Will the real Susan..

..please step up. Several people have asked me about Susan. Susan in the Tibetan costume. Panchen’s Susan. Susan in California. Are they the same Susan? No, although California is a commonality.

Panchen’s Susan lives permanently in California with three – now four – Gompa dogs. Susan got her original Gompa Rinchen from Ceese. Then a second, Tsante aka Sammy. Somehow, like Panchen, Raji made her way to Susan’s house. Maybe Susan will comment on her introduction to the Gompa dogs and how one dog led to another.

The Susan in the Tibetan costume lived in California for years. In the past several years, she and Bud have been transitioning to Colorado, renovating a house here, preparing to sell a house there. Great people, fun people, we wish they’d hurry up!  Both Bud and Susan have bred and shown Lhasa Apsos for a number of years. Their story as a couple is heartwarming, compassionate, with a last gift of love and companionship. It’s the kind of story that restores my often cynical, jaded view on our species. With their permission, I will someday share that story with you. In the meantime, Susan wrote this piece, Like A Pebble On A Pond, about her grandaugher.

Tibetan costume

While organizing some photos, preparing for the Library of Memories class I’ve signed up for this spring, I came across these two photos of my friends Julie and Susan. Susan wore it at Meet The Breeds, held during the December 2007 AKC Eukanuba Classic, a televised event you may have seen. I think the classic airs on Animal Planet, including select dog shows held throughout the year. Julie wore it when we presented the Gompa dogs at the 2004 National Specialty in St. Louis. Pat Keen-Fernandez is Keeper of the Costume. There are elements of it that are authentic; others simply for an authentic aura. 

Ken on…Never Forget Why

Armchair Traveling

I’ve added a new feature to the blog. Look down the left hand column and note Armchair Traveling. People often share really cool sites with me, which I’d like to share with you. Here’s a glimpse of what’s inside Helen Thayer’s site:

Three Among the Wolves: A Year of Friendship with Wolves in the Wild

In the summer of 1994, Helen Thayer and her husband Bill, hiked above the Arctic Circle in the Canadian Yukon Territory to live for six months one hundred feet from a wolf den to observe and document their daily lives. They returned in the winter months to interact with and document the lives of wolves and polar bears on the frozen polar sea and the vast Mackenzie Delta in Canada’s frozen north.
This remarkable book is a result of those unique experiences. The key to Thayer’s acceptance was Charlie, the author’s Inuit dog of magnetic North Pole fame. Following Charlie’s lead the Thayers’ discover the complexities of wolf family structure, including the alpha male and female, care of the pups, hunting and survival skills. This book is both a natural history of wolves and adventure tale. Far from being the viscous killers of popular imagining, the Thayer’s found that wolves form loving family bonds in a world that offers them neither safety nor understanding.

Finalist at the Banff National Book Festival 2005.