Sassi's Litter Has Arrived

This past weekend Sassi gave birth to her pups sired by Anne Midgarden's boy Matrix (Ch. Teine Unstable Force, SC). 5 boys and 1 girl in tricolor and sabled red or gold.

Sadly we lost one of the boys - he wasn't thriving and upon closer examination was found to have a cleft palate. That was my first experience with such an anomaly, and hopefully the last. It is so sad to lose one, no matter how young.

Now, almost a week later, the remaining pups are plump little milk-suckers and Sassi is being a super mom.

Individual photos are posted in their online photo gallery at the Gryffyn's Aeyrie web site and will be updated once their eyes open and as they grow.

Still contemplating a theme, although at this time I am leaning heavily on warrior names (always wanted a girl named Boudicca!).

LSBC's First Specialty Show

Ten years ago tomorrow, the organizational meeting of the Lone Star Borzoi Club took place. The past ten years has seen LOTS of hard work, including fun matches, A-matches (for licensing requirements), a handling seminar, ASFA lure trials, the hosting of several BCOA trophy supported entries, an auction to raise funds for a rescue or 22 Borzoi near Houston, TX, and assisting in the hosting of the 2005 BCOA National Specialty Show (in Mesquite). In February of this year, LSBC received licensed status from AKC and this past Saturday was the club's first Specialty Show. It was held in conjunction with the all-breed cluster hosted by the Travis County Kennel Club.

Our dogs managed to earn us some nice bling - trophies created by Redbird Adams, Royale Russian Hounds, including original artworks. Royal Russian is part of the foundation behind our friend Sara's Chataqua kennels, which is part of the foundation behind Gryffyn's Aeyrie. Here's a brief rundown of how our guys did...

Sassi - Best of Opposite Sex
Solo - Award of Merit
J/T - Best Bred-by Exhibitor
Burni - Best Veteran in Sweepstakes
J/T - Best of Opposite Sex in Puppy Sweepstakes

Nox won her 12-18 month class; Faina was 3rd in a large Bred-by Class and won her Sweeps class; Burni made the cut in Best of Breed, then became invisible, but showed fabulously for an approaching 8-year old. For the life of me I cannot remember how Nox and Pumpkin did in their Sweepstakes classes! We were so busy juggling dogs and trying to keep up!

Can't wait for the pictures!

Cute Puppy Fix!

Victor gets a smooch from Sassi's daughter after her photo session

Took the 5-week-old stack pix of Sassi's pups - what a batch of stubborn little heathens they are! They wanna be seen - but they have issues with behaving! Into everything - nothing is safe!

The new pictures are posted in their online album HERE.

Sassi Pup Pix

Got some pictures taken and uploaded of the pups on their first day.

Sassi is being a wonderful mother and the pups are lil' chubsters - always at the milk bar.

Their online gallery is here on the Gryffyn's Aeyrie site.

Sassi Delivers!

About 2 hours after I returned home from the TTKC shows in Canton, Sassi went into labor. She delivered 5 lovely pups - 4 boys and a girl! Two of the boys are cream spotted and the rest are red sable spotted. Hope to post pictures on the web site soon - will update with a post here!

Peeping Pups and the Pregnant Princess

All of Duri's pups now have their eyes wide open, taking in their little world. Duri has proven to be an excellent mother - beyond our wildest dreams. It makes it so much easier. Of course, with open eyes, comes increased mobility - and these kids are truckin' all over the place! The little brindle spotted girl was a slow start and we fed her every 2 hours for several days - soon she was getting better results at the milk bar and keeping good weight, and now she's almost indistinguishable in condition from the others. Will take more pictures in a bit since they're not so "larval" - there's only so much one can do picturewise when they're just little Borzoi grubs.

This past weekend we took Sassi to the vet for a blood draw to run a relaxin test to see if her breeding had taken. It sure did!! So we are in for some hard work - her pups will be due in mid-October and we will go through yet another cycle of sleepless nights and constant vigilance. It's always worth it...but during the cycle we can become so exhausted since we both work full time. But watching the pups grow and develop is its own reward. It's a good kind of tired!

From Dream to Reality

My trip to the Rocky Mountain Borzoi Club's Fall Specialty in Longmont, CO ended up leaving my cup overflowing with good fortune! The Lockard family (who had Sassi's brother Rali and now have Peanut from Solo and Monkee's litter) helped me out greatly, with a place to crash for the night and good company, along with the dogs getting a good romp in the yard after their long journey. Paige showed 3 of our guys (Moose, Peepers and Solo) at the show, Leslie took pictures, and Stephen was Sassi's saviour towards the conclusion of the breed judging when I was able to catch his eye and get him to bring a spray bottle to try and cool off Sassi.


Lars behaved like a little gentleman in his Sweeps class. I was a bit disappointed that he had turned a year old the day before the specialty and would appear quite scrawny in comparison to his competition . Peepers was less than cooperative with Paige in her Sweeps class and seemed to have a time limit for trotting around the ring. What a thrill to have Lars go Best in Sweeps!

Lars then went on to win his 12-18 class - so I was very proud of him. His mother is our performance girl Flareon, and his father is Duri's brother Burni who thrilled me a few years ago by going BOW at RMBC. Moose behaved well for Paige in Open and was just out of the ribbons - while Peepers continued her "precocious ways" in her 6-9 class. Arthur, always happy for a trip with "mom" showed well for me in Veterans and I was so happy to have him take the class. I recognized one of his competitors (Dalton), who I had admired some years ago at RMBC and just thought was gorgeous. The
specials class was nerve-wracking for me. Paige was showing Solo for me, and Pam Leichtnam was kind enough to take in Arthur while I showed his daughter Sassi, who has been my RMBC "bridesmaid", taking an AOM the year that Kalen Dumke judged (also finishing Sassi's sister Magik there), and BOS under Pat Ellis.


This specialty, Sassi was a bridesmaid no longer....I cannot express how thrilled I am that she was awarded BEST IN SPECIALTY SHOW! Always a dream, and now a reality. I did not even see Arthur win his Award of Merit. I found out about that while awaiting pictures and Pam asked me if I wanted his ribbon for his picture!

There was a newspaper photographer there who was taking lots of pictures, but apparently liked Arthur a lot. Someone pointed him to me as Arthur's owner and he came and talked to me, got my name and all and was asking questions about Arthur and where we're from. He gave me his card and I called the paper on the way home and asked for 2 copies to be sent to me - and was so surprised to see a nice little write-up and lovely picture on the front page!


So we have had an amazing weekend...welcoming our next generation and having a most memorable RMBC that we will likely never come close to experiencing again!

Bookends in OKC!

There were 6 specials (4/2) present and accounted for at the show, in addition to double digits in class dogs. Solo once again took Best of Breed with Sassi making it a matching set by going Best of Opposite Sex. Poor naked (nekkid!) Bugg did not fare well in the classes though. When we were grooming her last night, we were pondering the question....."what is is about show entry that makes her coat go away??"

I've been spending my day alone by attempting to do laundry and catching up on some web work as well as some items for the ISWS registry. Also attempting to catch up on all the tivo'd episodes of "So You Think You Can Dance"...a guilty pleasure.

Of course, web work would be hastened if our satellite was functioning properly. Apparently yesterday evening Direcway/Hughes had some sort of outtage and we're one of the lucky ones to be affected. Of course, while trying to figure all this out and calling support, I learned that we are also one of the lucky ones to deal with outsourced help to India, as I could barely understand the fellow I was talking to, with a heavy accent....and he must have been overdosing on caffeine because he spoke a mile a minute. If he thought that could make the call go faster....he was wrong!

Then of course....there's the rain. Again, and again, ad infitum.

Some Sassi and Solo Tidbits

Just got an email asking for pictures of Sassi and Solo to post on the Borzoi Canada web site. Looks like they ended up in the Top 10 for 2006 after only 9 shows last summer (I never could find a place to see how they ranked for the year)! Although it was an extraordinary 9 - with Sassi getting two Group 2s and Solo getting a Group 1 and 2 (and both earned their Canadian championships as well).

On a more depressing note....during the Hound Group exhibition Friday at OKC, Jill was showing Solo to Dr. Smith and his first question was "where is your bitch?" He actually remembered Sassi from last September and was looking forward to seeing her again and said he would have given it to her again! I am just stunned that he remembered our girl! Of course - that silly freckled face can become stuck in one's head!

Waiting to hear how everyone fared today at the shows. Today's groups will be filmed for the Eukanuba series to be televised later on - so here's hoping Sassi or Solo makes it through. Sassi was in it last year - but it was so heavily trimmed we didn't get to see much other than her entry into the ring, and then standing as the judge walked by, ignoring her .

Go Solo!

Solo and Sassi are up at the OKC show cluster. Yesterday was a bust but today Solo won the breed! The entry was 4-2-4-2 and Jill said all the specials showed up - I think that's the largest specials entry I have seen in a while! Not sure about all the class dogs though.

Although we REALLY wanted Sassi to take the breed today as the Hound Group judge (Dr. Harry Smith, Jr.) had awarded the "Sass-master" a group 1 last September. Oh well...can't have everything!