Multi-purpose pup

Andrew has an idea in the ongoing battle of Mommy vs. the DOT, over a large tree they want to take.
"We could," Andrew said gravely, "have Murphy poop all around the tree so much that the workers would step in it and run away going 'P-yoo'!"
You know, it might work better than his other idea, which was that his imaginary baby dinosaurs would take coconuts from our (imaginary) coconut tree and throw them at the crew.

Where puppies come from...

Part II of the GEB/New York trip ....

We got up on sunday and quickly got ready to go over for our tour.

Here are a bunch of pictures.

This is the facility itself, which houses the breeding operation and the vet center. GEB actually has another facility, the training center, in Yorktown, which is about 45 minutes away.


Meet Rona and Rosanne, two pups that Andrew played with while we waited for the tour. One of them -- I can't remember which -- was being adopted out, and the other was headed for her foster home.




We embarked on a tour. With that many newborn puppies, GEB takes sanitation precautions seriously. We disinfected our shoes before entering the kennel area. Note that Andrew's stuffed black Lab Sniffles (thanks, richard and Jamie!) had to accompany us on this tour.



Puppies, I'd promised Andrew, and the tour did not disappoint. I didn't keep track but I think we probably saw at least five or six new litters like these. As you can see, it's designed with Mom's comfort in mind. I particularly liked the short plexiglass divider that lets Mom escape her pups temporarily to eat, drink and rest.


All the moms get their own personalized tags for their kennel; these are for the "girls" who have retired. Our tour guide, Nina, (Not to be confused with Nina in Maine), has four girls at home, one still active. The other three are retired now. All I could think was, four Labs! Oh my!