So recently I've felt like I spend half of every day replying to requests about pups, and juggling exports. Today I finally pasted all my 'waiting lists' together and collated the information in a spreadsheet.
I have over 50 people on my waiting list. This is after sifting through all the bogus applications. These are people that are ready for a pup NOW! I have 50 people twiddling their thumbs, waiting for Shigeru to find and send them their dream pup.
If you ever feel like I take a while to get back to you, and you haven't heard from me in a while, know that I have a terrific memory, and am not battling early onset Alzheimer's. I'm probably walking, feeding, or cleaning up after, my pups, or yours. If I'm not doing that, I'm probably picking up someone's pup, or sending off someone's pup ad infinitum (is that even where you'd use that?).
This past week for instance, I was juggling 15 dogs at the house (11 of which are demanding puppies), and swung by the vet to micro chip and vaccinate 2 Hokkaido pups on Wednesday. Friday I dropped off one pup, Summer, at Narita airport, 300km round trip. She was on her way to Dallas. I raced back to get some work in, walk and feed the dogs again, and pack for a 2000km round trip to Shikoku to breed a female Shikoku.
Saturday morning I was off, and we drove for 11hours, arriving in Kagawa in the evening at a NIPPO judge's for a nice 'udon' dinner and discussion about hunting with Nihon Ken. We were up at 6am the next morning to head from the hotel to to see his dogs, and all the dogs the Ayumi Sou line in the local kennels. We then had an 11am appointment at another kennel in the next prefecture to breed the female. Later in the afternoon after some more 'udon', we headed to Ehime to see more kennels and dogs from another line of Shikoku, with another NIPPO judge. This was all done in the pouring rain due to Typhoon Man-yi rampaging through Japan.
We got to see some of the great dogs of the recent past such as Gakuho Go, Ibuhime Go, and Iyohime Go, and revel in the quality of the bloodlines still remaining in Shikoku. In the evening we were treated to a terrific dinner, and in the morning we were up at 6am again to look at more dogs, before heading out on our return trip. We were chasing Man-yi this time, as she veered north east, so we followed in her trail of destruction, getting held up at roadblocks due to flooding and mudslides all the way. I was actually at Katsuragawa in Kyoto immediately after Man-yi passed. The return drive took 17hours, getting me back at 1am.
I was up at 5 am to walk and feed my dogs, and then prepared to take pups to Narita airport again. I got home at 3pm, rushed to the vet to micro chip and vaccinate 2 more pups, and tried to reply to emails in the evening before walking and feeding the dogs again.
This morning I woke up, it's crisp, beautiful autumn day, and I'm trying to pick up the pieces of the mess left by the hurricane, and pick up after all the pups that have been through recently. If I don't reply to your emails right away, I apologize.