FIREFLY UPDATE

Firefly is growing like a weed!
She now weighs 30 lb & will top out about 90 lb.
I am keeping her thin cause that is best for her rapidly growing joints... she has had 2 sets of distemper-parvo vaccinations, two doses of dewormer, and her first oral flea product (Nexguard).

We are keeping her away from sick puppies or dogs that are not current on vaccinations.

She has had some fun socialization experiences including her first draft test last weekend, many walks around Des Moines' East Village, trips to Jett & Monkey's Dog Shoppe and Des Moines Farmers Market.

Of course, she also got to meet the GOBHOBOLIN pictures crowd when she was in Chicago and get to come to All-Pets Hospital almost every day.

Next week, we will tell you more about her best friend, Grandin.

Dr Berge

New Puppy

Hi All!

Just wanted to let you know I have a new BERNESE MT DOG puppy!

Her "call name" is Firefly & here is her story:
I have shown Berners for 30 years, mostly in performance events like drafting & tracking, but have also finished a few conformation champions & bred a few litters.

My girl, Garbo, is five and done with conformation & we started slowly looking for a puppy...... I have many friends in the breed, and found out that SUMMERS kennels in Portland Oregon had two litters on the ground with 6 girls to choose from. In Berners, girls are my favorite, although I do have a soft spot for boy dachshunds.

After much discussion with breeder Anne Summers, I elected to get a pup from the younger litter, as I liked the working ability of her dam & the longevity of her sire. Next question, how to get her from Oregon to Iowa? We could ship her, but only on direct flight and there are VERY few going to Des Moines from the west coast. So, how about Minneapolis? or Chicago???

I then found out that my daughter's film company was launching an advertising campaign for ROLL FOUR, the Summer Campaign, a web series about Dungeons & Dragons. They were launching at C2E2 in Chicago and would be driving in from New Jersey. Next step, find someone to drive with me (my husband hates traveling). I asked my friend, Becky, " do you want to go to Comicon?"....answer no.........."do you want to go with me to get a puppy?".....answer resounding YES.

So, plans were made. Becky & I had never been to a comic convention, but the drive from Des Moines was an easy 6 hours after work on Saturday. Sunday we went to the convention.....we think GOBHOBOLIN had the best booth with ROLL FOUR (free candy! win some weird dice!) but I guess mother's are biased. It was interesting to see all the people dressed up in character & we even recognized a few (the DUDE & Darth Vader). We had an interesting day, then headed to O'Hare airport for puppy pickup. Getting to cargo @ O'Hare was quite a maze, but we got there & and adorable Berner pup soon arrived. She waltzed right out of the kennel and was happy to see us!

That night we had pizza with the GOBHOBOLIN entourage. Puppy got lots of petting outside the restaurant. Then we stayed in a hotel...........I was too tired to bring the crate in & left puppy loose (this is something I would NEVER recommend). Well, pup was great and already on the way to housebreaking, so no accidents. This is a good thing becuase, as you know from the video on All-Pets Hospital website, Dr Berge is very bad at housebreaking.

So, then what to name her? The litter theme was "Release" as in "Catch & Release" done in fishing. I looked at fishing websites & found nothing.............We tried all sorts of names on the drive home to Des Moines. As a veterinarian at All-Pets Hospital, I cant go with Bailey, Katie or Buddy, despite being cute, these are just too common.

So how about a name related to her first weekend in the Midwest? A name from C2E2? Well, I've liked the iconic show "Firefly" for awhile & thought Mal?, River?, wait, how about just Firefly?
It worked..........

Debate about the registered name ensued......Release a Firefly? Firefly's Release? My husband wanted Rufus T Firefly, which as everyone knows, if Groucho Marx' name in Duck Soup.

Finally, we just kept it simple: two kennel names, one is a lake, one the time for fireflies...........so it stayed Summer's Ahquabi Firefly. And boy is she cute.

Housebreaking is going well, but the chewing has begun!!!