DragonRam Lyra Lemon-Lime: Princess-in-waiting

After much consideration, assessment of temperament, and receipt of genetic colour testing, we have decided to keep DragonRam Lyra Lemon-Lime for our breeding program.

Lyra is our apricot girl with a sweet, pleasant disposition. She is generally calm, playful, a bit wiggly, and very friendly. She is not as demanding of attention as her brother Helios but not particularly shy either. Lyra carries two copies of the phantom gene ("at"), but only one copy of the gene that allows phantom to be expressed ("ky"). She has two copies of the cream-red-apricot gene ("ee"). I have not yet received the results of the testing for her chocolate status. We know she must carry at least one copy of the Black gene ("B") since her mother, Garnet, has two copies and Lyra inherits one of these from Garnet. But there is a 50% chance that the other copy could be chocolate, inherited from her father Hot Sake.

This means that, if bred to our phantom boy Magnum, half the puppies would be cream and the other half would be either - if Lyra does not carry chocolate - black and black phantom (25% each) - or, if she does carry chocolate - black, black phantom, chocolate, and chocolate phantom (12.5% each). If we find or obtain a cream stud, all the puppies would be varying shades of cream, from off-white to potentially deep red, and any shade in between (gold, apricot).

(below: Lyra on the left, with Antares & Helios)

Although I had been hoping to keep a phantom female, none of the three girls is a visible phantom - all of them have only one copy of the gene that allows phantom to be expressed, where two copies are needed for the phantom markings to be visible. Since Lyra will be able to produce phantoms just as well as her sisters, I decided to keep her to increase our ability to produce puppies in the cream colour group as well. Plus, more importantly, she has a sweet temperament and we are sure she will mature into a calm, loving and playful companion.

(The "Lemon-Lime" comes from the fact that earlier this week, we were out on the deck enjoying a glass of cold lemonade with lemon and lime wedges in it, and with the puppies close at hand. Kids being kids, they decided to see which puppy liked the lemon and lime flavours best - and Lyra won!