We thought that when Diggory joined the family we were complete, with four cockers. Molly was just about to whelp her last litter and things where good in the mad house. This was Molly’s first litter sired by Diggory and we were all excited to see what colour puppies she would have. At dead on 62 days she whelped a lovely litter of eight healthy pups. 4 girls and 4 boys (typical for Molly-Jo) two of the boys where Black and Tan, and both Trav and I fell in love.
We had never thought to have a cocker this colour but Joe and Dylan really caught our hearts. They both reminded us so much of Winston.  We made the decision to try and find ourselves a B&T cocker girl.
Enter Suki-Su.........

I phoned my breeder that day (before minds where changed) and she said she had a litter of week old pups all black and tan….. would I like to come over next weekend and have a look at them??? Would I??? silly question.
So that weekend I phoned her again to arrange a time to go over and she told me that she had been holding a 8week B&T female for another breeder who also had a 2 week old pup booked. Did I want to look at the older pup and the other breeder would have a different pup from the litter I was going to chose from. This meant if I like her I could take her there and then……..hard choice!!!!!  So off we went to see this 8 week old girlie and the litter of buba’s.
The litter were all very sweet but so young and I couldn’t choose between them. Knowing colours change so much in young cockers and I wanted to get the pup with the best colouring I could. So I went to see the eight week old girl………….

And with a face like this who wouldn’t fall in love. We met her mummy and daddy, both adorable and so happy to see us, she curled up in my arms and fell asleep.
It was done she had to come home with us.

We changed her name a few times she started out as Fleur, then…..to  Flower, to Suzy and finally we settled on Suki-Su (or Su-Su). Suki fitted in to the family well joining molly’s litter even though she was a good few weeks older than them she played nicely and joined in at feeding times. Molly being the wonderful mum she was even let Suki join the pups at the “milk-bar”, Suki was still feeding from Molly long after all Moll’s pups had left to go to their new homes. But that’s Molly for you she feed Tulula’s pups that year as well.

Dunking for Ice cubes was a trick she learnt early on. The April of 2005 was quite warm and I would fill the dog bowl with cold water and top it up with ice-cubes for effect. Suki soon found she had a liking for these cold cruchie things and she taught the whole of Molly’s litter the joys of a “Cold Crunchie”

Although she had happily fallen asleep in my arms at the breeders it turned out  she wasn’t keen on cuddles, I’ve never had a cocker who liked her own space and I found this quite hard to cope with at first. She would grumble at being picked up and swear like hell if you woke her. But we worked through this and now she will happily jump up for cuddle with mummy and she will always be the first to claim a guests lap. She will still grumble a little if woken from a deep sleep but soon stops when she realises there’s something fun going on.

Suki was a treat to train, a very quick learner she only had to be shown something a few times and she’d get the hang of things.  She swam at 14 weeks and scared the hell out of me. She crashed down the bank into a ditch filled with water and just swam!!!!! Like a little fat otter she was made for the water. She’ll lay down in a puddle to make the most of even an inch or water. I’m sure she’s got webbed feet.

She’s a funny little thing with slightly shorter legs that the rest of our girls and a lovely little stocky body, she really bustles when she runs and reminds me of a PE teacher I had at school…totally the wrong shape for her job (don’t get me wrong I’m totally built for comfort). Suki's always at the back of the pack when they are out running about and her excited “wait for me” yap, can be heard for miles…..so I always know where they are even if I can’t see them.

Although she’s the shortest of our pack she is most defantly the boss girl. The only one of my girls who she will take any messing off is Molly then I thinks that’s just coz Moll is old and allowed some slack. Suki keeps the pack in order and is forever telling Maggie off for being norty, she has a mass of nick names ranging from “Bubble Butt” because of her size to “Waspie” and “Sassy Suki” due to her cheeky little attitude.  For a while she was called “Pukeey Pooh” every car trip resulted in massive bouts of car sickness for her. Thankfully this had cleared up by the time she made the journey from Cambridgeshire to the Island.

Suk’s had her first litter when we still lived on the mainland(sired by the Digg) she was a wonderful mum whelping them whilst I was at work. (Boss was a real meany and made me work a half day) she had 7 beautiful babies that all grew fat and healthy on the mountains of milk she produced. She loved her babies right up until the day they left and would happily share her basket with them for a cuddle.

 She is a real joy to live with and I love her fat little bubble butt to bits.