handler said Pearl is on fire!!!!!

So, hopefully will get a breeding in about 12 days …

Today at the Piedmont KC show in Charlotte NC!!!

beautiful girl. we hope to breed her to Mondo soon. she is a Jada/Griffin daughter from their second litter — so full sibling to Reny who is a finished champion & Lili who we already bred to Mondo and had a gorgeous litter from which we kept the brownie – Susie Victoria. Lady is a “could/shoulda” in my opinion —- could have and should have been a champion. So, she & Mondo will also have beauties.

woohooooooo. Pearl won the morning’s Quinnipiac Poodle Club Specialty Show — so she is no longer a one-hit-wonder – LOL. She won under a notable breeder judge too — meaningful to me as a breeder that breeder-judges put up my dogs!!! I don’t think specialties count in the rankings though-they never showed her first BIS on them. But, not complaining — she has me on cloud nine again. I think her Great Granny Annie is watching over her —

Was hoping she made it to #5 but she went even better – as of August 31st she is the #3 Standard Poodle in the AKC Breed ranking. She is also #2 for Grand Championship points earned so far this year and she is #6 Standard Poodle in the AKC All Breeds ranking. The Breed ranking is based on what she does in the Breed/Variety ring — where the breed judging is done and has to win Best of Variety to count in the ranking. Whoever wins Best of Breed/Variety then can go into the group judging. You can win in the breed ring and not do anything in the group, hence the two rankings. To go up in the All Breed ranking, you have to win or place in the group judging. Pearl has been pretty consistently doing some placement/winning in the group so she has gone up in that ranking too. Its pretty meaningful too — its much harder to do something in the group than in the breed ring. So #6 there is very good too. But, the Breed ranking is what matters for Westminster — you have to at least qualify to be eligible to even enter WKC and then you have to put in multiple entries and hope at least one is picked in the lottery-style entry process. Last year, she qualified and we put in five entries and two were picked so we went. This year, if she maintains a place in the top five Breed ranking, she will be invited and I just say, yes thank you, we will be there. Now, right behind her in a tie for fourth place are two dogs who as of the end of August were about 120 pts behind her. She sat out two weekends in September so I hope that doesn’t enable those two to pass her which would put her back to #6. Ohhhhh, the suspense… But no matter — I mean, wow, my girl made it to #3 standard poodle in the country — wooohoooooooo

what a face — apparently not happy being bathed. too funny but isn’t he cute.

so strange without my Annie. even with multiple dogs, I miss any one of them when not here. I held her before she ever breathed, I held her when she opened her eyes for the first time and I watched as she decided she was above the shenanigans of her hooligan littermates. she would sit and watch them carry on and then come to me to pick her up as if to “really, why must I be subjected to that”. each of my dogs are a presence in the household and I love each one for their own traits. I peeled an orange this morning and almost couldn’t finish — oranges& strawberries were her favorite thing in the world. she would come running whenever she smelled one and knew when we brought them in from grocery shopping. she especially loved the little clementines. my friend sent me some pictures of Dino and Nala from Chicago to cheer me up. It worked some. Here they are. My beautiful Dino is a Tiara son and sired by the same dog as Velvet. He is quite beautiful and finished his championship as a puppy now five years ago. sigh… and Nala looking quite gorgeous here is a littermate to my PJ, so is a Peri/Marco son. I tried to breed her to Mondo but no go — I tried AI’s with Dino’s semen flown in when she was here, two different times, then Mondo for a natural breeding two different times. So, I gave up with her but you can see from this picture why I tried in the first place — beauty and she is a sweet girl too. oh well, stuff happens. this breeding stuff is not easy. sometimes it goes smoothly and often not. plus I then have more dogs to worry over and cry over -not just the ones I keep but all the ones out there that I produced with my boys and my girls — but I keep going. just some days are harder than others – like yesterday and today. but again, these pictures did cheer me and so are the antics of Vivi who is right now doing everything in her power to cheer me up — maybe that’s not her intent but it is the result — she is flinging herself onto the couch and rolling around, then jumping up and running to me as if to say, “are you watching me”. funny creature. well, here is Dino (black) and Nala (cream)…

Annie died at home early this morning. She knew it was time too and chose to go while sleeping by my side.

Annie was at the vet most of today again after once again being sick for a couple of days. Finally, although sadly, we now know why she keeps getting sick. They found a mass in her intestine. After listening to my vets prognosis for her I decided it is her time to go. I brought her home for the night mainly because she’d been at the vet’s all day and I just didn’t want that to be her last experience. So tonight she’s been in my lap more than not, sleeping and tomorrow I must let her go. Here are some pictures from her babyhood til now. I want to celebrate her life as she was the most dear girl. Annie is my second home-bred champion and although she did not have a lot of puppies, she produced beautiful puppies and I finished one champion son – Marco. But she has multiple grand and great grand children champions to include Trudee, Velvet, Mondo, Questo, Vivi and Pearl. Most importantly however is that she is the sweetest thing. A true pure soul.