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| Jaunty & brother Sept.2012 |
One of Gunner's twitterpals @Sjnwoh asked if maybe I could tell a few stories to illustrate how norty Jaunty is. Or maybe why I call him the Norty... or, latterly, the Not-so-Norty.
It's only fair to start with a bit of context.
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| Gunner & Jaunty Oct 12 |
As soon as Gunner started working as a bushbeating dog he was 'marked' by a number of colleagues as a potential mate for their bitches. At 18 months he was too young but when he got to three years old, 4 serious proposals came forward. Since they were all working girls the timing was critical. Their 'dads' obviously didn't want the girls to miss the working end of the year so we were dependent on them coming into 'season' out of 'season'! In his 4th year those two circumstances did not occur! In his 5th year one of the possible mates sadly suffered a heart attack on the very last day of the shooting season. That year also our local shoot - the first we worked on - closed down; one of the bitches' dads worked on this shoot and he decided the future was too uncertain for him to breed another pup. Exit wife number 2. Wife number 3 was the wonderful Meg - Bugler's mother - but that year she failed to 'take' on mating and had a phantom pregnancy.
Omens were not good.
Gunner was already 5. I was keen to have a pup who would understudy, and eventually take over from, him when got to an age where beating wasn't going to be the best option.
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| Gunner and Jaunty Oct 12 |
Clearly this mating business was too uncertain and time was passing..... Gunner and I were not getting any younger!!!
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| Laundry maid Nov 2012 |
Taking the bull by the horns I decided to buy a pup. For the first time ever I looked into breeding 'lines' and pedigrees - and googled what litters were available. It had to be in 2012 - I wasn't prepared to wait another year! There were only 2 possibilities. One was in Cumbria; pups sounded good but a long way off from us. The other was in Norfolk - not far from my mother. Useful. I went to visit; they were just 2 weeks old. I went back 3 more times before finally deciding which of the two black & white brothers (in the first photo) to have. Jaunty just had a little extra something about him!!!! On October 21st 2012 we fetched him home. He was the perfect puppy. As soon as we arrived home I put the blanket he'd travelled in on my lap into his crate... he followed and immediately it was "his place". (Contrast with Bugler who had to be cajoled and persuaded into his - or Gunner even, who never ever settled in his). Jaunty would happily stay in there, eat his dinner in there, sleep in there all night long... he still happily spends a lot of time and takes his 'treasures' or dinner in there.... He wasn't particularly difficult to housetrain - although sometimes he simply 'couldn't be bothered' to do the right thing. I went
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| Ahhhh - so innocent & helpless Nov 2012 |
through a lot of newspaper and he didn't get beyond the kitchen until he was about 9 months old. He learned quickly though and was lovable to have around - everything was worthy of closer examination!!!! He got on well with Gunner and would follow him around everywhere, snuggling down when the opportunity arose. I don't remember him ever being an 'ear' nuisance. He was such a character that I started a file: "Things about Jaunty" -
- He chases leaves
- He tries to catch snowflakes
- He looks for the snowflakes when they fall on the snow
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| "What's going on over there?" | |
- He stopped at the first sniff of new mown grass....
etc etc
I was confident that He would be the perfect Understudy; his pedigree was almost entirely red for all 5 generations; he was energetic, intelligent, lovable and keen. He and Gunner got on really well with each other....
The future looked rosey. They're both good looking dogs and would make a handsome pair .....
My expectations were high......
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| Me and my pal Gunner 11.12 |
When Jaunty was 6 months old, Wife Number 4 came back to visit Gunner.
This time Meg has a faultless pregnancy and delivered 6 bouncing pups. That's timing for you. There was never any doubt that we would have one of the pups. The long awaited son of Gunner,
Bugler was born April 23 2013 (the same day that wife no 5 came to mate with Gunner. Molly delivered 9 pups but since she was not a working girl I never considered having one of them). He came to live with us at the end of June. Jaunty took to him straight away and they soon became a team - known as "the pups" ever since.
A few months later I started referring to them as #TeamGunner.... and making all sorts of plans..............................
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