At ten weeks of age, Henry our Newfoundland puppy weighed in at 13 kgs. It was becoming clear that we would not be able to pick him up for much longer.
There were only eleven more days before leaving Newfhaven and meeting his 'new' Newfoundland big brother, Wellington, aged almost ten years.
After the initial few hours when Wellington pretended not to notice Henry at all, the two began to get on well and within a very short time Wellington had a second shadow...everything he did Henry did too...
The next chap of note to meet was Kiwa, who lives with our friend Hadyn. Kiwa was also bred by Ellen & Mick of Newfhaven Newfoundlands...
...The two hit it off pretty well, but after all they are blood brothers. Kiwa is two years older than young and upside-down Henry.
Here, Henry is almost four months old.
Our boys are pictured on a protest march, which was their first and our first too. Wellington captured the attention of a photographer and had his picture, along with an article in our daily newspaper, 'the Press'.
It became apparent that many NZ politicians believe that implanting microchips in dogs would prevent people from being bitten.
We believe that dog attacks are the result of irresponsible owners, who in all likelihood would not register their dogs, let alone have them microchipped.
Clearly, introducing compulsory microchipping in New Zealand was nothing more than a political side step from addressing the dog attack issue properly.
It has subsequently been proven that microchipping achieves absolutely nothing in preventing dog attacks.
On June 12 2006 winter really kicked in and our young Newfoundland puppy experienced his first snow, which turned out to be what we in the South Island now call "The big snow". Although he seemed to relish the experience, spending a lot of time either with his head in the snow or springing around in it, the snow was too deep for Henry to be able to move around comfortably in. Anywhere is a good place for a chewbone though...
At eighteen weeks of age, Henry weighed in at 31.5 kgs.
Here's Newfoundland pup Henry at five months and two days old. At this age Henry weighed in at 36.5 kilos.
Ellen & Mick of Newfhaven were pleased with the way he was developing as were we. Besides being a great example of a Newfoundland dog visually, Henry has a wonderful temperament with us and with 'big brother' Wellington.
At this age Henry loved to carry things and was learning to bring the paper in. He soon lost enthusiasm for the job as did Wellington at a similar age.
Note that Henry's white blaze has almost disappeared.
One of the questions we were frequently asked was how the Newfoundland boys got on together...
...They say a picture is often worth a thousand words.
