I don’t even know where to begin with this! So much to talk about and so many wonderful animals that I’ve known in my life!
Ch. Recherche de Charlemagne
As far back as I remember we had a dog at home. The first dog I remember was a little black dog named Peanuts. I don’t think I have any photos of him, but I remember him clearly. I remember that my dad fed him Gaines-Burgers and that he ran around the neighborhood!
The next dog I remember our family owning was Daisy. Dad won her at a poker game, believe it or not!
Daisy was the start of my parent's venture into showing dogs. She was purported to be a Briard, which we had never heard of. Mom did some research and she and I went to a local dog show and talked to an exhibitor there about the dogs. Mom came back all excited about the breed and the next thing we knew, we had Boris, a black natural ear Briard and just a lovely dog!
Brother Mike, Mom Dorothy, black Briard Boris and white dog, Daisy
Mom entered Boris in obedience (which he was okay at) and Dad entered Boris in conformation, which is about how close the dog comes to the ‘standard’. I don’t remember our first dog show – I only know it was one of hundreds to come!
Their kennel name was “de Charlemagne” and one of our dogs won at the Westminster dog show – yep, that dog show! We had so many puppies – that we bred or that we bought – it was like life in a zoo sometimes! Boris and Charlie were our stud dogs and Cheri, Tressa, and Vonye were our dams. We had people send their females to us to be bred with one of the stud dogs and well, sometimes it was like a whirlwind!
Mom and Dad were very successful with their breeding program and actually ended up owning a Grand Champion. Their dogs are considered the basis for the Briard in America today. Puppies that they’ve raised have become Grand Champions in their own right, which made mom really proud.
After being around all of those dogs (and cleaning up all of that poop! Lol), when I moved out to be on my own, I found I missed the companionship of the animals, but I knew that I didn’t want a dog – so I got a cat!
Bitsy
Since that cat, Ceil, I’ve had several more, including my current cat, Bitsy, the adorable tortoiseshell cat that my company is named after. She’s the boss of the house and rather aloof – except when she wants to be petted, of course!.
I promise I’ll post more on this later! I HAVE to tell you about all of the fun things we did with – and for – our dogs!