This litter would be out 13th and M is the 13th letter of the alphabet, so the litter would be named with a word beginning M. In 2024 Kassi had a litter which was our Kiva Legacy Litter and it would be wrong of us not to honour Mylo as well. But why Maverick you might ask, well Mylo was a one off and was very much his own dog, a true maverick, independent and unorthodox (and he was loved for this). Maverick was, of course, also a main character in the Top Gun franchise, Top Gun had some great call signs for their characters and this would give us ample scope to name the pups before they were registered with the KC and before their new owners decided on their pet names.

Finnish Lapphund breeders work hard to maintain a low COI (Coefficient of Inbreeding) more and the numbers for this mating are just .84%.

Over the course of 4 days Kassi and Halla tied 3 times - I'm not sure how Halla felt about the first meeting but he was very excited to see her on the 2 subsequent visits. Kassi was up for it all three times and we were confident that the matings would be successful.

And they were, as on Wednesday August 13th she was scanned and her pregnancy was confirmed - Kassi was carrying 4 pups, and the litter was due in on September 10th. (Many thanks to Matenow for their help in the production of this litter - excellent progesterone testing results!)

Kassi went into labour a couple of days early (as our girls are prone to do) and over the course of a 90 minutes gave birth to three black tris and our first a domino; a single girl and s boys, Wolfman, Rooster, Goose and Feenix. (More photos to be added in due course).

Over the course of the next couple of weeks the pups developed as one would expect however at just under 4 weeks we had to take Rooster to the vets as his behaviour and balance was seriously compromised and following a thorough consultation and tests it was agreed that the best course of action would be for him to be put to sleep. It transpired that, as suspected, he had had a brain haemorrhage - such a loss as he was a wonderful pup.

Sadly this wasn't the end of our problems as Goose developed a runny nose that, after consultation with the vet, was suspected to be an abscess behind his left eye. A 5 day course of antibiotics seemed to have dealt with the problem however a 10 days later the problem recurred, this time behind his right eye - another course of antibiotics seemed to deal with the problem well enough for him, and his brother and sister to have their eye-screening and vaccinations and to go to their new homes. To be honest I was more than and to think about Goose leaving as he had stolen our hearts and if Tom and Katie (his new owners to be) had wanted to pull out because of his medical history Lou and I wouldn't have minded at all.

On the advice of the vet we ended up keeping Goose a few days longer than Wolf (to be known as Otso) who went off to live with his dad Halla and Feenix who joined Tulli (his uncle) so as to be confident that his final course of antibiotics had done their job.

The day came for me to take Goose, who would henceforth be known as Fenni (the Roman name for Finland), to his new home - a bitter sweet day as we had truly grown to love the little chap.

Fenni went on to have a number of recurrences of his medical condition and despite veterinary care and a visit to a referral specialist the decision was made that at just 4 months he would be euthanised due to a malignant nasal tumour.

The trauma of this litter, and those of Kassi's River and Legacy litters, means that Kassi is now out of our breeding programme.

Otso and Feenix have gone on to be loved members of their new families and both have been shown with Otso being awarded Best Puppy in Show at the recent FLCGB Championship meaning that he's qualified to show at Crufts 2027.