End of the Summer blues

Things can always be worse I know but this week I had major "suckage" early on. 6 weeks ago one of my 10 week old puppies broke a tibia. The vet put a cast/sling on it prognosis looked good. We changed the sling 3x over a period of 6 weeks and it came off last Friday (10th). Sat and Sun she was easing weight onto it, confined of course for the next few weeks to a small area for a few more weeks. On Monday she rebroke it just standing on it, her pressure sores from the last cast were just about dried up, I could not put her through this again and I said goodbye to her at my vet's office. So I spent all week pretty depressed about things, feeling like giving up ( being a middle aged female probably contributes to the tendency to feel this way anyway) and not doing things that needed doing as one does when you're down. At any rate I know I am not the only person who lost a Borzoi recently that really hurts over this but I needed to say goodbye Bailey, Godspeed little cheerful puppy. We miss your waggy tail and happy outlook. Being a dog owner and occasional breeder is really a downer sometimes.

wahoo! Tarzan's 6th Coursing Championship

"Tarzan" finished his LCM2 on August 8 2010 at the age of 9 years and 3 months. He is now known officially as DC Avalon Jungle Fever MC,CDX,LCX,RAE2, LCM2,V-FCH, TT, CGC . Tarzan was the FIRST RAE titled Borzoi (there have been others since but he will always be the first ). He won the Borzoi Club of America National Triathlon in 2005 and 2009 placed 4th in 2006 and 2007 (did not go to the national in 2008) and placed 2nd in 2010. He has also won the Borzoi Club of America's annual versatility award (AVA) twice, was High in Trial at the BCOA national trial in 2005 from Open B, and is in the Borzoi Club of America lifetime versatility hall of fame. Anything that Paula or I pointed him at he said well if it will make you happy I'll give it a go. It brought tears to both of our eyes this last weekend to see him run with so much enthusiasm. Here are some photos taken by Jennifer Batson at the trial if you'd like to see him, he's the heavily spotted tri colored dog in the pictures. Thanks Jennifer! Thanks to everyone who has said kind words about him too from the bottom of my heart and my friend Paula's too. He is pretty special to us.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31056435&op=1&view=all&subj=100000167844984&id=81901837#!/album.php?aid=2028811&id=81901837

I dream of Genie

Well it looked like a good title. I have a visitor here for a bit, Afanasii Belozor Surreptitious JC who is from the litter bred 3 years ago by Rebecca and Tim Neal, myself and our friend Suzanne Liggett. Genie always had a lot of lure interest got her JC, got ASFA certed but Suzanne isn't exactly thrilled with lure coursing so she never made it out. I took her this 4 day weekend I was judging to Powell TN, she got her QC on Friday, ran on Saturday got a point, ran Sunday and Monday and got 2 more SC legs. Hope to get her to some ASFA trials before she eventually goes back to Arkansas .pretty girl was pointed in the ring as a puppy showing in BBE. She is a Neechee granddaughter on her dam's side.

Vger pups

Vger (BIF FC Avalon Dark Voyager of Ryhka SC, LCM #1 ASFA Borzoi 2007) and Lara (Avalon Solarra SC, FCH, JOR) pups at 6 weeks. They actually behaved pretty well all things considered. Here's the girl who is staying here, RTee, who looks very much like a tri version of her father, and a lot like her aunt Mattee (FC Avalon What Matters Most SC)

Wahoo! Stryx wins a major!

Heard that Stryx (Avalon Valkyrie Stryx O' Pendragon JC, FCH) pictured here won her first major yesterday in Springfield MO under sighthound breeder judge Charles Trotter owner handled by her breeder Debb Meyer. I am SO proud of both of them. Stryx' sire is our DC Avalon Kilimanjaro Delsol SC,RN,LCM3,SGRC and her dam is CH Avalon Irkalla of Davidoff. She is a cute little (28 inch) self mahogany brindle and now needs a 3 pt major and 2 singles to finish. Her brother Syrus finished in the ring about a month ago and is ASFA pointed as well. Thanks to Rebecca Neal for this lovely photo

Egads

You know if you are ever waiting for a bitch to come in season SHE WON'T or a different one will. Sigh........ waiting and have been for Charo or Autumn to come in and they show NO signs but Lara may be. Lara is Avalon Solarra SC, FCH, JOR and the plan is to breed her to BIF FC Avalon Victorian Pyre SC, RE, FCH, GRC, TT, CGC, TDI RTD next spring so of course she is challenging my plans.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Just heard from my friend Susan Van De Water of Del Sol Borzoi that our Tigress (Avalon Tigress in the Dark JC, FCH, GRC, CC ) won her second conformation major today at a show! Wahoo! Thought I'd inflict her photos on ya'll. She is

an open field coursing champion with three takes, a straight racing champion, an ASFA field champion and winner of the Borzoi Club of Greater Atlanta triathlon (conformation match, straight racing and lure coursing) in 2006.

A brief doggie moment

After a bit of a sucky year losing a couple of dogs to accident or ailment, I am going to look on the bright side here. My 2009 litter ( the X pups) are pretty lovely (all 2 of them) so I am sharing a photo here thanks to my friend Leonore with whom they are right now. The male who is pictured is Trek (Avalon Xpedition) and the girl Xpo (Avalon Xplorer) are in New Mexico growing up, Xpo will be making her way to Montana this fall to another good friends home and Trek is in the land of enchantment for good. I relish his growing up with a good friend where he can someday chase jackrabbits. They are a handsome pair to my eye. Their sire is BIF FC Avalon Dark Voyager of Ryhka SC, LCM and their dam is Avalon Radioactive Dreams SC who needs 1 single point to finish in the ring. Thought I had saved the photo of the girl but it must be saved somewhere else.

Little wahoo for CJ

Just heard that CJ was #2 NOFCA ( open field coursing) Borzoi for 2008-2009 season and also the high point novice dog too. Py was #4 NOFCA Borzoi for the 2008-2009 season and like CJ already has points and placements just needs takes ( the hardest part of course) CJ is shown below in his blue blanket at a field trial. His "official name" is FC Avalon WNS Rising Sun SC, FCH and he lives in TX and is coowned with my good friend Sherita Tabner of Rosehill Windhounds (you'll find a link to her site to the right somewhere) In the red blanket below is "Py" owned by Leonore Abordo of NM, his "official name" is BIF FC Avalon Victorian Pyre SC, RA, FCH, GRC, ThD, CGC and there is a link to his owners website (Chile Agility and Oxota Borzoi ) also somewhere to the right.

A great time had in Louisiana

Have been busier than a one legged man in an @$$ kicking contest lately. Last weekend judged at a 3 day AKC trial in Bush Louisiana. Man, great folks, great field and great hospitality. They sure know how to do it in the deep South. Sherita my friend from Santa Anna TX was also judging and we stayed with a friend of hers in Covington who has the most lovely aviary with finches, and all sorts of hookbills big and little. I fell in love with the umbrella cockatoo they had. If I am ever retired and home more I would love to have one for all the company they are. They love people. Saturday night they had a ROAST HOG IN THE PIT there and it was FINE eating man. Oh my my, let me sing the praises of the pig. Yummy yummy yummy I got pig in my tummy. Anyway, they also had wicked red beans and sausage for lunch Saturday ( and rice of course for those rice eaters) Sunday they had turkey and shrimp gumbo and man oh man whoever made that roux, wow. Sherita had a good weekend with one of her boys picking up majors two days and a different boy picking up a major on Sunday. I can't complain either , CJ was BOB on Sat lost the Best in Field run by one point, on Sunday though Vger was BOB and won the Best in Field run. I really really love that little goofy dog. He is so sweet. You can see him at the bottom of my blog behind his cousin Tory "running wilder". So a nice big gaudy ribbon ( which is how I think ALL Best in Field ribbons should be) for the Vee dog, a 40 pound bag of Pro Plan and his name engraved as the first dog on a perpetual trophy for a deceased club member.

Counting down the days to Las Vegas, only 3 more. I'm excited but of course dread the flight and I'm not a big city girl at all.

Oh yeah, my big news is I am down to a size 12 which ain't bad for someone who is 5'10"

Hope Springs Eternal

in everyone involved in breeding animals for a purpose whatever that purpose is. In my case it is a passion ( or maybe its an insanity) for breeding large well mannered, healthy sighthounds. Studying the pedigrees and the dogs themselves, often times working with friends who have similar goals ( that saves all of us from breeding a litter when we cobreed litters). The most current project just arrived yesterday ! The sire is group placing CH Avalon Prismatic Cobaka CGC, TDI , eyes CERF clear and cardiac OFA'd, DNA databanked owned by my dear friend Mary Lee Jenko in PA. Prism will be 6 years old in October this year and this is his first litter. Priz as he is affectionately called is this handsome white dog with spots you see in these two photographs. Mary Lee was one of those brilliant puppy buyers who wanted her first show dog to be old enough for her to tell about so she bought Prism when he was over 6 months old, gave him access to plenty of exercise, let him mature and trained him for the show ring with classes and also had a great handler friend who showed him for her due to her severe back problems at the time. Priz won WD at two big supported entries for his majors had BOB wins over specials at smaller shows from the classes too, it is a real joy to have been able to place a promising youngster with a truly motivated new owner. Prism is a big 33 inch hound with beautiful movement and type and a sweet loving temperament.

Dam of his first litter is a beautiful talented bright red bitch, DC Audruid Bremen's Techenetium of Ryhka MC,LCX, ORC owned by another good friend Diana Darling of Ryhka Borzoi in Maryland. Diana was good enough to do a cobreeding between herself, Mary Lee and me after she and I had carefully looked at pedigrees and what Techie's brother "Thor" had produced for me and in his outside breeding. Techie who is dedicated to the chase looked like a good choice as Priz really thinks that chasing plastic is probably a silly idea. Mary Lee called me yesterday from Diana's where she was there for the whelping of 3 male and 2 female pups all 14-18 ounces so big beasties. Two of the boys are the color of their mother black masked self reds (one of those boys will be staying at Ryhka) the other boy is a self deep mahogany brindle probably black masked but hard to say for certain about the mask at this stage of the game. One of the girls is also a self mahogany brindle (think Prism's spots color but all over) and the other girl is a spotted mahogany brindle marked a lot like her sire Priz. Needless to say I can't wait to see them. After Diana and Mary Lee pick their pups the other 3 babies will probably be coming to camp Quebeck to grow up a bit before I decide who is staying here. Techie's brother Thor has produced really well with the two girls from my line and an outside bitch, we hope to see the same happen with Techie and Priz.

By the Way

There are wee Borzoi puppies at my house for the first time in 3 years. 9 of them, 7 boys, 2 girls, they are 6 days old today all doing well. While there were no surprises as to the colors I got, the distribution of colors is a surprise I expected an even mix of reds or red brindles and blacks or silvers and I got 7 dominant blacks in various patterns , 1 red or gold brindle and 1 that I think is tri with brindle. This is the "Z" litter skipping some of those letters where its hard to find a cool name

Camera Hog

Last post tonight I promise. Keelo is one of those dogs that ends up with lots of photos of him everywhere. These two taken in New Mexico in February are kind of like, look at the mountains or look at him? So a compromise was struck and I took a bunch of photos of him looking all self stacked and show doggy ( well except for having his rabbit hunting ears on) all over the desert countryside. Here are a couple of my favorites. Above Keelo looking back at me like "Hey, are you getting all this?"

and then "Hmmm, I know if I keep my ears up like this I will HEAR a rabbit."

Wouldn't you know it?

One of the things I did on this trip was bring Day ( the white Borzoi with black spots in this photo) back to her owner Leonore in NM. Day had flown to TN LAST OCTOBER because she had started her season and we had planned to breed her to the top male ASFA Borzoi and the top living ASFA Borzoi right now. However...... she had other plans apparently. By the time her 3 hour flight got to TN her tooty had closed for business. There might as well have been a neon sign flashing NO ENTRY . Nobody was even vaguely interested in her and despite all the tail holding up and inspecting I could do, I couldn't find any reason for them to be interested either. So she stayed there for month after month with me doing everything but sacrificing chickens in my yard to try and get her to cycle. She said, "ain't nothing shakin' but the leaves on the trees lady". So back to Leonore's, since I was feeling poorly ( but not so poorly that we didn't manage a day in the field to meet the local wildlife with Steve Garth who by the way along with his wife own what may be the most perfect sighthound I've ever seen Camille the Galgo) I decided to stay two nights at Leonores'. Got up after the first night and we are looking at the dogs and DON'T YOU KNOW THIS BITCH IS IN SEASON? So plan B which had already been simmering on the back burner I left Vger a pretty impressive performance dog in his own rights in NM (he is the black dog in the photo). I had planned to take him to LGRA races this spring and work on that title but I am betting if I told him he could pick there is a good chance he would have chosen tooty over jackalure. Then again maybe not, he is smaller than she, I understand she is VERY LOUD and vocal protesting his attempts and their trysts may end up via turkeybaster. Such is a dog's life.

My Obsession

Since 1985 I have invested (dumped) a lot of money on this venture. The venture being the dog hobby. It is a money pit, but as I tell anyone bored enough to ask it keeps me out of bars. I have been really lucky to have some pretty nice dogs from others and also bred here. The boys here are Neechee and his two #1 ASFA sons Keelo and Vger who are black and white like him and his son Tarzan who is the spotted tri. Vger also known as Viagra and sometimes called "Sandra buy a vowel", has been a very entertaining little guy. Thanks to Dan Gauss and Lee Gearheart for these photos.