Just a quick announcement: Lottie is pregnant!!  But . . . there is only one pup in the waiting room.

When I got the text from the vets’ office, I immediately experienced disappointment when I should have been screaming for joy.  Of course, I would have liked to have seen a larger number on my iPad, but one pup means that Magnus’s line is alive again.  And, in reality, that was the true goal.

Early next week, the details will start to coalesce.  When the puppy is born, we will know sex and color, and to some degree, confirmation.  What am I hoping for?  Fundamentally, healthy and constructed to continue Magnus’s legacy.  Of course, I expect all of Magnus’s faults to shine through, but his great attributes (e.g., head, muzzle, front assembly, temperament, dentition, longevity, feet, coat color and texture, etc.) are now available as pieces in the larger Tibetan Mastiff puzzle.  Oh yeah, and SIZE!

A quick note on color.  Lottie is heterozygous gold.  We know this because her parents were two different colors, her sire was black and tan, and her dam was gold.  Lottie is a very light gold sable, but she can produce either gold or black and tan.  What am I hoping for?  If you remember, I sat on the toilet lid waiting for Nika to give birth to L’acy and imagined an all-black male puppy.  Wrong.  I spent years dreaming of owning a gold Tibetan Mastiff, and Sindred, and later Kronos, fulfilled that dream, but at this point in my life, either is fine.  But wouldn’t it be provident if the puppy was a black and tan male just like dear old dad?

Pictured above is my favorite photo of Magnus.