At Manchester
Championship Show a number of years ago when it was held at Haydock
Race Course, Felicity came across a rather scruffy impish looking
little dog which we later found out to be a Pyrenean Sheepdog and as
we were both getting older, we had decided that large active dogs in
their old age and our late sixties would be too much to cope with and
so we had decided to look for something smaller, but, interesting.
We made
enquiries and met Brenda Judson and Basil (Carabrae Demetrius) who
had been born on 14/2/94 to Demelza Octavia June by Gin De La
Bourguine And Carabrae. He came to live with us during 1995 and had
much success in those Open and Championship Shows who bothered to
schedule Import Register Classes. He wasn't really interested in
obedience, other than the ‘Send Away' in which he excelled! The
idea was that we should use him at stud, but, unfortunately, he never
had much success with the girls he did his best to please. He now
spends most of his time guarding the property, the girls, the cats
and any other thing he can round up. About the same time we got
Basil, a little black terrier cross needed a home and we being soft
in the head, brought Penny home to stay with us.
In August 1997
we were visiting Brenda Judson and met Carabrae Madame Butterfly
(Mimi) who was born on 6/06/97 from Carabrae Camille by Gin De La
Bourguine and Carabrae. She was such an extrovert, flinging herself
at Felicity seeming to say choose me. Unfortunately we succumbed and
took her home with us. She has done amazingly well in all the shows
she has entered, winning Best Import Puppy and Best Import on several
occasions. We hoped that Mimi and Basil would mate and have a super
litter of puppies, but, unfortunately, they never ‘clicked'. In
fact Mimi only had one season a year and it took until February 2001
to get her in whelp by Carabrae Klaus (Santa). She had a normal
pregnancy but when the time came for the birth of the puppies, she
had great difficulty resulting in a Caesarian Section at 3.30am on
the morning of 5th April 2001. Unfortunately there were only two
puppies, a large still born boy and a girl weighing in at 11oz.
We decided to
keep her and called her Merrywood Dark Image (Katie) as she seemed to
be just like her mum. As a puppy, Katie did well in breed classes
winning Best Import at Driffield Championship Show and numerous other
awards at Open and Championship level. As she has grown older, her
coat has gone from almost black to a super silver/grey. She loves
attention just like her mum and has responded to obedience training
just like a duck taking to water. We are hopeful that some time in
2003, she will also have a litter.
©
copyright Merrywood 2002