I wish some of it would blow our way for a change!
1st January 2010. After a short Christmas break in Sussex with our son, daughter in law and 2 grandchildren, with the ETT family left in the capable hands of our house and dog sitter, Penny Rose, it’s back to the grindstone in time to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! However, it’s not just another year gone by but also another decade … how quickly they seem to go too! Looking back over the last ten years of our Amalek ETT’s we feel that we have made some justifiable changes and improvements to our breeding stock during that time. Our import of the Toy Manchester, ‘A Sorcerer’s Tale of Maggical Paws’ (Merlin) from the ‘Maggical ‘ kennel of Charles and Debbie Williams in Texas has certainly brought down the size in his progeny and also welcome improvement to the quality and density of coats. We have some promising young stock ready for the show rings during 2010, some in joint ownership with others; and our youngster ‘Amalek Mad About The Boy’, at 9 months old, had a good start by winning the Dog CC at the Ladies Kennel Association show last December.