storm – Lappland Nature Dreams

25.01.2020

Snow, Snow, Snow

Long time we have waited for snow this winter… now we have more than enough of this wonderful white stuff. Already in the beginning of January we had a lot of snow and wind and high „snow mountains“ on our yard. But after this weekend it’s just crazy.

On Friday we had an appointment in Piteå but it was cancelled in the morning because of the snow storm. Good for us so we had time to shovel snow. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures from the yard and our way to the dogs before we took the snow away, but it was some hours of work. Saturday morning I had to go to work, so Raffi stood up one hour earlier just to clean the path to got out of the yard. But it was still snowing and when I came back in the afternoon the whole way to the dogs was closed again. No need to talk about the puppy cage. It is so full of snow that they probably stay inside not only for few more days but weeks 😉

Today Raffi shovelled the roof of our barn. The snow up there was almost as high as Raffi himself, so about 1,80m. And when he finished he had to make a tunnel to the entrance…

Maybe he finds some time to use the clear sky and light today to search for our dog trail???

By the way: our puppies are growing but Simba gave us reason to worry one more time. On Wednesday he suddenly stopped to put his right front leg on the ground and you could immediately see that something is wrong. We let it check from the vet the next day and indeed his leg is broken. Probably Lumene tapped on it when laying down. Simba is too small to do something with the leg but if he is really lucky it will grow without any damages later on. And if not, no matter, then he will be a family dog. Anyway, he is a fighter and he is already using it again and trying to climb out of the puppy bed area.

Uncategorized

12.01.2021

The Lion King

Our puppies are now 13 days old and we thought it’s time to make their names official 🙂 As you may know we choose a topic when we give puppy names, for Luna and Stella it was moon and star, this time it’s „The Lion King“… and no, we don’t take „Scar“ – the bad uncle – or „Shenzi“ – one of the hyenas – because all our dogs are so friendly.

First of all, our future king: Simba. He was the first one born and already at this time the smallest, he is only half as big and heavy as his siblings. We were very scared that he might don’t make it. We tried to give him extra milk but he refused to take it. Anyway, he was always drinking from his mom and even if he is so much smaller than the others he is fighting. Two days ago he managed to be over 500g (he was only a little bit more than 200g when he was born) and we think he really deserves his name. By the way the meaning of Simba is „lion“.

Next are Nala and Mufasa. In the film Nala is Simba’s best friend from their childhood, Mufasa is Simba’s father and learns him to be a good leader. Nala and Mufasa are two of four puppies that have a lot of white fur plus some black in the face and Mufasa also a black dot on his left side. We really don’t know where this color comes from, because neither Lumene nor Ranger have it and also not the grandparents. But Ranger had a litter in Finland before and there was also one puppy – Panda – who was white with black dots. The names mean „present“ (Nala) and „king“ (Mufasa).

Then we have Zazu and Rafiki. Both are advisors from Mufasa. Zazu means „movement“ and Rifiki means „friend“. Zazu was the second black puppy (with some white in the face and around the neck) when he was born but now the colour gets brighter and we think that it probably goes in his father’s direction (Ranger). Rafiki is grey-brown probably looking similar to his mother Lumene when he is older.

Last but not least we have Timon and Pumba, best friends of Simba. Timon means „to honour“, Pumba means „free of worry“ or „clumsy“. Timon looks very special, white with black dots. What it makes special is the symmetry, three dots over his back, one more right in front of his tale and also really funny ears, black with white in the middle. Pumba is the biggest and most days heaviest of the puppies, also white and black, with a bit bigger black part on his right side.

We are so excited to see how they will develop. For sure, they will be really strong and crazy dogs – in a positive way, of course.

But next to all this puppy talk don’t forget the rest of the pack. Today it was Raffi’s most favourite weather, snow and a lot of wind, reminding him on the Femundløpet, a race he took part three years ago. So, he couldn’t even wait until the sun has risen but went out for a run with Barolo, Ruby, Luna, Ranger and Stella. First time stormy conditions for the (bigger) puppies but they didn’t care about it. The opposite was the case, coming home they immediately wanted to do another run – reminds me of their father *haha*