Bell Flower Flora Donja

*Floortje*

Born: 25-02-1997

Breeder:  Swannie Kuipers (died in 2001)

After the death of Swannie I got her so called ‘fokkersgroupe’. They were Floortje, her daughters Ieke and Maaren and her son Themba with his daughter Amber. Five in all and all difficult to approach. Themba was all right, but the four bitches were non socialialized, let alone brought up. Swannie had had no time for that in the last years of her life. For me this was slightly too much so I placed Themba with the owner of his Sire, Amber went to a breeder who had just started and Ieke and Maaren [later Voske] went to two of my friends. I kept the ‘worst case’: Floortje. I hoped that together we could maintain the Bell Flower breedline.

So Floor has already had 2 litters and they were absolutely marvelous! I had hoped to get something nice of Floor, but unfortunately my choice in Stud was not succesful. Those puppies were all nice pets, but not of breeding standard. So I set my hopes on those two daughters. In the end I had to wait 3 generations! Forrest isn’t only my Major’s son, but also Floortje’s great grandson. And so via a detour, Bell flower and Gwensigor’s merged and, fair is fair, the result is wonderful !! 

After Floor’s 4th and last litter I had her spayed and since then she has stayed here in my  little pack. Slowly but surely I have succeeded in making her feel a bit more at ease, she has become toilet-trained [except at night] , I started to take her for walks, have taught her to walk on and without a leash. She has learnt to stay with me, but I must always be allert because Floor is frightend of everything. By the very least noise or movement she flees. Fortunately she had realized that she is safe with me and when  I lose Floor somewhere on the way I don’t have to look far: she is always walking on my heels.

Floor is a very gentle, sweet little bitch She was a great mother for het puppies [whom I wasn’t allowed to touch during the first days.] and did everything in silence, also the delivery. Actually, Floor is a very timid little girl but even so she can bark enormously when she thinks this to be necessary.

In the meantime madame is going towards her 13^th year and she now is quite deaf. She hears me when I clap my hands though, but she can’t hear my voice. Her sight is also fading and I suspect she is becoming a bit dement, because she can suddenly lose control and then she doesn’t recognize me or the other dogs anymore. With a lot of gestures I manage to bring her back into this world.

Floor has one enormous minor detail: she eats dog pooh as if her life depends on it! A habbit which is impossible to break. The only thing I can do is clear away the pooh from the garden as quickly as possible otherwise Floor will beat me. And as for not being toilet trained, let’s face it,  it can be annoying. She can’t sleep in her bench any more so she may spend the night in the livingroom. This does mean, however, that first thing in the morning I have to clean away all the pooh and urine. Oh well, one gets used to everything.

Floortje has never been in a showring. She wouldn’t be able to anyway, she’s too frightend for that. That is a pity though because honestly, Floor is a beautiful bitch. She is beautifully built, has a magnificant chest  and  walks first class. As far as movement goes she is definitely a half sister of my Didjiridu! Those two can, however, not stand one another, that’s why I was confronted with a choice: to rehome Floor or Didji. Well, it is impossible to rehome Floortje, so the choice was very sad but simple.

Floor still is very healthy, has no problems, except for very bad teeth. When I got her they were already bad and as time went by I had to have the bad teeth and molars extracted. But she eats well, is never sick and still very lively!! Really an old toughy.