Just back from Vienna and Belgium where we have been delivering puppies to their new owners. This went very well except for the puppy destined for Romania. Unfortunately we had to withdraw this puppy from sale when the buyer failed to meet the contract conditions even after we had travelled over 1,500 miles to deliver him personally - so we now still have a lovely red dog puppy for sale - to a very loving home - who is presently in Germany with friends. All the other puppies, except for Paula who goes to Malta on 18th are now with their new owners and we are seeing lots and lots of pictures of happy puppies settling in to their new homes. Thank you to all our new 'relatives' you are all wonderful and seem to love the puppies as much as we do -thank you.

I am now going to finish updating this log, but will shortly set up a news page and hope to show pictures and news on all the puppies and our other hounds.

21st August

Well it finally hit us both today that this will be the last day that we have all the puppies here together - we have enjoyed having them so very much it will be a massive wrench when the start to go. Bri and Elin spent all day selecting puppies today (with us in close attendance) and surprise surprise we all agreed on the homes for each puppy. The first two Elin with a bitch puppy (Dusty) and a dog puppy (Sirius) for Jo Franks will leave tomorrow (Expect tears all around). Here is a photograph of each puppy and a note as to its planned new home...

	This one of our own two new babies - she will be called Strudel (in recognition of her Austrian heritage) and her registered name will be Cilgwri Star Shine
This is Elin's little girl 'Dusty (Cilgwri Star Light) who moves to her new Sussex home on Sunday.
	Here we have Cilgwri Morning Star a dog puppy that is going to be travelling a long way to Moscow to hopefully become a show star and stud dog.
Introducing Sirius (Cilgwri Sirius) who is going to Jo Franks. Jo will mainly be trialing with her new hound but may make the odd appearance (?) in the show ring here in the UK.
	This our own dog puppy (Cilgwri Brightest Star) who we are calling Hedge - why you ask? well as soon as he managed to get out into the garden he developed a love affair with hedges, he loves hiding in them, eating them and generally destroying them, so we are keeping him to prevent a trail of destruction across Europe!!!
This is Phoebe (Cilgwri Star Burst) who is staying in the UK with a first time Bloodhound owner Phillipa. She says she will just be a pet . But perhaps we can persuade Phillipa's daughter to show - at least at local South coast shows?
	Heading for Denmark this is Cilgwri Bright Star. This lovely little boy will become a loved pet
Stanley - Cilgwri Evening Star - has a lovely home in Austria were his new owners are learning to live with a hound with 'long legs' after owning Bassets for many years.
	This little sweetie is Mary (Cilgwri Star Attraction) she is heading off to Sweden were besides being a pet will take part in cancer detection activities (sounds very interesting so I will try and get more information and post it on the site.
Annie (Cilgwri Star Anise) is heading to Germany to join a really nice family who lost their previous Bloodhound as out mating was taking place. Her owners arrive next weekend to collect her so I had better start practising my German!!!
	And last but by no mans least Paula (Cilgwri Lucky Star) who will be going to Malta to live with our really close friends Michael and Wibke and their boys. Having lost their previous hound Slobber early this year they have been without a hound so can't wait until Paula arrives. Now Paula has been the litter joker since she was born - she is always at the front of any trouble and when we were taking the photographs managed somehow to hide (Obviously she does not like the paparazzi) so all I can put in the picture of her trying on another occasion to escape from my car - Paula is the one at the back going in the wrong direction

Today sees an important day for our puppies. Bri (Stud Dog owner) together with Elin Richard's is coming from Vienna to spend a few days with us and to help us with the final puppy selection. Then on Sunday the first two puppies go.. A bitch with Elin (to be called Dusty) and a dog for Jo Franks (to be called Sirius) . To be closely followed on Monday by a bitch to Phillippa (who is new to Bloodhounds) her bitch will be called Phoebe. Also on Monday we are looking forward to welcoming Natasha from Sweden who will stay for a few days and then take her puppy (to be called Mary and will be used in cancer detection) back home with her. So by this time next week we will just have 7 puppies left. Sad but also happy as it is time for them to start going to their new homes.

The pups continue to give us great amusement. After three days of escaping their dog room and me having being away from home I took over on my return and tied up the gate 'properly'.. All was quiet no puppy breakouts and no howling puppies at 3.00am obviously I know what to do and Eileen doesn't!!!. So down we came to start the day at 5.30 to find all 11 puppies happily asleep in the hall. If you have seen the film Chicken Run you will understand why I feel that they know something we don't!!!!

Help!!!!! it is a mad house - there are puppies everywhere eating us out of house and home, tormenting the big hounds (and especially the sheepdog who they seem to love but he definitely hates them!!!) and exploring everything they can get near. At 5.30 this morning we had a massed break out of puppies who invaded the house on mass. We were woken up to the sound of the massed choir of 17 hounds!!! and then had to fight our way into our own kitchen. As you can see they puppies are very interested in the dishwasher???

Someone asked me how much they are eating - so here goes the daily menu for 11 puppies-

• Breakfast - 1.5kilos of Arden Grange complete puppy food plus 3 tins of pedigree puppy food
• Lunch - either 18 Scrambled eggs or 6 tins of rice pudding plus 2 pints of milk
• Tea - 1.5kilos of Arden Grange complete puppy food plus 3 tins of pedigree puppy food
• Supper - their favourite 3 litres of custard plus 2 pints+ of milk

They have settled into a routine play - eat - poo and pee -and then sleep - then play again.

They are also coming into the house quite regularly (so we have a few - but not many puddles to clean up) but seem to alternate in the day sleeping outside, in the house or in their own dog room.

A really busy 10 days - I actually managed to get out and do some 'real work' two days finance in London and two days finance in Liverpool. Plus put in an appearance at the Hound Show (Chrissie got 2nd place in Working Hound) and we had VIP visitors (Elin Richards and Lily Ickeringill) who came to cast their eyes over the puppies. Their comments were very satisfying - "A great litter" lots of bone, good furnishings, excellent movements and bags and bags of potential. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to the vets for the puppies health check and first vaccinations (see picture of a boot full of puppies - the one trying to escape to the car is Paula (whilst a really super puppy she has white feet - 'gasp horror' -so does not have a career in the show ring ahead of her - as if she would be bothered so she is going to our friends Wibke and Michael in Malta). I am also determined to get out and take some pictures of all the puppies tomorrow (7 weeks) old and will hopefully have time to get them onto the site.

The puppies are now taking over every inch of our home - they started with the whelping room, took over the dog room, the back courtyard and now the back and side gardens, not to count the number of times we realise that we have 5 or 6 puppies in the house.. They no longer manage to sleep in their beds so have taken over the dog room for their own. And this morning we found Paula wandering around the yard with Ellie-May and then at 5.30 all the puppies joined in the dawn chorus with the big hounds.

Had more visitors today - Heather and Mark and their little boy (aged 2). They had come over for the all important 'vetting' visit Having previously visited Tracy and Steve and Scooby-Doo (him from the Cheltenham and Gloucester adverts) to have their first view of a bloodhound. With us its a bit kill or cure in one easy go - 5 hounds, 1 sheep dog and 11 puppies - but the passed with flying colours. And as the photo shows 2 years old do very well with bloodhounds even on first meetings.

The puppies continue to grow like mad - the biggest is now over 14lb in weight and even the smallest over 11lbs. We are letting them run round the courtyard and the garden now most of the day and they are mixing very happily with the big dogs - Ellie-May in particular is in love with them all, she walks around with them following her and then lies down so they can snuggle up and sleep next to her- she will make a great mum when we come to mate her. Today's picture has been taken from some I took to give us a record of each puppy as they are quite large files I have just picked one I particularly liked.

Margaret arrived last night after her 25 hour coach trip from Poland. The puppies however are not sleeping for 25 hours - they seem to alternate being awake so that we are kept on our toes all the time. The meal menu is now -

• 06.30 - Soaked puppy complete food plus some puppy meat (about 1.5 kilos in total)
• 11.30 - either
  • 5 tins of rice pudding plus 2 pints of milk or
  • 18 eggs plus big bit of butter and about 1 pint of milk to make scrambled eggs plus 2 pints of milk
• 16.30- as breakfast
• 21.30 - 3 litres of custard plus 2 pints of milk.This is their favourite never a drop left

Has anyone got a spare cow!!!!!

The girls have decided that today - which is likely to be the last good weather day for a few days - is puppy washing day - so armed with bowls of soapy water and towels they are - as I write this busy washing puppies with an interest Grace in close attendance.

Today the 'cavalry' arrived to rescue us - in the form of Charlotte (the daughter of Robin and Suzie who have a puppy from both Phoebe and Grace) she is staying with us for around three weeks and will be joined tonight by Margaret all the way from Poland (her great Aunt Bogna has Bloodhounds) she is also staying for three weeks to improve her English. So we have a full house but two willing helpers to play with, feed and muck out puppies .....Bliss!!!!!! As you will see from the pictures we have a ramp coming out of the puppy room and we are encouraging the puppies to go outside as much as they like - however they are not yet all very confident with concrete floors or sloping ramps. They gallop out....stop dead...and then get worried about what they are standing on except of a few of the bravest who don't care - but watch this space by the middle of the week I predict they will all be clamouring to go further.

Another few busy days and a couple of firsts for the puppies. They had their first official puppy buyer visit on Tuesday when Phillipa came to have a look at them with her daughter - they spent a few hours (helping muck out!!!) and playing with the puppies. Then today they had more visitors - Tracy and the boys (Tracy has Scooby-Doo from Grace's litter) and Phil and Jane who had a mating with their bitch (Lady Penelope) three weeks ago and wanted some tips on whelping, setting up a whelping bed, selecting buyers etc... They stayed most of the day and again helped with the mucking out - its great having visitors. The puppies also had one other new thing happen to them today - they all got their first collars. Beside helping identify each one a little easier these also train the puppies so they will accept a lead very easily later on. They all looked so smart in thier new colourful collars - that was until the scrambled egg appeared - still we can always keep on washing them!!!!

The last few days have been a little on the cool side so the puppies have been indoors - but today the temperatures soared again and we have been outside most of the day. Everyone is very well and looking forward to a week of visitors (We are also putting a new kitchen in this week and I have my first days work for over a month so it may be a day or so until I next report...!!!)

As you will see from these pictures the puppies are much faster on their feet now and it is taking quite a bit of time - when they are out of their pen - to keep them 'rounded-up'. The mucky marks on them are the remains of their last meal scrambled eggs (their second favourite after custard...

14th July

Menu change today - they have just had their first 'meat' meal - minced beef with some vegetables and gravy (Wow - I could eat it myself. Eileen slightly over catered (so I might well be eating it tonight!!) They are all doing really well - and Grace is also back to form - I had wanted to put a picture of here on the site -but my batteries went flat - so tomorrow will be Grace's day.

Well these pictures were actually taken yesterday but I didn't have time to put them up on the site. It was such a nice day yesterday that the puppies stayed out on the grass until about 21.00. We also had friends over for a meal (yes viting hounds, puppies and a supper party - cooked by Robin!!) and then we all spend a very messy hour feeding them before they went to bed. But in the afternoon we gave them their first real meal - scrambled eggs - and they LOVED it... as you can see from the pictures they all decided to get very 'close' to meal - and in two cases decided to actually go to sleep in their bowls when they had finished eating - they were exhausted....but with very full tummies.

A really BIG day for the puppies ..

• Firstly - two moves - the first into the dog room (next to the whelping room to give them more space) and then because the day was so nice out innto the garden - see the picture from my offive window - I can now work on the computer and watch the puppies (FANTASTIC!!!)

• Second - we have started to wean them onto solid food - a little weetabix and milk, which sets very quickly like concrete - they all had a go, covered us in the stickiest mess possible but they liked it - so the next meal we will strat to introduce them properly with their own bowls (pictures tomorrow)

View from my office window

Puppies and mum are doing well. We have spent the last three days worming them - they hate the taste - and watching them grow very quickly over 5lbs in weight now the biggest ones. This week the big change will be when we start to wean them (Thursday or Friday) At the moment they are staring to make a huge noise (one has even learnt to bay) and making lots and lots (and I mean LOTS) of mess. My plan to put video on the site has been slightly delayed as I need a bit of kit - which seems to have gone missing - but hopefully by the weekend (!) Arrangements are pretty well in place for the travel arrangements for most of the puppies now which will involve us in another trans-European journey with 3 of them. They will be well travelled puppies.

Just back from the 11.30am feed. As you can see from the photographs the piuppies are starting to mount escape bids from their whelping bed - using the protective bars inside the bed (these are designed to help stop Garce lying on a puppy) as ladders to climb the 14" wall into the wider world. well sorry puppies but I have just removed the bars - I know it won't be long before even the wall won't hold them - but we have a 'cunning plan' we have a second 16" wall to stop them, as well as a metal gate - they won't escape just yet.

Busy day yesterday and a nice change of pace - I actually got to dress up smart and go off for a business meeting with a new client for an hour or so to talk about web-site design and management. It seems so long since I last did any 'real' work that it was quite nice. In the meantime Eileen shouldered the feeding by herself - it takes forever when there is only one of you - and even though Grace is now feeding them all quite well it still takes time to do the top up (1.5 litres of milk at each meal!) All the puppies now have their eyes open and whilst it will be a few days yet before they see properly - then we will have fun as they will know which direction to go for food - then heaven help us all!!!

Sorry for the delay in posting news - I can only put it down to exhaustion starting to take effect - 4 hourly and some at 2 hourly feeds plus looking after all the other hounds has taken its toll somewhat and sleep has had priority over the Internet. Still to update you - everything with the puppies and Grace is going fine. The puppies are now looking much more like 'miniature' Bloodhounds with the largest (one of the bitches) hitting 3lbs 8ozs. Grace has now come into milk and is starting to feed them herself. She really is being a good mum she even cleans them up - even though bitches often don't when the puppies have been bottle fed. And Grace is also staring to eat properly - it really has taken her all this time 12 days to get over the effects of the caesarean.

Different pace today - if we thought life was hectic yesterday then today has made up form it. The puppies are all doing really well and have now all passed the 2lb weight mark with two heading rapidly towards 3 lbs in weight (Sorry we are not into Kg here yet - as Eileen can't understand them!!!)

But the different pace has been caused by adding two more bloodhounds to our number. Lilly (Ellie-Mays sister from Grace's first litter) and Lucy (Chrissie sister from Phoebe litter) have come to stay for their holidays for the next 2 weeks whilst their owners are off to Florida. They arrived yesterday and made a noise all night - at least until 3.00am this morning when they finally went to sleep - or at least I thought they had gone to sleep and I eventually closed my eyes for 2 hours sleep before puppy duty started for me again. However in the morning we couldn't find them anywhere - PANIC - I was about to set off and search the area when we heard a tiny noise and found them in the tachroom - one of them knows how to open doors !!! - so much of this morning has been spent tying up every door. But only after Phoebe had also learnt the trick and broken into where we keep the pigs-ears and then Grace learnt how to push back the bolt into her whelping room - our whole house is now tied up with string. Then at lunchtime Duncan and Jean arrived with 2 of their hounds so Duncan and I took all the hounds except for Grace on our lunchtime walk 8 hounds plus Ben the sheep dog - and that is where today's photographs come from....

Yet more really busy days - This morning I took Grace to the vet to have her stitches removed and everything is fine. We have also now heard from the last of the potential puppy owners and have a final list of (all being well) where the puppies will find their new homes. They are going to UK, Moscow, Germany, Sweden, Malta, Romania and Denmark - this will be a very interesting litter to watch over the next year or so... I am desperately trying to find a little time (!!!) over the next few days to video the puppies and (technology allowing) I hope to have some film of the puppies up on this site next week.

Firstly to the friend who complained that I was not posting pictures twice a day on the Internet I would just say that we have to sleep sometimes and its taking a lot of time to look after the puppies. Mum and babies are doing well - we are supplementing the feeding - particularly of the two smallest puppies as Grace does not quite have enough milk - the vet suggests that this is a by-product of the caesarean and that her milk may well improve over the next few days.

Grace and puppies are doing well - and we are even getting some sleep (not much but some!) We have started the happy and sad task of telling those who are going to be successful and/or unsuccessful in having one of the puppies. It's really difficult for us to get an email that is over the moon with pleasure and then have to tell someone that this time they won't get one. Still we have Ellie-May's mating later in the year to look forward to and they will be at the top of that list.

In today's photographs I have included one of a Red Puppy and one of a Black and Tan. If you have never seen a very young bloodhound puppy before you may like to see how they alter. When Reds are first born they have a black nose (which they will largely keep) and a sort of 'tiger stripe' down their backs. This will start to fade each day until it disappears altogether. The Black and Tans start off very black and then unless they are what is called 'Blanket Black and Tans' the black will slowly retreat up their legs and finish up as a saddle. I have also put a picture on of a very contented Grace and puppies.

Grace and the puppies are starting to get over their ordeal now - The puppies have all lost a little bit of weight (not unexpected) and Grace has had some difficulty in eating herself (I think that it's all she has been through) but things are starting to settle into a routine. The puppies are very active and quite strong. A couple of today's puppy pictures below ...

Still dashing around and sorting things out but have found a few moments to update the site. Grace and puppies are all very well this morning. The final count was 11

4 x Red bitch puppies

3 x Black & Tan bitch puppies

3 x Black and Tan dog puppies

1 x Red dog puppy

I will be putting more pictures up when time allows but here is one was taken this morning at 08.45

Quick update - Grace started to have her puppies late last night - we are now (08.30) up to 7. More news when I have a moment.

Final count is 11 puppies - we had to take Grace into the vet after puppy 8 for a caesarean as she was totally exhausted and was having problems. There turned out to be 3 dead puppies blocking the way - but three puppies were delivered in the vets - now the hard works starts - after we have all (including Grace caught up a bit with our rest) ... more soon.

Day 62 - First of all a big thanks to all of Grace's fans who are keeping an eye on her progress on this web site. It has been really nice to get emails from so many people who are keen to see her progress..

Today's news is that we are still waiting - we think that she has entered the first stages of labour - but frankly its rather difficult to tell as she goes through phases of breathing heavily and trying to find a nest and not sleeping and then calms down completely. Eileen took the sleepless night last night (Her and Grace actually slept from about 04.15 t0 06.15) so tonight is Robins turn.

And today's photograph was taken at 09.45 and is Grace trying to get her daughter Ellie-May to give up her prime position on the sofa.

Poor Grace - it was a very unsettled night for her (and me) last night she just could not get comfortable no matter how she tried to lie. We were up at midnight then 2am and 4am and then she finally got up and joined the others around 6.15am. She is still going out for our twice daily run - but in her case it is more of a very sedate stroll around the field, her days of wildly chasing after cars in the lane are - for the present a memory.

Well the first two nights with Grace have gone really well, she just settled down to sleep in her whelping bed and appears very relaxed. Mind you her snoring - that she learnt how to do in Vienna -has returned with a vengeance ...she is VERY noisy...!

She is now finding it hard to eat all her food - I think that the puppies are pressing on her tummy so we have split her food into 4 meals.

• A few treats when she awakes and whilst she is having her walk (which she does at a very slow and rather elegant pace around our field.
• Then its breakfast which we have reduced in size as she seems to find breakfast the most difficult meal to eat.
• At lunch time we have a full meal (200 gms of her regular food plus a large tin of salmon or tuna or a pouch of meat
• At tea time she again has a normal meal
• Then at supper she has a half-meal plus scrambled eggs

All in all she is eating about 1.5 times her normal food intake.

The Dog room - plenty of space for the puppies to play safely once they are three weeks old and the gate at the front of the room allows them to meet the other hounds nose-to-nose whilst remaining nice and safe.

My end of the whelping room - bed, table lamp and the 'supplies' (Scales, surgical gloves, scissors etc.) It's actually very cosy.

Grace's end of the room - the whelping bed has rails along each side so that the puppies can lie without her sitting on them - this is a real issue with giant breeds and one of the reasons we spend the first three weeks with them all the time. On the left are two 'heated' cardboard 'ready-boxes' these are handy to pop a puppy in whilst she is giving birth to another and for holding them safely when she is moving around

Well the weather is not so good this morning and as you can see Grace is getting a little fed up with her 'lump' with 14+ days to go she is very large. We have just finished fitting out the whelping room and will start sleeping with her in it from next Monday. This gets her happy and comfortable in the place where she will give birth. So next Monday will see a gentle start into what will become - after the puppies are born - full 24 hour watch by either Eileen or myself for the following 3 weeks. We are going to try and get plenty of rest (between working) this next two weeks. More news soon...

Grace is enjoying the sunshine out in the garden this lunchtime and already it is quite noticeable that she is getting bigger and bigger. What will she be like when she is due!!!!

Well I have been away all week working and am so surprised how big Grace is getting - when she lies down in the evening she has a really full tummy. She is also getting quite hungry so we have introduced a small supper and lunch (tinned tuna or similar) to add to her normal food intake which has been slightly increased. It's really important at this stage that she gets enough food (particularly as she has scanned for a big litter) without overfeeding her and making her fat. Eileen is the 'nutrition' expert. This week I am here all the time so it will be interesting to see how she grows, I will also try and get round to posting a picture of her on the site...