Lucy helped to mend their hearts

Carol and Ken were  so terribly upset at Inga's passing  and asked if we perhaps had another older bitch they could love as much.

 Lucy was Inga's grandaughter and was still quite young, she had only one puppy in her only litter. Still, they are so wonderful to their dogs we offered  them Lucy. Lucky Lucy!

Lucy's only puppy 'Lance' now being loved by Mili in Qld, along with his half brother 'Herbie'

Glamerous Lucy

We love her to bits!I thought that Inga was perfect and I can't believe our luck by having Lucy in our lives.

Have you ever seen anything like it?  Our daughter has a feather looking vest (which is rather nice really) and thought that Lucy looked a bit cold, so she took it off and put her inside it and wrapped it around her.  Lucy thought that she was the Queen of the Dachshunds and snuggled in and fell asleep.  Truly, that little dog has us laughing so much and as you can see we are not the only ones to spoil her. 

'RICO' our latest Grand Champion

Grand Champion Sonree Starlite Rioswing age 7, as handsome as  he ever was!

 December 2013....

Finally I am back to updating this blog, what a busy year it has been once again!
Our  very dear sweet  natured dog Rico gained his grand Championship in early October, making three generations of Sonree to gain this title. Rico was retired with 800 points towards his grand Title in 2009 after being awarded Reserve Dog at the Sydney Royal.
We had new boys to campaign, Harry his nephew who was awarded Best in Show at 8 months of age  plus many other wins,  and then Marcus, Harry's son who was also made up to  Australian Champion.
In 2012 as I had no other males to show  at the time, Rico was still looking pretty good  at age 6. I thought that I would take him along  to a few shows for company for the young females puppies I was then showing, to settle them.

 Rico was like a new dog  and certainly had a new zest for showing, he just strutted his stuff and although many times younger dogs were awarded first place, he would invariably be awarded second place. There were still many times  though that he was placed first and Best of Breed. It took 18 months for him to gain the exrta 200 points he still needed for his 1000 points to be awarded his Grand Championshiptitle.

Rico gained his Grand Champion title in Inverell October 2013,  on a winning note with Runner up to Best In Group and Best Open Exhibit in group

Rico has always been a favourite of the children, to take into the Junior Showmanship events held at the shows. The Junior handling events are a great way for the youngsters to come up through the ranks. This was to be the little girl's first effort in the competition, her grandmother didn't have a suitable manageable dog for her to enter with.  So she asked if she could take Rico. Rico would go off  with the children, although he would give me an inquiring look to ask if it was okay, I would just say  to him "Yes , off  you go, that's a good boy" and he would  happily  trot with off  with them for the competition. . The cute photo above with Elenni cuddling Rico was used  in an advertisement for the up coming Shows in the local newspaper recently.

A photographer at the show took this photo as we were waiting to go into the showring.
left to right, Rico, Bellen Madama Butterfly 'Suki' , Rico's son  Bellen Red Jupiter 'Bertie'
his sister Bellen Black Velvet If You Please,'Vellie' lives  here with us, and Ch Sonree She 'Honey'

More stories from Inga

Dear Mum Virginia and Dad Lyle

Life here at the Gold Coast gets better by the day although I have to tell you

about a nasty experience that I had the other night. 

Would you believe, I found fresh, green, chopped, crisp,  crunchy  BEANS 

at the bottom of my dinner plate (the one with Snoopy at the bottom)!!! 

Now I ask you "What were they thinking?"

The Snoopy plate looked perfectly normal to look at with a layer of fresh

chicken breast on top, which I devoured in two seconds flat, 

then a layer of yummy freshly cooked penne pasta underneath which only took 1 second

to polish off and THERE THEY WERE, JUST STARING UP AT ME   - 

the fresh, green, chopped crispy, crunchy BEANS. 

I tell you, just the look of them would turn a dog's stomach. 

I carefully picked up a couple and gave one bite and quickly spat them out

on the mat.  I managed to pull out another lot and put them aside without tasting 

them and then I had to push the remainder to one side of my plate to find the one

and only piece of pasta that had escaped me. 

It took a lot of patience I can tell you. 

The story gets even better because by this stage Mum and Dad had collapsed on the couch 

literally laughing their heads off.  How could they do this to me?  I heard Mum say 

that next time she would cook them with other vegies as she knows that I do like them. 

I couldn't even get to lick Snoopy's face because of those horrible little green things 

and Dad had to empty them into the bin. 

I hope that they have learnt their lesson. 

I looked across at James and to my horror there he was chewing up the nasty 

green beans and ENJOYING them!  What is wrong with that dog?

We are going away in our caravan for over 3 weeks and James said the caravan parks

are great for dogs and we can go for long walks on the beach. 

Vale Inga

Sadly Inga past away aged 9 years after 4 years being loved by Lyle and I 

and 5 wonderful years of loving and being loved with Carol and Ken.

 Carol and Ken were distraught at losing her and asked 

if we had another older girl who could be a friend to James. 

So then along came Lucy with the waggly tail!

Lucy joined James in January 2012

Babies are now 4 weeks old

They are eating solid food now ,and are getting around on their feet well.

Haven't they grown from those first photos  from day one! They are still very interested in feeding from Mum  and we do not restrict this at all, Maggie will decide when she has had enough.......