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Puppies - Nero | |
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In mid 2002, we embarked on a 35 day around the world trip. For four wonderful days, we had the pleasure of staying in Oslo, courtesy of Walter and Terje, along with Nero and Enya. Upon our arrival, we were taken to a surprise meeting of the Norweigan Pinscher Club; they had moved the meeting two weeks so they could hold it when we were there. On this friday evening, they had over 25 dogs of all ages. Kate and I were totally stunned by this turn out for us; most notably because they had never even met us!
Whilst the evening progressed, we wandered around and looked and learned as the club held it's show and obediance training. We were most impressed by the temperments of the dogs, and the attitude of the people about the temperment. It was paramount to them. We can attest to this; they had most dogs happily playing with each other without incident. Some of the dogs there were Nero's offspring, so we can attest to the soundness (both mental and physical) of his offspring.
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| Chris & Kate enjoying some Norweigan hospitality (and hugs from the dogs, Enya (L) and Nero (R)). |
Some members of the Norweigan Pinscher club. |
For this reason, we asked Walter if we could use Nu Ch. Pinbas Nero (via imported semen) over Kira. He agreed.
Then the hard task of performing all of the health tests required to allow semen to be imported into Australia began. Several tests for diseases had to be conducted. A bitch in season needed to be found to 'tease' Nero into performing. A cannister (shown below) also had to be organised (and cleaned to government specifications) for the transport of the semen to Australia. Once the collection was taken and frozen (in liquid nitrogen) a single straw was test thawed to make sure everything was ok. It was! Once the paper work had been completed (only one person in all of Norway could perform this task) it was time to ship it down to us. As it turned out, there was a large snow storm in Denmark (the collection was taken in late Decemeber), so Walter took the sealed cannister home. This afforded us the picture of Nero sitting next to it below. The semen was transported to us via Danzus Airfreight, who notified us via email of the progress of our precious cargo at each step of the way.
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| Nero - showing off his grand physique. | The very proud father (with his offspring to be in the canister). |
The cannister arrived at 8:30pm sunday night and the federal government departments that you need to deal with to actually get your goods (in this case customs and quarrantine) were closed and would not be open for business until monday morning. Even if the snow storm had not effected the transport, it would have arrived 8:30pm firday night; still too late. It took Paul Hamilton (of Semtech, who is providing our local storage) over 5 hours of dealing with both departments to get his hands on our semen!
However, nature being nature, Kira needed to be inseminated at 8:30pm sunday night. We had missed our chance. The advice offered was not to attempt an insemination on the Monday, as Kira's progesterone level was way too high. In all likelyhood, she would not have fallen pregnent. Although frustrating, we could do nothing but wait for Kira's next season. Which up until this point in time had been every six months to the week. However, this time she was two months late! At least the semen was here, safe and ready to use. She was finally inseminated in July 2003, and did fall pregnant :) (See Inseminating Kira for more details).
If you would like to see more about Nero, then please visit Stallvakten Kennels.
We owe Walter and Terje (and Nero!) many more thanks than we can ever adequately convey.
We also owe, Marie Burrell of Firencoach Kennels (breeders of Dalmations) many thanks as a puppy midwife and hand-holder of humans.
Last, but not least, many thanks go to Roz at Chirnside Park Vet Clinic for getting Kira pregnant to start with! :-)
Please follow these links to see photos of the puppies as they grow.
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