Bluestem Kennels

Puppy shoppers please note that I am not yet ready to start taking reservations for 2016.  I need to catch my breath a bit!

It was great meeting all of the new owners last weekend.  It was a very busy one with 16 pups going home between Friday and Sunday, with the very last one yesterday evening.  Last weekend was not only puppy homegoing weekend, but was also supposed to be my graduation weekend for my master’s degree.  We just couldn’t make it work between the puppies and the Heartland NAVHDA Chapter Spring Test.  We didn’t run any dogs, but Charles and Conrad cooked breakfast and lunch.  But I’ll write more about that later.

Taking 18 puppies to the vet all at once was quite a challenge for me and the staff at Heartland Animal Hospital.  We’ve got a system down to keep all of the puppies straight. (You’ll have to excuse the grubby Pet Porter, I couldn’t get my other wire crate to fit in my van and I was in a hurry)

My copies of the puppy photos and owners

The vet tech’s copy of the puppy photos and owners, with the mountain of microchip injectors.

Dr. Andrew Kliewer DVM and Crystal the vet tech.

Omaha Public Schools Zoo Academy students from Omaha South High School assisted with the pups.

I have to send out a big thanks to the Kliewers (both Andrew and his wife, Susan, are vets) and the staff for helping us with all of these pups!  The vet techs are amazing!  An extra big thanks to Tracy, who I didn’t get a picture of, but she is always helping me organize all of the records and paperwork.

I had one unplanned air shipment of a pup up to North Dakota, but other than that, everyone else came to the house.  Here’s the departure of the flying pup at the Delta Air Cargo office.  Some people worry about flying pups, but I’ve done it about 20 times now and have never had a problem.

Ivan on his way to Minot via Minneapolis.

Ivan arrived in Minot safe and sound for the Christoffersons

Pickups started right after work on Friday the 8th.  Luckily the rain stopped for us for the weekend, because it has been raining for about 2 weeks straight prior to that and has rained every day since that weekend.  Feels like we’re living in a rainforest or something!  You’ll notice how green it is.  It is illegal to complain about too much rain in Nebraska, so I will just tough out the mud knowing that there are hot, dry summer days to come.

Here are the homegoing photos from Friday the 8th:

Shane took Jasmine home to Plainfield, Iowa

Todd took Iris home to Brookings, South Dakota

Lorraine took Joslyn home to Oskaloosa, Iowa

Jim will keep Ichabod here in Omaha

And the pickups from Saturday the 9th:

Charles took Jericho home to Minot, North Dakota

Lewis took Jackie home to Black Hawk, Colorado

Megan picked up Irene for a temporary stay in Lincoln, Nebraska, but soon on to Jamestown, Colorado

Patty and Mort took Jane back to Elbert, Colorado

Mort had an interesting story about purchasing his first Wirehaired Pointing Griffon from Harrison Reimers of Kalispell, Montana in 1978.  Mort’s puppy was the only one who lived out of the whole litter, the rest died from parvo.  High mortality in litters was not uncommon in the past.  It is really a miracle with how busy I was this semester that I ended up with 18 perfectly healthy puppies.  But I am a stickler for sanitation and health care.  The last 2-3 weeks, I was probably spending 2-3 hours a day in the kennels keeping them clean (puppies poop A LOT!).  Yet I digress.  More homegoing photos:

Scott took Janus home to Johnson, Nebraska

Andrea and family took Jackson home to Lincoln, Nebraska

Jeremy and family are keeping Jade here in Omaha

James took Isabel back to Sioux City, Iowa. He and his wife also have a 3 week old human baby!

Pickups on Sunday the 10th:

Andy took Igor home to Byron, Minnesota

Trevor took Jenna home to Aurora, Missouri

Shaun and family are keeping Jamaica in Omaha

Yesterday was my last homegoing:

Greg took Jessica home to Bismarck, North Dakota

Iroquois is now Bluestem’s Otoe Chief “Chief” and will hopefully turn into our next stud dog! (sorry for the bad phone pic)

I have pupdates and pics from the NAVHDA test, but I really need to get on with the day! Oh, new puppy owners, I will get all of the NAVHDA and AKC registration papers in the mail to you on Monday, so keep an eye on your mailboxes for that (I will also send an e-mail when they go).  Thanks to everyone for providing great homes for these little ones!