Rising Star Chihuahuas & Rising Sun Pekingese

Mom and I have been involved with dogs since I was in Jr. High School. We started with Pekingese “back in the day”! We had those dear little dogs till I was almost out of high school and at the same time mom got her first chow, a sweet little girl named “Honey”. We lovingly called her “Honeydo” as she did as she wanted most of the time. Rather a mind of her own, that we find out to be true of the breed in general.

After I got married and moved away, mom and dad decided they would have another chow and they bought their second girl. “Cocoa” was the beginning of a long road of learning grooming, showing, breeding and raising this wonderful breed, the Chow Chow.

Mom and I traveled many weekends together to dog shows all over Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. I learned a lot about reading maps, she drove and I was the “swamper”. I could read the road signs from further away and I could see the map easier too, so it worked out pretty well that way. “Neither rain nor sleet nor snow” could keep us away from those beckoning dog shows…and we went in all kinds of weather, driving station wagon, vans or motor home…we went.

Cocoa became the foundation bitch of “Shoh-Dee Chows” and over the next 25 years or so we earned the Championship title on over 50 chows, most of them we bred, and a few we bought from other chowists. Out of Cocoa’s first litter of 5, 3 became champions so we were off and running. We have many wonderful memories of all the chows over the years and now we have our last ones. I have an 8 yr old red chowboy, “Puttson” and mom has her 10 yr old “Koal”. Due to health reasons mom and I both had to downsize the size of dog we were caring for so we have gone back to the Pekingese and also include now 2 pugs, a few Chihuahuas, and 2 shih-tzu.

This page is just to let everyone know how much I appreciate my mom, how much I have learned from her, how very proud I am of her and her accomplishments and how happy I was being the “gopher” for her at the shows. Even when she was in the ring, I could not sit and rest, I had to be ready to “go fer this or go fer that”!! A gopher’s work is never done. There were weekends when I stayed home and cared for the new litter of chow puppies and she would go to the shows with other friends and I was always glad to have her come back home and give me the report. Many of those stories started with “I wish you could have been there….”

So, to sum it all up…

THANK YOU MOM!!!! For all the many times we shared together, the happy times, the sad times and the ones when we walked out of a show and wondered...

 “What was that judge thinking?”

I Love You Mom,

        Paula

 
       Mom and I June 2005