In a drawer in this chest in the kitchen we keep the dog treats. Nowadays, when she is not sleeping, Yatzie is standing in front of it, scratching the door and crying! She eats like a horse. But I of course try to give her her real food most of the time, not the goodies. Today I went to the local vet to weigh her, I was worried that she was getting fat - it looks like it. But no, only 2 kg she gained which is perfectly normal. Relieved! So I keep giving her what she asks for!

The heather is in bloom! Here and there in Holland are wide heathlands where dogs are allowed loose. Hilversum has one by Zonnenstraal. We met up there with Brigitte Waller and her whole sweet pack of dogs (she has four). She came prepared with a big umbrella, but as we started our walk the sun came out, something rather unusual in Holland these days. While Brigitte's dogs were leaping of joy, running over the heaths, Yatzie walked slowly by my side most of the time, as should a pregnant lady. There were many nice dog gatherings, in some of the pictures you can see a grand golden doodle (a black one...) - another Barbet look-alike, just like the labradoodle that is becoming extremely popular in Holland. But the purebred Barbet has been looking this way naturally, for hundreds and hundreds of years!

Today we had the first to-be puppy owners visiting. Yatzie became very fond of Hans and if he stopped cuddeling her she scratched his arm with her paw until he started again. The puppy will share the house with Luca, an adorable Irish soft coated wheaten terrier, here kissing his boss Mariel fondly, and a cat!

The heroes of the day - Bas and Margot! Why? For 2 ½ months Margot gives her room up and Bas shares his with Margot to make space for the puppies in Margot's now emptied room. In the picture the siblings are clearing Bas's room to make space for Margot! Thank you sweet hearts! This week we will prepare the room for the puppies and build a puppy box.

Yatzie's registration certificate arrived - she is now a Dutch dog! To have a litter in Holland the bitch, as well as the owner, must be registered in the country. During the summer my kennel has also been registered and the name is (de) l'Esprit de Bonté - the spirit of goodness/gentleness/loving kindness. I wanted a name that captured the special character of a Barbet, and especially of Yatzie. I hope Yatzie, through her puppies, will spread much goodness/gentleness/loving kindness to all the puppy owners.

Yatzie has two focusses in her life right now - sleeping and eating. Before noon it is impossible to get her out of bed. Today I had to drag her out even for her morning "toilet". So much is happening in her body these days. One can clearly see that she is pregnant, her belly growing sidewise, nipples enlarging. Late afternoon she gets up and wants to go out and by then she is even ready to run after both cats and rabbits - but she gives up on them rather quickly!

This weekend we found a new area to walk the dogs - in the midst of Norwegian Fjord horses! We were taken by surprise to suddenly step into a large herd of horses with their foals, so friendly, so used to humans - and dogs! Yatzie is a bit afraid of horses but she quickly got used to these kind ones. Saartje, who is not afraid of anything, even stepped around between the legs of the horses as they were laying down resting! What a nice place this was - we all even had a swim!

Our first evening in Holland we celebrated Yatzie with champagne with good friends! I wanted to take a shot of her by the table but she decided to really be the central figure of the evening and jumped up! Fine for us - there she was on the table! A happy toast to Yatzie and the coming puppies!

The wish came true - Yatzie is pregnant! The ultra sound showed that there are many puppies growing! This is a day of inexpressible joy. Hurray Yatzie and Chico! Well done!

In the light of the full moon Yatzie and I spent an hour around midnight by the lake side. Yatzie was playing in the water, I was trying to catch the magic with my camera. Three owls circulated above us adding to the magic of the moment. Then a star fell.... I think you know what I was wishing for...

Isn't it amazing how dogs know danger from instinct? This stuffed wolf was standing in a hotel and Yatzie was very scared of it. Look at her timid posture. But what a brave girl! She overcame her fear and after some hesitation decided to approach it (I put some sweets for her below the face of the wolf). But she never turned her back towards the wolf. Last winter we saw traces of wolf by our house. I am glad we never met one IRL...

Dad and I packed a backpack each with food for us and Yatzie and worms for the fish and took off to the great river near our house. After half an hour of tracking we reached the upper part of the river where the big fish live. A fantastic day with a good catch! Yatzie played with the fish, ran after lemmelings and for a while tried to catch my float in the river! Dad caught most of the fish but I got the largest! You can see it below! (I know it is not THAT big, but honestly they do not get much bigger in the rivers!)

The wild forest around the house is full of blueberries! While I gathered a bucket Yatzie checked out every tree stem and hole for something to chase! Now and then she passed by my bucket and finished half of it! Yatzie, you can eat directly from the bushes, I told her, but that that was too much work for her, there were so many in the bucket already, why not eat from there? Blueberries being very nutritious and full of vitamine C I gladly shared my bucket with the hopefully pregnant sweetie by my side. PS Is there anything as yummie as a blueberry pie?

In tourist broschures the area of our mountain house is called The wilderness road. Because of a now closed-down mine there is a road that takes you deep into the barren wilderness tundra and you can start your hiking from right there, above tree level. Some of the mountains you see in the pictures belong to Norway. Usually we see some reindeers and there are also bears and wolves in the area. Yatzie and I took off all alone one sunny day. Follow us into the wilderness!

The area where we live in Lapland is not well covered with Internet so I can not blog easily. Must take the car to a hotel... So bear with us - I will post more pictures from our experiences here when I am back in civilization end of next week. The weather changed as well and it has been raining every day so we are quite lazy as you can see!

One of our favourite activities here is fishing. Today we spent 4 hours by a river near our cottage. Yatzie goes wild in the nature here. She is soooo happy! Everywhere there are things to explore. Like small holes in the ground or under the trees where wild animals live. Or the fish that we catch! Look at the video where she is attacking and barking at that funny smelling slimy thing that came out of the water!

The sun was shining on our first day in Lapland so we went to the Stekkenjokk mountains. We have a favourite place there, by a small lake with a waterfall, where we made a fire and had a picnic. Anna was brave as usual and took a swim in the cold water – but so was Yatzie!

So far this year Yatzie had very few ticks. There are less in Holland and the rest of Europe than in Sweden. I do not give her any medicine to prevent the ticks since all of the medicines, like Spot on, are very poisonous and some dogs can get serious skin problems from them. I instead check her every night. On our way to Lapland we took a few walks and Yatzie must have stepped in a newly hatched group of eggs. The past days I have found up to 50 tick larvas stuck on her! Larvas are ticks in their first life cycle stadium. They have only six legs and are white and only 0,7 mm in size. The larva, after sucking blood for three days, leaves their host and within 1-3 weeks develops into an 8-legged nymph. Again in must eat blood to develop into an adult tick. In all stages they are disease vectors. Uhh, these dreadful, dangerous insects. I hate them.

These tiny larvas I had never experienced before with Yatzie. They are so hard to find under her fur. Most of them were stuck to her already, having turned greyish, I found them by checking her skin inch by inch with my fingertops and by eye. If you remove them before they have started sucking they are cannot infect the host. New ones kept popping up so I finally combed Yatzie with a lice comb and now I think they are all gone. Here in Lapland there are fortunately no ticks! This is an informative link about ticks if you want to > learn more.

The last part or our vacation we are spending in my family’s cottage in Lapland, 900 km north of Stockholm. It is a beautiful peaceful place, by the lake Kultsjön in Klimpfjäll, and Yatzie loves it here. She has come with me here every year since she was a puppy! I will keep you updated about our adventures!

For the first time Yatzie and I travelled all the way from Holland to Stockholm by train – a trip of totally 18 hours (but we stayed a night in Malmö)! It went very well despite 5 train changes. Between the trains I could walk her. Yatzie is so easy to bring around. She follows me tightly and never makes a fuzz with other dogs. In our last compartment were 6 dogs and 2 cats!

We had to travel first class since no tickets in 2^nd were available, which added to the comfort. In Europe (not in Sweden where it is for free to travel with pets!) one has to buy a ticket for the dog. Fortunately I did not have to pay 1^st class for Yatzie. At some point Yatzie thought: Well, mum got a ticket, so I am gonna sit on a chair as well! In Germany the rule is that dogs must wear a nozzle. I brought one but fortunately never had to put it on