I have been really, really busy since my last post.  I keep meaning to write every day, but always seem to be become involved in so many things.  I barely get email done.  I do have puppies available, mostly really pretty rubies who will go to pet homes once decisions about selecting show dogs is done.  Both litters are from our wonderful Ch. Rattlebridge Code Red. 

I am very involved in the pending legislation in Ohio.  Beside SB 173/HB 223, we also have SB 71 concerning the legitimate breeders.  This Bill would allow dogs living in abusive situations, such as dog fighting kennels, to be confiscated by law officials without due process being observed.  No one wants to see dogs living in abuse or neglect, but the worry is that owners’ individual rights may be at stake.  Walt Bebout, Director of Legislation, at AKC gave a very informative talk this past Saturday during the Lima Kennel Club show in Columbus.  We are forming an Ohio Federation of Dog Clubs to get clubs in Ohio to band together for political strength as we fight legislation which would seriously affect us legitimate show breeders who try our best to do right by the dogs we breed and own.  We have formed a steering committee to form the Federation.  I do hope we have enough club involvement to make the Federation go. 

This past weekend was the fall cluster of Columbus, Ohio shows.   I judged on Friday: Dobermans, Mastiffs, Rottweilers, Samoyeds, Portuguese Water Dogs.  I had a full day’s work and enjoyed every minute of it.  I cannot take as many judging assignments as in the past because of Al’s need to have me home, but I do so like to judge.  I saw some very good dogs.  My wonderful friend and co owner, Margaret Valentine, flew up from Texas to spend five days.  As always when together, we had a great time watching the show the days that I did not judge and operating as the fashion police, very quietly and respectfully  of course.  We also had the chance to spend time with our great friend and co owner Sherri Meyer and her daughter Nicole Newkirk.  Sherri and Nicole finished the championship of their black Italian Greyhound “Walker,”  a really lovely IG.  Margaret and Sherri co owned our last two Best in Show  and number one Cavaliers with me.  Margaret is the co breeder and co owner of Ch. Rattlebridge From Dusk ‘Til Dawn and his sisters except for Ch.  Delta Dawn who is co owned with Sherri Meyer. 

Meanwhile back at the farm, we have recently housed a few Humane Society dogs in the back kennel.  We also have a young and very pretty stud pony that was picked up running the roads of our county.  One of our mares is totally in love and in flaming heat with this pony and cannot understand why we will not let her have access to her boyfriend.  We want no unplanned breedings here!  We are running a “found pony” ad with absolutely no calls to claim him.  How can someone not notice the loss of a pony?!!He is not staying as cute as he is.  I am presently doing all the horse chores since Al has had his shoulder surgery and another equine body is one too many. We need homes for the Humane Society dogs and the pony. I do hope they all can find wonderful forever homes.  We have our own rescue dog and there is no more room in our house since the Cavaliers are still hanging from the chandeliers!  Want a beagle mix or two, we have it.  Want a border collie mix, we have it.  We have designer dogs whom no one created on purpose, but I believe that all of these dogs deserve the same wonderful homes as my Cavaliers get.  I am on the Humane Society of Morrow County Board and am the public relations director.  The Humane Society takes many hours of time from the whole board.  We do not have a shelter and do not have the money to fund a shelter in the near future.  We depend on foster homes which have been very scarce lately, hence the gang of dogs in our back kennel.  Working for the Humane Society is hard as it is difficult to see so many animals in trouble. If you wish to help animals, volunteer at your local humane society.

One of the very odd things happening in shelters around the country is the importation of puppies from other countries.  Our country is really making a effort to spay and neuter actually reducing the number of animals in shelters in different parts of the country.  So now certain shelters, which depend on adoption fees, are actually bringing in puppies and dogs, sometimes from other countries, to make available for adoption.  Our humane society has a voucher program to help people neuter their cats and dogs and we do not make any animal available for adoption which has not been spayed or neutered.

My Clooney is back from Canada and on my lap once more.  I keep being asked if we are going to send him out to be shown to be ranked in this country, but I do not think that I can bear to have him gone from me.  He is the best little companion.  His sister Delta Dawn is back home from Sherri Meyer to be bred. She is so beautiful.  I am so excited to do this breeding with Sherri. 

Well, my darling husband who was all set to move, has decided not to move–this is after I started the huge task of sorting through every hidden hoard of “STUFF” in the house. The property we wanted to buy that started all this moving business turned out to have serious flaws and we simply cannot find anyplace nicer than our place despite the work of this property. Al is now facing a couple of possible surgeries and now is not the time to take on the physical tasks that come with moving. I do not know how we will ever tackle cleaning out all Al’s stash of baling wire, string, tools, nuts, bolts, pieces of lumber he might just need “someday,” farm equipment, the hay elevator (which I bought for him for his birthday we first moved here–how romantic but you should see what he buys for me! This year I got a Mantis rototiller!); fencing; fence posts, lawn equipment; old lawn chairs that he might need someday–the list could go on. Al says not to worry, he will “take care of it.” Yeah, right! Men say that women are pack rats, but at least what we keep makes some sense. I have gone through years of dog magazines; clothes from my skinny days, to my really heavy days, back to halfway skinny days, back up rotund days, and now wherever the hell I am size wise;old books; notes from high school classes; old term papers; years of dog pictures of assorted breeds, furniture that just may have a spot someday; piles of clutter and more clutter. If I cannot fill up every horizontal surface of the house, I do not seem to be content. I am making a real effort to declutter, but not being as successful as I would like I am afraid. Still, in case we ever do move, I will be prepared . . . HAH!

Dog wise, we are raising a couple of lovely litters and may let a couple of puppies go to show homes as we are serious about not showing dogs. I am looking at a couple of really super looking puppies and when I feel myself weakening, I just remind myself that the last thing that we need right now is the effort it takes to show dogs at the level we have shown. We have just let a few puppies go on our regular spay/neuter contracts to spectacular pet homes in Florida, Oklahoma, and Ohio over the last month or so and gritted our teeth as we kissed the puppies goodbye as they were really nice show prospects that we would have liked to evaluate longer. One of them went to our friends Melissa and Marshall Gimple who just lost their Bounce son at over fourteen. So now they have a ruby Bounce son in their home to be company to their ruby girl “Tessa” who they got from us several years ago.

We have never sold many show dogs as we keenly feel the responsibility of protecting this breed and have been control freaks about where our dogs go. Sadly I have made grave mistakes in judgment in choosing a few show homes; even on co ownerships one cannot control what others do once a dog leaves one’s property. One can hear horror stories in all breeds about co ownerships and selling show dogs; sadly many of the stories are true. I have also been so lucky in continuing to co own dogs with Margaret Valentine and Sherri Meyer who have become very close friends and great partners. Cindy Chandler and Jeff and Tami Byroads have also been wonderful to work with our dogs in continued co ownership and friendship. There are a few people out there whom we consider totally trustworthy enough and we look forward to perhaps seeing a few Rattlebridge dogs continue to be shown in their hands. Of course the puppies we are looking at for show prospects may not turn out to be show dogs and we may then be looking for wonderful pet homes for them.

I am now deep into working on HB 223/SB 173 which is being proposed in both houses; termed the “puppy mill” bill, this bill has real ramifications for legitimate show breeders. My friend, Bobbi Brady, AKC delegate from the Central Ohio Kennel Club, and I have succeeded in meeting with two Ohio Senators, including the sponsor of the bill. We will meet next week with the sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives. Walt Bebout, director of legislation for the AKC has been most helpful to us. So far our legislators are at least willing to listen to our concerns. The wave of anti dog and anti breeding legislation throughout our country is very scary. The so called animal activists are well organized and well financed; our ability to own pets is being challenged as if one reads the fine print in Peta’s manifesto one would see that Peta is against any ownership of animals.

Enough for tonight. Thank you to my friend and webmaster, Roxy Hayes, for continuing to monitor our website and news items.

I cannot believe that I have not posted in almost a month, but the days have flown and we have been busy.  We are getting ready for hearings on Ohio Senate Bill 173.  Had the opportunity to meet for an hour with the sponsor of the bill, Senator Cates, who seemed to listen to concerns.  We are hoping that we can change the language of the bill so that reputable show breeders are not penalized. 

Al and I went to up state New York for his brother’s 80th birthday and family reunion.  We stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast in Trumansburg on Lake Cuyaga. We went sailing on the lake; for me it was a first to sail on a big boat.  I even got to steer or whatever you call it.  I can see why my husband and his brother are so addicted to sailing.  I just came back from judging in Massachusetts.  Had a great time.

While we were in New York, we fell in love with the area and decided that Trumansburg would be an ideal place to relocate.  However, the facts about the winters dissuaded us from really considering up state New York but our discussion of relocating led to our really considering our desires for our future.  We presently have a beautiful small farm that is ideal for raising dogs and having horses.  However, the work load to keep up the property is enormous for the both of us.  So we have decided to sell our farm and relocate in the central Ohio area where we both have lived for many years.  We will still have our Cavaliers and I will still breed on a limited basis and still judge, but my obsession with showing dogs must come to an end.  I have a few puppies now who I think can really contribute to the breed when they grow up, so the Rattlebridge Cavaliers will continue for my own pleasure and the wonderful owners who seek us out for beloved pets.  I just do not want to live for showing and winning.  We have done everything in Cavaliers I have wanted to do and it is time to rest a bit. For our selection of our own pets for the future, we have just had a litter we have planned for a very long time.  Using frozen semen from our foundation sire, Aust. Best in Show, Canadian and CKCSC/USA champion Werrington Buoyancy of Rattlebridge we have had a wholecolor litter out of Harana Star Appeal.  I have long wanted to put a little Bounce back in my life especially since losing my beloved Bandi, a Bounce son, last year. 

Al is now 78.  We simply need a smaller property.  Life changes and we must change with it.  I will continue to keep up this blog as I enjoy doing so.  So stay tuned to see what the future will bring us as we shift our goals a bit. 

We love to breed and show dogs, but are just as proud of our dogs that are great family members, obedience or performance dogs, or therapy dogs. The following is a note I received from Jackie Kurlich who has two of our dogs. I am so proud of what Jackie and Candle are dong to cheer up hospital patients!!! From Jackie Kurlich: “I wanted to share a story about one of your girls. Just to refresh your memory, Candle came from Lucy and Freddie and is turning 2 this March. I know a lot of emphasis is put on the show dogs but I think the true hero’s are the working dogs like Candle that are touching lives. She visits our local hospital each Thursday and we will soon be going into the school system and alternative schools to help at-risk kids. She wins “Best of Breed” in my eyes! I have to tell you about our Therapy Dog visit to the hospital today. Let me start by saying that lately I have been wondering about the “quality”, I guess you could say, of our visits lately. It just seemed like there wasn’t any substance to them. Yeah, everyone was thrilled to see and pet Candle. The nurses adored her. Everyone wanted to take her home with them and she gave all the patients a change from their boring hospital stay. I can’t say that there was anyone that didn’t want to see her, but I just kept thinking there must be more to this therapy dog stuff. It just didn’t seem like we were helping anyone Then I visited the 4th floor of the hospital today where patients were recovering from major surgery. As we entered the floor we got the usual reception from the nurses on the floor wanting to pet her. Then a lady came up and asked if we could visit her dad. I followed her to room 409 and there was this very ill, very weak man in the bed turned on his side with his eyes closed. She told her dad that he had a visitor and I picked Candle up and put her beside him on the bed and he got this complete look of joy in his eyes, wrapped his arms around her and kept saying “She’s such a baby”, “She’s such a baby” over and over. Whenever I put Candle on a hospital bed she just seems to know to be calm. With this gentleman she put her head on his chest and lay down and the only thing you could hear was him whispering to her and her tail thumping away on the bedJ. Normally we only stay in each room a couple of minutes. We stayed with this gentleman for about a half hour. As we were leaving the room his daughter told me that this was the first time in a long time she had seen her dad smile and that she had had a dream about a Therapy Dog coming to visit the night before. I’ll never think of our visits in the same way again. There’s always that one person we are meant to visit. If anyone is thinking about going into a Therapy Dog program, I strongly encourage it. Your cavalier could make a big difference in someone’s day…quite possibly at the end of their life…..” Thank you, Jackie and Candle. I will try harder to get to the local nursing homes for visits with our dogs. It is one of the things I keep putting off. We used to do it before life got so busy and I began to deal with my aging orthopedics!!! On another note, I am very involved in the local Humane Society as the vice president and public relations director. We live in a very poor county with lots of animal neglect and/or abuse. The Humane Society does our best to help save animals. Last week we were told that someone had moved out of their house leaving behind dogs, chickens, and of all things–emus. Yes, emus! The birds and dogs were starving; some of the chickens were frozen to the ground. We rescued all we could. Rattlebridge Farm is now the home to a flock of chickens and two rather tall big birds who do not share one brain cell between them. My husband has named the emus Imogene and Emil. I do so hope that naming does not mean that they will be staying!!!!

September 25, 2004 Thank you to all who sent get well cards and messages after my recent knee surgery. Am on the mend. The new health section on our website is complete and up. We have addressed health concerns in the Cavalier in more depth than previously. Please tell us what you think of the new section. There are a few new websites addressing Cavalier health and not all of them are helpful. Do not believe everything you read. A good site for correct information (besides ours of course!) is: www.aboutcavalierhealth.com Remember to stay in touch and keep us posted on your Rattlebridge Cavalier! Meredith