She is!

Which is the standard phrase by which you announce to your friends that a girl dog of yours has been confirmed pregnant.

Here’s MY beautiful girl, Anara Adornment (Adora):

See? Beautiful, right? Smart, too: she has four obedience titles so far and 1/3 each of two others. And the most wonderful personality, not that I’m biased!

And here’s the gorgeous daddy:

Champion and Canadian Champion and Grand Champion Closeburn Graham McInnes. Quite a guy, isn’t he?

So unless things go wrong — and unfortunately things can indeed go very very wrong, as Adora herself demonstrated last year — BUT, hopefully, this time around she will give me three (or maybe four) beautiful healthy puppies on December 11th. I can tell you, what I want for Christmas this year is three (or four) HEALTHY, THRIVING beautiful little puppies!

So, I’m sure you’re eager to know how a knowledgeable, dedicated breeder (coughs modestly) chooses a male, right? Good, ’cause I’m going to explain (though just briefly).

First, I wanted a gorgeous ruby male with lots of glamor. Even that’s not so easy, there aren’t that many great ruby males out there. Then I wanted a compact build because Adora’s a little on the long side and I don’t want puppies that look like dachshunds! Plus I have to have a boy with great structure and movement — no compromises there. And all his health certificates have to be in order, of course.

So I looked through the most recent CKCSC yearbook and there was Graham. I know his father, who’s nice but a bit long — but Graham is more compact. Interesting pedigree, though a total outcross for my Dora. Plus, a Closeburn dog? Definitely going to have all his i’s dotted and t’s crossed as far as heath checks go.

And so it proved when I contacted his owner. She was very easy to work with, we exchanged copies of health certificates and signed the contract and got all the paperwork done and now . . . nothing to do but wait to see if we get healthy gorgeous puppies. Crossing my fingers!