Viola's first veterinary check-up

Today Viola had her first pre-natal check-up at our wonderful vet Blue Ridge Animal Clinic in Lexington, VA. She's perfectly healthy, appears to be having a normal heat, and is very early in it (as we suspected) and not ready to breed yet.

Viola with her nephew Aidan aka Leo

We had her progesterone levels tested, and that has to be sent off to a lab, so we should find out tomorrow or Monday where she is in her season approximately. That will give us a good idea when she will be ready to breed, and it will let us know that she is having normal hormone levels.

We also had her rabies vaccination done. Often vets recommend against giving vaccinations if a female dog is in season, because there is a potential for the virus to be passed to the eggs. Rabies is a killed virus though, so there is no risk to the babies at all. We definitely double checked that to be sure! I am so fanatical about keeping our girls' pregnancies safe that I won't give them carsickness pills because they are a slight risk to the developing fetuses.

So now it's all about waiting until she is ready to breed, keeping her nutrition healthy, and keeping her happy while she is away from home. She said the spring in Virginia SUCKS compared to South Carolina.....

A photo of Viola pre-pregnancy

This is Viola at 14 months old. She has gotten some nice compliments from show breeders and we are hoping to show her more this year now that she has matured more. Since our girls grow up and mature slowly we usually have to wait until they are 2-3 years to show them successfully.

First post -- Finally a litter in the near future!!

Viola with her niece Sephie

Today Viola FINALLY came into season for the first time. This is unusual because she is 2.5 years old ... most whippet girls come into season between 7 and 12 months for the first time. We started calling her the Virgin Queen in jest but it started to be alarmingly possible as she went longer and longer without any prospect of puppies in the future. Her sister, Chippy, came into season a few days ago, and as nature tends to do, that seemed to "bring in" Viola's season.

Daddy-to-be Blue

We'll be breeding Viola to Blue, who is Rini's father and the father of several of our Timbreblue litters. We have really loved what Blue has brought to our breeding program, but at nearly 10 years old this will probably be one of his last litters for us. We had hoped to get Viola to see Ellery in Canada, but the timing just didn't work out. Ellery will be in Lexington, KY for the whippet national dog show the week BEFORE Viola is ready, and the week that is "perfect" for breeding he will be back en route to Canada. We're hoping to breed Viola to Ellery for a future litter, or possibly take Rini up there this winter.

In the meantime we are SO excited about the potential puppies from Viola and Blue. Viola is white and blue brindle, which means that crossed with a solid blue dog she will genetically have a GREAT chance of having a mostly blue, blue and white, or blue brindle litter. We could also have puppies who are black, white, fawn, or fawn brindle. If you're interested in being on the waiting list, please contact me at johannah@timbreblue.com

Now I'm going to celebrate!!