In my life outside of the dog world, I am the Contracts Officer for the Port of Victoria in Victoria, Texas. I currently serve as the National Treasurer of the National American Eskimo Dog Association and am a member of the Southeast Texas American Eskimo Dog Club and Event Coordinator of the UKC Texas Classic. I am also a member and secretary of the Kennel Club of Greater Victoria and founding member and secretary of the Calhoun County Humane Society. We bought our first American Eskimo, Jack’s Steele Spike, at a Petland store in Hopkins, Minnesota in 1985. My husband, Charles, trained Spike in Obedience and we attended our first UKC shows and trials at the Wisconsin Dells Holiday Inn in 1987. Our second American Eskimo, Somerset’s White Ginger, joined us in 1986, also from a Petland store, this time in Des Moines, Iowa. Both Spike and Ginger were miniatures, but we soon came to realize we preferred the look and the temperaments of the standards. At one of the Wisconsin club’s shows in Portage, we met Charline Dunnigan (Grizzell), and in 1991 as she was divorcing, she asked if we would be interested in a puppy because she needed to place all her dogs except Lady. As it turned out, she had two littermate puppies, both girls. We agreed to take them, then decide which one we wanted to keep and sell the other for her. The two puppies were Cascade Chantels Shadows Sugar and Cascade’s L’Etoile du Nord (Sugar and Pebbles) and neither ever left. Early in 1992, we started looking for a standard size male and happily found a 19-month-old male Dick Kortemeier had and was willing to part with. In February, Kort-Mar Vegas Hit It Big (Bam Bam) came to live with us. In the span of about six weeks, we went from two dogs to five. The rest, as they say, is history! In 1993, we added JayBar’s Outback Cody, and in 1994, we added Sierra’s High Society and JayBar Lolipop’s Teslin of Vegas. In 1996, we acquired Debonair’s Classic Fame Makr, and in 2003, Alpine’s Cutting Edge. These are the foundation dogs of our line. There is not a single dog from our kennel that doesn’t go back to at least one if not two or more of these dogs. From the beginning, we have loved and enjoyed the family that is UKC. To this day, given the choice, we always choose a UKC show over any other registry’s events. We encourage all our buyers to continue with the UKC tradition of the BeSota dogs and many have, excelling in not only conformation but in performance events as well. Our current kennel of 21 American Eskimos includes 10 UKC Grands, 5 UKC Champions, 4 in the process of completing their UKC championships, and two that will start their show careers in UKC shortly. Of the 21, we have one 14-year-old, one 12-year-old, one 11-year-old, three 10-year-olds, one 9-year-old, two 8-year-olds, and then the youngsters, the youngest being just nine months old. We also own two mixed breed dogs, Franklin (a Smooth Collie mostly) and Daisy (a Finnish Lapphund mostly). And last but not least, there's the token cat, Bootsie, who honestly believes herself to be an Eskie. |
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