Good Friends!

Jeri’s Beautiful Stencil

Good friends will: (over the course of 9 years) take a chance on a totally clueless newbie and sell me my first show dog who becomes my heart dog and opens a whole new world to me, sell me my second show dog who finishes several championships without too much effort because he’s very pretty, although he does have his own agenda – LOL!, and offer up her lovely young boy as stud for our girl, all the while offering mentoring and friendship above and beyond. Thank you is completely inadequate, Marian!

Good friends will: when I loaned her an as yet unused whelping box “kit” (ahem, apparently missing some key parts), bring it back with a linoleum floor, paint it a lovely shade of lavendar (purple is the Winners color, you know!) AND stencil my kennel logo on the side, not to mention filled with the good luck and happy vibes of the stunning litter she raised in it, do endless hours of unpaid website work, and give up a precious Sunday with husband and small children to help deliver puppies not even remotely related to her. Thanks so much, Jeri!

Good friends will: make a three-hour round trip on a work night to band tails of puppies not hers and be kind enough to say that the majority of the litter might be show prospects, not to mention offer practical help and knowledge borne of years of experience. Linda, you’re a treasure; thank you! Thank you as well, Janet, for your help too.

Good friends will: take a week of precious vacation to make a 2800 mile round trip, get no sleep for 3 nights running, sit around doing nothing until something happens, listen to my incessant rambling about everything and nothing, dog related or not, my fears and triumphs, my worries and dreams, and only ask to be kept in Diet Coke in return. This and so much, much more I could say, but she knows and I know, and that’s what matters. How could I ever do without you, Jinnie?

Good friends will: let this hobby of dogs take your wife away from home for most weekends along with a lot of your money, make her speak a foreign language sprinkled with words that would make a sailor blush, force you to share your castle with more dog hair than ought to be legal, girls in season, crazed boys because of girls in season, rescue dogs of dubious temperament, health, and training who take more of your money, dogs who refuse to sleep late on weekends, and make you clean up more bodily effluence than anybody should have to face in a lifetime as a daily matter of course. Bob, my love, your support means more to me than anyone will ever know and more than I could ever put into words.

It takes a village to raise a “dog person”. To you all, and to so many others who mentored and advised, offered help and reassurance, congratulations and cheers – THANK YOU!!!