Suwannee Cockers
The Place for Naural Merles and Sables
SunCatcher's Zippy Zelda
Zelda is a very sweet natured and lovely Cocker girl who lived here for over two years and gave us one beautiful litter of six puppies. She now lives in Fort Walton Beach with two of our other dogs, including her solid black brother named Foster. Here she looks serene and regal, but she can be a clown too, just like any other Cocker. Zelda has one dark eye, and one lighter eye, and the light eye is tan on the bottom and blue on the top.
Zelda really has the most spectacular coloring, especially when seen from close up. And she has a very straight and silky coat, but not a whole lot of it, so we generally left her coat rather long, as it is just so easy to care for.
Zelda was our quiet girl, and we hardly ever heard her bark. Like her brother ZuZu, she is a gentle soul, and quite sweet natured and loving. And of all of our girls she was the one who most prefered being in the house.
Zelda was also our most exotically colored Merle girl. She literally has five different colors in her coat--her black base coat, her white on her chest, a sort of tan-blonde undercoat, her brown areas, and some grey areas. And when she is in the sunlight, her brown areas flame bright orangy-red. So Zelda was our quiet "mystery girl," and she was no help, as she wasn't talking!
To say that we were excited about Zelda's very unusual coloring when she was born is a vast understatement! She is shown in this picture at two days old.
Zelda was one of three Merles in a litter of six puppies, but she was the only pup with her really exotic coloring. The other puppies were two solid blacks, a solid chocolate, and two Blue Merle and whites. Her dam is a solid silvery Buff girl named Darlin, who is now retired and living in a wonderful pet home, and her sire is a mahogany red Sable and white Cryptic Merle named Max. Like our Blue Merle girl named Zadda--who is Zelda's half sister--we thought that Zelda would be a very light colored Merle with some darker spots, but she turned out to have more complex coloring than that.
Zelda is shown here at six weeks old, being held by our good friend Emma. Zelda started darkening at around this age, but it took us until she had her one and only litter to finally figure out that she is a black based Sable-Merle, with a very light Sable undercoat. But until then we speculated about all sorts of color combinations for her, including chocolate Merle, as chocolate Merles do have a light tan undercoat. Zelda did have one chocolate sable and white puppy in her one litter here, so she is carrying chocolate, but most of her puppies were black based and we finally decided that she is a black based dog with a very light tan/buff colored Sable undercoat, and a few grey Merle areas in her coat.
By nine weeks old Zelda was really starting to look brown colored, and here she is again being held by our friend Emma. Thank you Emma for all of your help in photographing our dogs.
Zelda and her dam, our now retired silvery Buff girl named Darlin, shown together out in the dog yard. Max, Zelda's sire, does not throw the Buff gene, so none of the puppies that Darlin had with Max were Buffs. But Zelda threw two silvery buff and whites and a solid buff pup in her one litter here.
By the time that Zelda was four months old it had become obvious that her coloring was really something very different from any other Cocker that we had ever seen.
Zelda had one solid black sister in her litter named Pumkin, and they were about the same size and hung out together a lot.
When Zelda was about five months old she still had a very Buff looking base, but we know that she was not a Buff.
When Zelda was about six months old her short coat showed all of her colors really well.
By her first Winter Zelda had an awesome coat.
By the late Winter when Zelda was approaching a year old, she had some half brothers and sisters, and here she and her Blue Merle and white brother named ZuZu are investigating a crate containing some young puppies. This was a cold night when all of the dogs were inside of the house, and the young dogs couldn't keep their eyes off of the new puppies. Zelda just loves puppies, and she was allowed by her dam to actually baby-sit some older puppies, and when Zelda had her one litter here she was a very good dam to them. Zelda is a rather small Cocker at 19 pounds--smaller than her brother ZuZu--who himself is a small to medium sized Cocker male.
Zelda loved playing with our new puppy, SunCatcher's Suzy Q, when Suzy Q was only eight weeks old.
We loved to see Zelda move, which we couldn't catch with our camera, and she can really run very fast--hence the term "Zippy" in her name. She especially liked to run around with our red and white boy named Beau, and they made quite a contrast together, and Beau was the sire of Zelda's only litter here. Our dogs get a lot of exercise, so are not at all fat, but are all fully muscled.
This picture, taken when Zelda had been recently clipped, really shows her "leopard" markings. The really light areas on her head and rear are sunlight, as we get a lot of dappled shade in our dog yards.
And here is her other side in full shade.
And here's a closeup of Zelda's light eye, showing a bit of blue in the top of that eye.
But Zelda had an uncanny ability to close her eyes at the instant the shutter of the camera is clicked! But this picture shows her lovely multi-colored coat. We especially like the contrast with her white chest, and we think that a parti dog with this coloring would be very attractive--perhaps marked like our ZuZu. We also like this picture because it shows up Zelda's "Cockery" characteristics, like her flews, which tend to get lost in her multi-colored coat, as her many colors and markings act like camouflage. Zelda is truly a unique Cocker Spaniel.
Zelda had one beautiful rainbow colored litter here, from our red and white boy named Beau, and she had, above, from left to right, a chocolate sable and white, two silver and white partis, each with one blue eye and one brown eye, a black and white, a solid buff, and a solid shaded sable with a black mask. There were no Merles in her litter, and only one Sable, but statistically this litter should have been one half Merles. Of course the two buff and white puppies with the one blue eye each are most probably hidden, or Cryptic Merles, proving that buff can indeed hide Merle. Sadie, Zelda's chocolate sable parti daughter, is shown to the right at about 8 weeks old.
Zelda now lives with her family and her solid black littermate named Foster, and a Blue Merle tri girl from Zadda and Beau named Zhoe--who is Zelda's niece--so Zelda is living with her doggy family as well as her new human family.
This picture shows Zelda with her big brother Foster and her niece Zhoe, in their back yard. Zelda is a small Cocker, only weighing about 19 pounds, and Zhoe looks to be a small Cocker too.
Zelda and Zhoe in their back yard in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, looking at something that must be very interesting.
Even though Zelda is gone, and we miss her sweet presence, we still have her parti Sable-Merle brother named Zecchino to carry on this line in our dogs. And in this recent picture of her, she does remind us of her dam, SunCatcher's Lil Darlin, even though they are colored very differently. And doesn't Zelda's coat make nice camouflage! And at least she has her eyes open in this picture. And finally, we thank Zelda's owner for allowing us to use these pictures of her dogs in her home.
And last, but not least, our favorite picture of Zelda.
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