It has now been seven months since we lost Belle Starr. And so much has happened since then. One way I coped was to stay away from all business. Not Good... Cassiopeia had her cycle early and so we didn't breed her in January for she didn't have her hips and elbows done. So we had a break from puppies and breeding. In June I bought two young ladies from Midnightsky's Kennel in Oregon, Phoebe and Andromeda who are sisters and half sisters to Cassiopeia. They were almost 16 months old when we picked them up. They have turned out to be such sweet girls. Phoebe lives here with us and I co-own Andromeda with Fred's niece Mary Ellen in Frenchtown. Mary Ellen also has Bones, (Shadow and Belle Starr's son) and eventually I will turn ownership of Phoebe over to her in full. We need to have more responsible lab breeders and Mary Ellen is one of those people. Then we have Bolo Sophia who has captured my heart in full. She is her own, but shares her mom's personality. Love that girl. She gets along so well with her brother Storm Trooper and they have an unique relationship. White Hawk (Hüd) out of Belle Starr's last litter with Colonel Hawker lives in Kalispell with Fred's brother. This is what is called fostering: where we have ownership, breeding and show rights, but he is Bob's pet and will obtain full ownership. So Fred and I are now managing six breeders and we have Therapy Dog Storm Trooper. Storm Trooper keeps the kennel balanced and is a joy. Sophia and Phoebe are good friends and all my girls get along so well. I am blessed. And of course handsome Shadow is looked up to by all. Everyone loves Shadow. Our kennel is complete and our plans are to make the most of it. Cassiopeia is having her cycle as I type this. We will be breeding her to Shadow this coming week. That will give us an all yellow litter the first part of October. ( I seem to have a monopoly on October..Yikes) They will be awesome puppies if all goes well. And then we have a surprise. Andromeda who lives in Frenchtown and Bones who lives in Frenchtown decided to add puppies to the kennel. If Andromeda is pregnant then her black and yellow litter will be born the end of September. We were going to wait until her next cycle to breed, but hormones won over. Bones has all of his clearances and Andromeda has all of hers except for hips and elbows. So we will do those 4 weeks after she weans her puppies. We will know the end of August if she is with puppies or not. This litter will be some awesome labrador puppies. Surprise...Our plans for Phoebe is to do a prelim on her hips and elbows this next month along with the rest of her certifications and DNA. Our calculations is that she will come in season in January just around the time she turns two. So with the prelim we can breed her then. If all goes well they will be some awesome pups as well. As for as Bolo Sophia and White Hawk, we will take them to shows and they will be of breeding age in fall of 2019. They both have great conformation, personalities, and carry great blood lines. So here at Happy Labs Kennel we are moving on at great speed.
