Two Very Special Springer Spaniels: Saighton's Spitfire and NFC, NAFC Saighton's Scout by John DeMott - Photos courtesy of the Author Part 1: Saighton's Spitfire. Part 2: NFC, NAFC Saighton's Scout. Saighton Puppies I always awaited Spitfire's litters with great anticipation. I hoped one day that she would produce a dog similar to herself. Spitfire had an amazing combination of enthusiasm, desire, and courage - along with an innate level-headed intelligence. All of her litters were born in the Lodge. I would bring a whelping box into the living room shortly before she was due to whelp. Spitfire was a very good mother and always looked after her puppies well. Once the puppies started to leave the whelping box, they were put in the kennels and Spitfire had to suffer living there until the puppies were weaned. On the 18th of May 1979, the litter resulting from breeding Scud to Spitfire arrived. When puppies were born, the first thing I would do was to look at what sex they were. As we did not sell bitches, I wanted litters to be predominately male. When the puppies from this litter started to arrive it was one male after another. At one stage, I was getting somewhat concerned that for the first time I was going to have a litter with no bitches in it. I wanted at least one for future breeding purposes. The last puppy of five to be born was a bitch. It was a beautiful litter. All of the puppies were strong, healthy, and nicely marked. By the time the puppies were three days old Hazel and I took a shine to one particularly strong, plump puppy. Hazel started calling him "Chubby". Every day, Hazel would have Chubby sleeping on her lap for a while. We called this puppy "Chubby" until he was four or five months old. After watching a western movie on TV, I came up with the name Scout and changed Chubby's name to Scout. Previously, I had sometimes seen puppies begin to stand out by the time they were 12 to 14 weeks old. As ridiculous as it sounds, Scout stood out as special to Hazel and myself from the time he was three days old. He never made me think otherwise during the nearly two years he was at Saighton Kennels. I was just amazed that a puppy picked out at Page 1 | Spaniel Journal | Next Page |