My Story

My TT story starts Dec 2006 in a small shop in The Villages, Florida.  But first a little bit about me and my dogs. 

 It all began in the summer of 1971 when me and a couple of friends headed down to the WestGate mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota for a crazy daze sale.  As a part of the event a local dog training school was giving obedience demonstrations with Standard Poodles and German Shepards, additionally they had a drawing for a free 10 week beginner’s obedience class.  Nope, I didn’t win it but one of my friends did, she didn’t have a dog but I did, so she gave the prize to me.  

Now, being the youngest child of nine and my Dad having his plumbing and drain cleaning business run from our home my childhood was chaotic at best, but every Wednesday night for the next ten weeks either my Mom or Dad took me and Sam (a what I now know to be a Norwegian Elkhound/German Shepard cross) to an old airport hanger for class.  At the end of ten week Sam and I took first place in the graduation obedience match.  I was hooked.

 Pretty soon a female puppy Norwegian Elkhound (Susie) entered my life.  My first AKC registered dog so I could participate in dog shows.  The idea was that we would breed her to Sam.  Tragically Susie chewed through an electric cord outside my dad’s shop and was gone at 10 months of age.  So what does a German father do when his 12 year old baby girl is heartbroken, he takes her out  the next day gets her another Norwegian Elkhound puppy. 

 On Friday May 13, 1972 Susie 2 came home.  We paid $35 for her. I was the only Junior handler in the state of Minnesota to have completed a CDX on the breed at the time. She lived until 1987 and was trained through Utility but never got her UD.    After Susie 2’s retirement in 1976 I decided I needed another dog but wanted one that was more amenable to obedience training. 

 Enter Pyawacket  a blonde wavy coated Golden Retriever.  I paid $150 of my hard earned money for him.  Pdog, as he came to be known, finished his CD and was a great hunter for my brother and a companion for my Dad.

 My life was now filled with college, boys, job hunting and career for the next 9 years.  In 1986 I bought a townhouse in the Twin Cities and Susie and PDog came from my parents house to live with me.  Susie died shortly thereafter and it was just me and PDog. Then the phone rang.  My sister who ten months earlier had purchased a black Standard Poodle puppy was being challenged by his size, intelligence and general unruliness (did I mention she had three girls under the age of 6). 

 Prince came to live with me.  Ok, I couldn’t have a dog named Prince so I changed his name to Tsar.  Tsar cost me $250.  Tsar went to beginner’s obedience class and won his graduation match but that was it, he was a pet and I was a career woman.   PDog died on Nov 23, 1988 and it was just Tsar and an orange tabby named Zeus for the next ten years.  I bought a house with a large yard in December of 1997.  In February of 1998 Tsar stopped eating, after trying everything the very difficult decision was made to put him down.  I vowed to wait awhile before I got another dog.  That vow lasted 3 days.  I located a litter of Standard Poodles in a northern suburb, called a friend and asked her if she wanted to go look at puppies with me that Saturday.  It was at this visit that I realized that you don’t go look at puppies, you go BUY puppies.   

Enter Sorbo the black Standard Poodle, later to become known as the Big Guy.  Pricetag $400 (are you noting a trend here?)  Sorbo had no formal classes and was just a big old pet.  We hung out together for the next 12 years.  Fast forward to Dec 2006, the big guy was nine now, I had a high demand job and needed a break, so I went to Florida with my sisters before year end closings.   I knew that time was catching up on Sorbo and I also knew that there would never be another big guy so my Standard Poodle era would end when I lost him.  There was some thought that I would not get another dog,  then I walked into the aforementioned shop in The Villages Florida….and behind the counter was a shaggy looking little dog called a Tibetan Terrier.  I asked permission to pet him and asked many questions of the two women he was with, thanked them and left.  When I got in the car with my sisters I said “I’ve found my next dog.” 

 Life and work went on until April 15^th 2008 when I was informed that my job would be eliminated sometime in the next two years.  Over the next thirteen months, I being a good employee did what I was asked to migrate my job into the greater organization.  On one of my last business trips in May of 2009 my cell phone rang in my hotel in Houston, Texas.  It was the person caring for the big guy calling to tell me he had crossed the Rainbow bridge.  Just 8 days before that tragic event a puppy had been whelped in Chaska,  Minnesota.  His name was Diesel, a Tibetan Terrier.  And so it begins…..