Victoria…end of an era

Posted: May 31, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: FFT Lhasa Apsos | Tags: , , | 1 Comment

In Saying Good-bye, Julie wrote about the timeline, Victoria being there for significant milestones in her life. Looking for a graphic to include with Julie’s moving tribute, I came upon this page from an old ad.

Ah. Victoria. The foundation for the future. Biopsy normal kidneys. Olivia’s daughter. Fourth generation tail female to my foundation bitch Jelly Bean. Renal Dysplasia. Not giving up or getting out. For me too memories came flooding back, memories marking the long and winding road Julie and I have walked together. Indeed Victoria was the foundation for the future. She produced five Champion offspring, including the best Lhasa Apso we’ve ever bred.

(Sorry, but I cannot figure out how to exclude the ad from this slideshow of her Champion offspring.)

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Champion FFT C’est La Vie
Champion FFT Sine Qua Non
Champion FFT Que Sais-je
Champion FFT Veni Vidi Vici RA NAP NJP CL3-R, CL3-F, CL3-H
Champion FFT Do U Wanna Dance

Each of these dogs had wonderful careers in the ring, including Specialty wins. C’est La Vie remains with Julie. After contributing to the breeding program, the other four moved on to forever homes.

Move on. We’ve talked about it off and on for years, including deep soul-searching in the mid-nineties. It wasn’t yet time. While enthusiasm waxed and wained there were still goals that excited us. Anticipation of a great puppy in the next litter. Another breeding dog achieving another Register of Merit as a producer. Kicking some a$$ at the next Specialty. Class dogs was my name and Best of Winners was my game. The group ring was Julie’s thing. She did it magnificently. We have bred and/or owned ??? 120 Champions. Our dogs have been consistent winners at Specialties, from Best in Sweepstakes to Best in Specialty Show. Many, many times. Fernando was a Best in Show dog. We’ve had dogs in the top twenty year after year. We still do, in spite of competing very little this past year. What more is there to do?

Tending garden sounds nice. Relaxing on the deck this summer sounds even nicer. Learning something new sounds grand. New challenges outside the conformation ring even grander.

Julie’s right. It is time to go forward on that new path. What’s grandest of all is that she and I continue to move along the dog path together. There’s nothing like old times and old friends, except perhaps, some old wine…shared, of course, with an old friend.

Here’s to us girlfriend! And to Victoria! Here’s to the end of an era! Here’s to our new path! Wherever that may lead us!

Mom

Posted: May 8, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain | Leave a comment

Last night I was really missing my mom. She’s been gone since 1997. Her cat Laura is still with me.

My home is filled with things I love, most remind me of someone I love. In the background of this photo I see Dante, Fernando, Julie, Ron. When I stop and observe my surroundings the people – and a dog or four – of my life are there with me. Last night sitting in the chair with Laura, across the room was the rubber tree mom sent me on Mountain Pet Grooming’s opening day in our new location. July 1995.

It sits behind my reading chair in the living room.

After mom died a friend told me after 14 years there were still times she started to pick up the phone, wanting to talk to her mom. Mom’s now been gone for 14 years. Oh! To have a phone call with her! I have so many things to tell her!

Mom exposed me to dog shows, allowing me several show dogs, a Miniature Poodle and a Shetland Sheepdog. A Standard Poodle person herself, she never understood my infatuation with the Lhasa Apso. She thought they were ‘stupid’. The things I could have shared with her along my own path! After Edie earned her Rally title, my sister Lori told me mom would have been proud of me. Obedience was one of mom’s passions. She taught obedience class right up until she went into the hospital. She had to sit on a stool to do it, but she taught. Mom was still old school. How fun it would have been to share c/t with her! To see Edie sail over the jumps this morning, doing a hard serpentine sequence… mom would see Lhasas aren’t stupid.

Julie and I discovered RD (renal dysplasia) in our breeding program in 1996, so mom was aware of that. I don’t remember if she knew about the initial research project or if that happened after her death. She gave me a love of reading and always had the latest dog magazines. Back in a time when magazines were full of articles, ads full of information rather than glitz. I devoured them. To be able to show her the research paper…she would be proud of me.

How I would have loved her to be along my side as I navigated the Gompa dog path. Not that she would have understood my infatuation – as I mentioned earlier. But she would have listened and encouraged me. I would love to tell her that I achieved something huge for my breed, the opening of the AKC gene pool. And that Haba is coming May 29th.

When I was in Vet Tech school, she’d phone every Thursday morning at 7am. Sometimes I begrudged those phone calls, stumbling down the dorm hallway to answer the phone. What I wouldn’t give today for that phone to ring and hear her voice on the other end!

Saying Goodbye

Posted: May 4, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: FFT Lhasa Apsos | Tags: | 1 Comment

Julie wrote the tribute. I couldn’t have done it better. There are things I want to say, want to write. Later.

On April 20th Fleetfire Timbers’ Victoria ROM chose to say “good-bye.”

Victoria had turned 15 yrs old last Halloween, she had been blind for over a year but other than that she was happy and healthy.

I’ve told myself I have accepted death as a natural part of life, and it is better to end life than to suffer.  And yet, I find myself in tears each time I think of Victoria. I’m sadden by her loss, of course, but it is more than that.  Victoria’s life was a timeline to mine.  So many milestones were reached during her 15+ years of life.  I remembering naming the litter, sitting at Debby’s kitchen table, how many times over the years have Debby and I shared that experience?  I remember Debby gifting Victoria to my daughter Kaylee, her first Junior Showmanship dog-Kaylee is now almost 25 and an expert handler/breeder in her own right. Victoria is C’est La Vie’s mom, the dog that changed me and my life the most.   Phone calls on health, new litters and sharing all the wins and losses, the highs and the lows that have been part of my “dog” life.  Victoria has been with me through all of them these past 15+ years.  For the past couple of years I have been telling myself it is time move on, and although I know it is right for me it is very hard to let go of a past I truly loved and made me the person I am today.

I think Victoria is telling me the time is right, it is time to go forward on that new path- without her.