Yesterday we went to the Estrela Club annual dog show. It was in Reading - six hours driving there and back. We were looking forward to seeing our (potential) breeders and finding out when our puppies would be born.

Unfortunately, one of the breeders wasn't even there and the other has decided not to breed until later this year/early next. We spoke to the Puppy Coordinator and there haven't been any litters born in this country since June. There are no current pregnancies either.

It takes 17 weeks from the start of pregnancy to taking your puppy home. So basically, we aren't going to be getting a puppy for AT LEAST 4 months, possibly a lot longer. To be honest, it makes more sense to wait until the summer holidays (when we've got to have six weeks off anyway, it's easier to housetrain and hopefully we'll have moved to a bigger house) so it'll probably be next June/July. I'm so disappointed, but with rare breeds you just have to be patient. We saw a 12 week old fawn bitch puppy yesterday (the sister of the puppies we met before) and I could have taken her home in a heartbeat.

It was still worth going though, as we got to meet a breeder whom we hadn't spoken to before, saw A LOT of fabulous dogs and Isabel got plenty of hands-on time with the Estrelas. She is much more confident now, even helping out by holding the lead of one of the calmer males while his owner was showing.

I WANT OUR PUPPY NOW!! DAMMIT!!!