Bett's sister Maise

Maisie is Bett's sister and lives with John and Joy Gritten in Fife, Scotland, close to St Andrews, on the edge of a forest. The photo is of Maisie and her friend Hanne shown on top of the hill next to John and Joy's house, overlooking Dundee across the River Tay.

Pool time

Jack has been imortalised by the artist who painted Jack on the far wall of the Echo Valley Ranch games room. As our guests will attest, Jack has a very keen interest in watching the game of eight ball and snooker. To get Jack's attention you have to sink the balls however ot else he will abandon you in short order, play well and he watches all night!
The puppies on the pool table are the two females that we have promised to good friends of ours, the Nystrom family. The Nystrom's have already given a name to the pup with the spot on its head, they have called her Bella - was that your idea Anika, it is a good name and now when we look at Bella we see the bell on her head :).

Feeding time - again :)

Bett continues to be a wonderful pup mum and feeds six hungry puppies that grow at what seems to be an alarming rate. We have been very surprised to find that even at 23 days old the pups climb out of their wooly basket to do their business on the news paper put down for them on the floor inside their pen.

In the pen

Before their three week old birthday the pups are on their feet and moving around. The temperature is in the -10C range outside so we have set up a pen indoors that will confine the pups and their you know what to a manageable space. Just as well we do not have guests with us at Echo Valley Ranch right now :).
Bett is an amazing mum and very nimble; she can jump in and out of the pen without landing on the pups - the pups can not do that yet though so we opened the side for this picture. As you can see, one of the pups made a run for it :).

Two week old birthday

Oh how time flies - two weeks old allready :).
Notice how much they have grown since their last birthday, you can tell by seeing how big they are compared with Nan's hands.
The pups all have their eyes open now and becoming quite active - they will probably be in their new play pen by next birthday :)

Taking a break from the pups

Lots of snow at Echo Valley Ranch today and Bett loves it!

Feeding time - again :)

Can you count the pups? I bet Bett knows how many their are without even looking :)

Barney & Koda greeting

Barney is a bordere collie and what looks like a cougar hound mix. We took Barney in to rescue it from a neglectful previous "owner" who no longer wanted him. As you can see, this cougar hound gets on just fine with Koda - we will keep an eye on their ongoing relationship though :)

Jack and Koda

We have changed the name of our kitten back from "Chance" to his original name "Koda". Koda is no longer taking a "chance" with the border collies, as you can see Jack accepts him and in this photo is looking at a tinfoil ball that Koda is poking under his nose. It is fascinating being this close to animals, they all have their very own personalities and spirit within.

Dog condo

This is a photo of one of the border collie winter residences; there is another one just like it just down the walkway to the lodge. If you are wondering where the residents are right now, they are off having fun in the snow :)

January 19th - 12 days later

Do you remember the size of the pups when Nan first held one in her hand? Even then, after just a couple of days, it was evident that they had grown quite quickly but look at the size of them now!
While in Vancouver I went to the pet shop and bought some powdered milk to be used when Bett has had enough of her pups pulling and now scratching her as they feed. I came out of the shop with one small bag that cost $118 - from there I went to the supermarket to buy vegetables to take back to Echo Valley Ranch. For exactly half, $59, I filled multiple bags with potatoes, brocolli, swedes, onions, cabbages, beetroots, bok choi, carrots and lettuce.
Hmmm, me thinks that pet shops are taking advantage of pet lovers!

Away 'til Friday

Bett's Blogger is way from EVR until Friday - stay tuned :)

...the other side of the fence

Just in case you were left wondering, yes, Bett does cross the fence when called to action.
Bett can be seen "eyeing" about tweny horses directly behind the spot this photo was taken from.
Oh well, all in a days work before heading back to her pups.

Bett's other job

While the pup's are enjoying their 1 week old birthday party, Bett is tending to one of her other jobs. Bett was trained to work with sheep in her homeland, Wales, and applies what she knows to work with guests, horses and cows here at Echo Valley Ranch.
To see her run nobody would ever be able to guess that she has six border collie pups back at the Dove lodge!

It's birthday time

Bett's puppies had their 1 week old birthday today and by the looks of it some of them are party poopers :0).

All is OK

It looks like Jack has been accepted back into the family by Bett. No snarling at Jack or any other warnings what so ever. That is good news - perhaps Jack will do some puppy sitting duties when Bett is away? OK - we know, no chance of that in the dog kingdom :)
But then again - Jack and Bett are very special border collies - and Echo Valley Ranch & Spa is a magical place - so, who knows? -- to be continued :)

Bett is back from exercise

Caught in the act - Bett is back early from her morning exercise and looking through the window at Jack with their pups -- we will let her in and watch what she does.

Jack visits pups - Day 6

While Bett is out having her morning exercise, Jack pays a vist to his pups. Not sure what Bett would think about that ....but we shall see

Day 6 - Getting bigger

It is quite incredible how quickly the puppies are growing and how strong they are becoming. We had a vistor yesterday who told us he was very surprised at how mobile they were already and wanted to have one of the males. We told him, sorry, but other than two of the females that we promised to a good friend, the remainder are destined to be residents of Echo Valley Ranch & Spa.

Day 5 - Heading back to pups

OK, who can find Bett in this picture? - she is heading back to her pups.

Day 5 - Bett's first day out

This is the first day that Bett is outside and away from her pups. You would need to be here or see a video of how healthy Bett is - you would never guess that she is nursing a family of six pups the way she bounds arround the ranch!

Day 5 - Bett accommodation upgrade

Bett has now been moved from the electrical room to the games room. A very fine accommodation upgrade :). As you can see, Bett is now spending some of her time disconnected from the hungry mouths of her pups.
Nan is a super assistant for Bett and among other things has done a fine job of keeping the electrical room clean - if you know what I mean :0).

Day 4 - Jack first visit with Bett

We decided to let Jack see his new off spring and found that it may have been a tad premature. Bett made it quite obvious that Dad was not welcome and seconds before taking this picture Bett snapped at Jack. The pups were never in any danger since Dad Jack would never hurt them or anything else coming to that.
Notice how Nan is holding Jack by the scruff of the neck :) - not to safe the pups, but to keep Jack out of the range of Bett's snapping jaws :)

A basket full of pups

In case you have not guessed already :)

The purpose of "Bett's pups" blog is to provide a way of letting all of the past guests of Echo Valley Ranch & Spa, and any-one else who may be interested, to see the progress of Bett's family from the time they were born through to becoming mature Border Collie's.
For those of you who do not know already, Border Collie Bett is the mail order bride of famous Border Collie Jack.
Bett emigrated from Wales, UK, to Echo Valley Ranch & Spa last summer; our thanks go out to the good work done by Jan Powell and her brother Lawrence who took care of all the details that have to be complied with for such a move.
By the way, all of the staff and guests of Echo Valley Ranch and Spa love Border Collies, perhaps that is why we now have eleven of them - 7 adults and six pups!!

The father of Bett's pups

Bett 7 days before having pups

Day 3 - info for border collie specialist :)

Day 3 - three days after giving birth to six puppies, Bett finally has a good poop! :)

Day 3 - Content after finishing morning meal