the H - litter uit 't Berggat
is born on 12 november 2008

After all the efforts we did to restart our breeding after a daughter of Ursus it is clear that I was carefully searching around to find the right male for her. 
Elixir is harmonious and qua exterior and qua character.  The only thing I had hoped that Ursus would do better is give his typical stamp on her head. 
Sofar I had excellent pigment in all the descendants of Quanda and was so used to see the high deepblack masks together with black lips and gums in the majority of  Ursus' offspring.
But obviously this did not work out that well for the combination with Sou-Yin de Val Mauriens.

So regarding exterior my search focused on males with excellent pigment. 
Qua lines I didn't want to double up again on the East-German lines and wanted to avoid lines that are already omnipresent here.

In spring 2008 we travelled to France and stayed there for 3 days, hoping to get a breeding with CH Twister du Manoir de la Roanne. 
If You click on the picture below, You can see the slideshow of our French adventure.

They met on sunday, late in the afternoon, but as it was pooring rain and getting dark we let them only for a short time together,  assuming we were still a bit to early.
On monday it didn't come to a breeding either altough they both seemed to love each other.  However on tuesdayafternoon right before we were leaving back home, we had a last-minute mating on the end of  the 14 th day.  But Elixir stayed empty. 
Comparing with her cyclus now (we catched the ovulation on day 8)  I suppose our first attempts at the end of day 12 were already a bit to late and that the last minute-mating on the 14th day, was way to late. 

We felt very disappointed not to have puppys after Twister and the plan was to try again in summer.  Then Twister and his owners would travel to us and stay at our home but this arrangement was only possible during the summervacation.   So I restarted my research to have alternatives.   Rosaceeën Carduus was one of them.
And indeed august went by and Elixir didn't start her season....  and as a boardmember of our Club, I was supposed to assist as commissaris in the ring of the males...

And of course, a few days after the catalogue was printed, Elixir started her season !  And  the bloodtest on thursdaymorning 11 september confirmed that she was ovulating.  So out of all possible dates the evening before our Clubmatch or at least early in the morning were THE days.

So I was more then happy that the owners of Carduus agreed to let them breed on the same day of the Clubmatch ! 

Mating on 13 september 2008, early in the morning before our clubmatch began,  on the parking lot of the expohall. Due to circomstances not the most romantic setting :-)    At  9 o'clock Laurent was already on his way back home with Elixir and I could start my dutys 'as if nothing had happened' :-)))

Ultrasound on 10 october confirmed that she IS pregnant, embryos were everywhere  
WOW  this might be a large litter !!! 

Elixir had 14 puppys the 12th november

Showresults of Carduus since the mating