 
We seemed to count every hour for those next 3 weeks, but by 11th November everything
was in place. The house had been puppy proofed (tubing around
electrical cables, poisonous
plants removed, etc), the garden fenced off and Cassie's crate ready and waiting. We
left the house at 5.00am and travelled the 3½
hour trip down to Weymouth in some of the
worst storms the south of England has seen in the last 10 years.
 Finally
we arrived in one piece, had a cup of tea and then Roger went to get
Cassie. Suddenly there was a crash, bang, wallop and in she stormed
Rolling around and play fighting with Judy. She was now half the size
bigger than when we last saw her, her mussel and ears were longer, and she was
starting to look like a proper cocker.
Certificates were signed, payments made
and then we were on the road again with our
own little bundle of joy.
8 - 12 Weeks Old (Mid
November 2000 to Mid December 2000)
We were worried about how Cassie would cope with the length of the journey, but she was fine. Julie sat in the back of the car with a large box lined with
newspaper (in case Cass wanted a pee, which see did), but after the first 10 minutes of whining she settled down and went to sleep.
Once home it was time to explore both house and garden. Nothing seemed to phase her, rolling around in the rockery, chewing the grass and greeting
every
visitor as a new play thing. Going to the toilet in the garden was met with the phrase 'good girl, hurry up', and plenty of praise.
Her first time left alone in the crate was the most stressful. We thought it best to leave her in it for about ½ an hour the first evening, just to get used to
it. We
felt so sorry for her as she cried, wailed and screamed to get out, but we knew we couldn't go to comfort her. The same thing happened at night. She
spent
about 45 minutes screaming, but eventually went to sleep and was fine (we tried the old trick of putting a ticking clock and hot water bottle under
the blankets
to mimic her litter mates).
Her hourly routine was: out to toilet, play, out to toilet, sleep. She was on four meals a day, 07:00, 12:30, 16:30 and 18:30, going to bed at 11:00 and me
having to go down at 02:00 and 05:00 in the morning to let her out of the crate for a pee in the garden.
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