Garden Raiders

Mousse, Cindee, Vidalia, Hollee, and Ginger–the pumpkin and tomato nibblers

Weaving DNA is tricky. Very often, you rely on experience, information gathered, and your best hunch. At OwyheeStar, we have kept the DNA pools fairly consistent. The way in which we did this was a bit too complicated to explain. Overall, the result has been similar–looks, personality, and general temperament. Even so, there are differences. At one point in time, we were desperately trying to get a particular mating to achieve a specific goal. There were many failed attempts–matings that didn’t produce a litter. Nonetheless, we kept trying and eventually, we had four females born to a litter of four pups (Cindee, Ginger, Vidalia, and Mousse). Some of these you will recognize. The parents of the four were Callie and Zee–in case you are interested.

Vidalia never produced a litter–not even a single pup. She probably was the finest-looking if you want to nitpick. Cindee and Ginger produced a few small litters of very lovely and well-received pups. Mousse was the one who has produced multiple litters and a couple of title-earning Weims–Juniper and Molly. Juniper has a show title and the NAVHDA Natural Ability; Molly has the latter as well.

Hollee (also pictured) was nearly the same DNA pool (missing one-leg in her pedigree if you want to compare to the other girls). She was a single pup born to Deli in a litter sired by Zee. Honestly, when Cliff said we would keep them all, I shuttered. It is expensive and a lot of extra work–impossible to give everyone the attention you would like too! Nonetheless, over time Cliff’s decision proved correct.

The fenced garden sat alongside our backyard. The pumpkin you see escaped the garden fence to the driveway. I pulled it along the fencing to make sure it was out of the way. For the photo, I turned this golden gem around. The nibblers were able to get their teeth and tongue through the fence to help themselves to the super healthy snack. Not only did they enjoy this but many of the prized heirloom specimen tomatoes turned out to be hollow at picking. It is amazing how they got their tongues through the fence and emptied the red gems. Therefore, you might say a fence is a fence, but it might not stop the Weimaraner from finding a way to get what they deem theirs for the taking.