Re: new baby pictures

[Gina Heitz <brier@oregonsbest.com>]

At 02:06 PM 7/18/01 -0700, you wrote:
>Gina,
>sweet story about the namesake..............
>
>Patty.
Oh Patty,

If you only had the time to read all of my sweet stories about these dogs 
and what they mean to me, and how much love and thought goes into each of 
their names as it does with all of you...  Also as you well know the love 
they return.

Our Gambler was named to tribute my first dog as an adult, a GSD that was a 
wash out from the Guide Dogs for the Blind program in San Rafael 
CA.  "Hobby" was too much dog for the program and I was the chosen one to 
"tame" him.  Well after 24 hours of having Hobby I drug out the phone book 
looked up dog trainers and found the Marin County Dog Obedience Club, the 
most affordable option I could find, and truly the best too, as this is 
where I got my start in the world of pure bred dogs, this was in 1985.  I 
had never had a dog before and I was totally lost and Hobby was a lot of 
dog but I was to ignorant to know this at that time.  I thought a dog was a 
dog and well you just had to teach them, ignorance is such bliss.  Actually 
I thought I was getting a semi trained dog.

After the first week of classes he settled in fairly well, had a good chunk 
of his coat missing form his neck form all the pulling and my biceps grew 
and inch at least.  By 3 months we were a team, and we were competing in 
matches and getting ready to go for our CD.  One problem though, Guide 
Dog's retains ownership and to compete Hobby would have to be ILP'ed 
through AKC a proxy registration so to speak.  I got the forms and when I 
called Guide Dogs to get some info I thought they would have they signed 
him over to me so I did not have to do the ILP, back then btw it cost $8.00 
to register a dog with AKC, August 1 2001 it goes up to $15.00.  Once 
registered Hobby and I hit the bricks hard, and we went into the obedience 
ring almost every weekend, matches and trials when we could find a 
trail.  I put two legs on Hobby toward his CD in 3 tries.  He then became 
ill.  Along came Gambler, not planned at all he was actually a gift from 
his breeder as a 9 week old fluff ball. His breeder knew I was loosing 
Hobby, I did not, again ignorance was bliss, till the day I had to say good 
bye to Hobby.  He had a brain tumor.  His name was:  Major Hobby Von 
Felix.  Major because he was a "police dog" Hobby as that was his call 
name, back then I thought you had to use the call name in the registered 
name.  Von to designate German, and Felix was my married at that time name.

Gambler helped me through the loss and was my constant companion for 12 
years, I think I can count the days of separation between Gambler and I on 
two hands...  He saw me though it all, good times, bad times, iffy times 
and the best of times: the here and now the move to Oregon with George the 
trips to the coast, the mountains, just hanging out on the farm.  His 
registered name was:  Foxfire's Gambl'en For A Hobby, I think it was a 
really nice tribute to a great dog "Hobby".  I have carried on the 
tradition of the tribute names through Gidget, as she was born on Gamblers 
12th birthday, 21 days after her birth he passed on.  DiTTo again tributes 
the theme with her registered name...

More later, it's getting really late, and I am just about out of tissue...

Gina