“All you need is love. 

But a little chocolate 

now and then 

doesn't hurt.” 

― Charles M. Schulz

Imagine a record playing, a calm soothing feeling in the air, daydreams of all 

things puppy ... "and they called it puppy loooooove, la la la la la la la..."   and then ...

*SCREEEECCHH!!* 

the needle stops abruptly mid-song. What the... ??!!

The amount of time passed between the last post and this is not because I didn't have anything to write on the puppy front, or because I lost interest in the blog. Thing is, I didn't know how to write about the changes in my search given how I'd launched the blog. I even thought of starting again... but then I realised this is surely all part of it, and part of the reason why I wanted to start the blog before puppy was home, and even before puppy was born! Cryptic, eh? Well...

!!REWIND!!

Two posts ago, at the beginning of this blog, I all but confirmed that the parents of my soon to be puppy were the lovely dogs plastered at the top of my very first page, Rosie and William. For some reason, I couldn't seem to just relax and wait for the Sittingbourne pups to be born. Something was pushing me not to put all my eggs in one basket. Maybe it was because there was a possibility that all of the pups in that litter might be a variation of black and white, not altogether tragic, of course, but those are the last pick of colours for both S. and I. It's very difficult to predict what the final colours will be, and like I said, it isn't my main concern, but ... the not knowing ... 

So I continued the search, slightly half-heartedly, and came upon an ad I simply could not resist.

Enter simply lovely chocolate and white show Cocker Spaniel named Ruby who is currently expecting a litter sired by Teddy, a very handsome chocolate miniature poodle. Do you see what I see? The common word among the parents? C H O C O L A T E. That's right. Now apart from the fact that S. and I both love chocolate (I never trust people who say they can't stand the stuff), it's also true that we both equally like the colour in any variation on a pup -- and it was probably the first pick for us both.

And now, this morning in fact, I've had an amazing loooong conversation with the lovely woman in Suffolk who has bred Ruby and Teddy. And by lovely I mean: LOVELY, knowledgeable, conscientious, thorough, informative, experienced, helpful, and pretty much every thing I'd put down as my 'ideal breeder'. She made all the right noises and more, and I'm more than fairly confident that she's the right breeder for us. I am going to remain on the other list just in case, (I'm still working from the same puppy basket theory), but I think even if we aren't successful with this chocolate litter  -- meaning all the pups are taken by people ahead of us on the waiting list -- I think I might like to wait for the next litter of cockapoos by this new breeder.

And without further ado, here is stunning Ruby 
with her last litter also by Teddy:

9 girls and 1 boy! ALL CHOCOLATE!