Am/Cdn Ch Merrymoon Firestorm “Hunter”

March 21,1996 – May 18, 2013

Bred by Barb Hoffman, catered to by me And loved by everyone who met him Hunter was helped peacefully to the bridge yesterday when he let me know that it was time to set him free.

A great boy with an absolutely wonderful temperament and an “evil twin” Hunter’s spirit will live on through his progeny around the world. Even on this sad day, on Facebook I an reading of a grandson winning the British breeds specialty in Budapest and new grandchildren being evaluated in the US. Although he never achieved ROM status himself he has definitely left his mark on the breed but his greatest achievement was being my companion through thick and thin and many of life’s challenges. There is a huge Hunter-sized hole in my heart right now.

Four months ago  I didn’t believe I would have the chance to write this post, but tomorrow will be Hunter’s 17th birthday.   He’s a lot slower, and spends more time sleeping than anything else, but he is still with me, despite the diagnosis last winter of a likely brain tumour.  Medication has kept the seizures pretty well under control, he has had a few, but not at all what I would consider bad enough to let him go.  He still enjoys his food tremendously, and his constitutionals around and around the yard.   I think with spring in sight, he may even perk up as he can be outside getting more excercise (the ice and potholes are hard when you can’t really see where you are going).

So here is 17 years of pictures for those who may not have known him in his glory days.  A little bit of history of a dog who will be around in pedigrees for many years to come.

 

Hunter came into my life  in the summer of  1996 from Barb Hoffman.   I have tried to find some pictures of him as a tiny puppy, but unfortunately they seem to have disappeared over the years.   I was undecided between names, tossing back and forth a few – Bobby being the one at the top of the list.   However, at that time I was much more involved with my wolfhounds, and he would hide in the tall grass, stalking the ends of the wolfhounds tails, then bounding out, pouncing on them and biting them. I used to laugh at him and call him the mighty Hunter, and that is the name that stuck.

 

Hunter’s show career was not as phenomenal as that of many of his descendents.   As a puppy he earned a puppy group placement under J.R. Glendinning at one of his first shows at 8 months.

 

I finished his championship just over a year of age at the spring Trillium shows.

 

He was basically unnoticed here in the far north for two years.   I used him myself for two litters with Abbey – the Hannukah litter which produced Judith and the spice litter which produced Megan.

 

Judith - new Champion - 1 yr

Megan - 6 months

Judith, unfortunately ended up never being bred, but Megan went on to produce several more champions for me.

Hunter did a bit of winning in Canada, but nothing especially noteworthy, picking up occasional group placements.

 

In 1998 Hunter made his ring debut at the American Nationals.  At his first Nationals he was Best of Winners under Jon Kimes.

Best of Winners - CWCCA 1998

He followed up this win by completing his championship in the US with two more Regional Specialty wins, and RWD at the 1999 CWCCA National.    During this time he sired a litter at Phi-Vestavia – the Storm Litter which produced the ROM producers Camille and Riley, and my girl Gale, who is behind many of the dogs I show today.

 

Hunter continued to show on a limited basis in Canada – only showing to judges I felt could appreciate him.

In 2006 Hunter sired a couple of very nice litters for Barb Hoffman and Jon Kimes – one of the litters producing the 2007 CWCCA Best of Winners dog – Merrymoon Pluperfect Pathway (Brett).

I also bred Hunter back to two of his granddaughters – Rocky (Am/Cdn Ch Yasashiikuma Scirocco) and Ruby (Cdn Ch Yasashiikuma Weetartan Sedalia).   Rocky’s litter produced Dolly and Ruby produced Jade who later became mother to Dragoon.

In 2007 Carolyn Cannon approached me about breeding Alice to Hunter – a breeding which produced Chase, Pilot and Libby, who have all gone on to produce champions themselves.

Despite all of his children’s successes – Hunter has never earned an ROM himself.   He has more than enough points, as several of his children have maxed out on their contributions, but unfortunately we were never able to find one more person willing to put a title on one of his kids.   I had hoped we would see it happen while he was still alive, but I know that won’t likely happen now.  He has left his mark on the breed nonetheless.

Hunter in the meantime has sort of faded into the background.  He has come out for the National Specialties and Western Reserve.

In 2008 at the CWCCA National at the age of 12 he won his class in regular showing and veterans sweeps as well as the Stud Dog class.

 

Over the next couple of years Hunter only showed in Veterans classes, as he started to slow down winning the Sweepstakes at the Western Reserve Specialty and the Canadian National.   The judge at the Canadian National told me that at 14 he was in serious contention for the breed, but she awarded it to his daughter Dolly, and BOS to Grandson Dragoon.

 

 

His last show was  the U.S. National in 2012.   No longer competitive, Hunter made his last trip around the ring with me in the Parade of Titleholders.  It was a sad moment for me, as it really hit home that it was the last time I would get to show him, this year the national is just too far and the Western Reserve show is just too hot to subject him to.   So this is Hunter’s life now, dreaming in front of the fire.

Happy birthday to a very grand old man!

 

Things are finally starting to take shape at the part-time residence.   One of the major concerns, of course, was how I am going to deal with the dogs up there.   I feel like I looked at 40,000 houses before settling on this place. (Well, maybe that’s a SLIGHT exaggeration – in reality it was about 40).

I found houses with land, but no places for the dogs.  I found places with good set ups for the dogs, but no land.   I found a house with a rock in 1/2 the basement, I found a cute little place, that had such huge swarms of dragonflies, so many that not even *I* could handle it – as much as I love dragonflies.   There was a beautiful property surrounded on two sides by the Gull River, where the basement smelled like mould.  Houses where you couldn’t access upstairs from downstairs, houses on rocks, and the finds go on.

This was actually one of the first houses I looked at, but so much cosmetic work needed to be done, that it really made me worry about the “bones”.  Turns out a lot of the worry was unnecessary.  Yes, it needs work, and it needs windows and doors.  But the furnace that I thought was 30 years old and in need of replacement is actually only 5 years old, and just needed a good cleaning.

My wonderful Dundalk handy man, Mark, has been going out for a few weekends and picking away at some of the tasks, and this weekend he completed what will be the “kennel”

This was the garage, as it existed, when I moved in.   Lots of “stuff” being stored – materials for incomplete projects in the house.  To the right is a breezeway that leads into the house and the back yard.

The house also had a “mother-in-law” door at the back, coming of the kitchen, which my insurance agent said had to be fixed as it was a safety hazard (Watch that first step! It’s a Lulu!!)

First weekend, the new deck went in.   Now it is safe to open the kitchen door, I have a place to sit outside, and to barbecue.

He replaced the kitchen lights, which had been no brighter than nightlights with new fixtures, and set up the portable kennels so the dogs could be safely outdoors .

Now it was time to bring up the dogs, and because of the threat of bears, I had to set up indoor runs in the garage. .  But it was dark, and not a pleasant situation for the dogs, so we set out to improve it.

 

The next weekend Mark added two windows to the garage, one on the back of the house, and one on the side.   The difference in the lighting is amazing, as well as the ability to provide the dogs with fresh air during the day.   But there is still work to be done.

 

 

This weekend the garage was divided by an insulated wall into a new 6×12 “garage” and a kennel.

The street end of the garage has now become a 6 x 12 “mini-garage”, where I can store, snow removal stuff, hardware, etc.  It is accessible from the house by a man door.

 

Now there is a separate are for the “kennel” with daylight, and access to the house.   Next step was to seal the floor.

 

 

Mark sealed the floor with a light tan colour epoxy, which will cure to  a waterproof seal.  He also added an additive specially made to provide traction.

 

The pens are moved back in and assembled and ready for the dogs to arrive tomorrow    All that remains is to put down mats to keep them off the concrete, and beds so they don’ t have to sleep on the ground.

The last stage (which he actually did during daylight hours) was to modifty the deck to add a ramp for Hunter to get in and out without dealing with stairs.

 

 

More plans yet to come, but hopefully this is a good start that will keep the dogs comfortable, safe, and away from bears!!  And yes, I have seen FOUR bears since May….lucky me!!

I’ve been getting a number of  “where are you?” emails so I guess I’d better give an update of whats been going on the past two months

On October 8th I had a riding accident – horse, not motorcycle.  It was a bit of freak thing, not a bad horse or anyone’s fault.    Nero had a bit of a cough so my friend gave me a mare to ride.    We were just standing and waiting for everyone to mount up, on a loose rein, when I felt the mare tense up a little.  She gave a couple a mild bucks, and then grabbed the bit and bolted for the barn.  Unfortunately there was not enough room to pull her up and I had an unfortunate meeting with a barn beam.

Unfortunately, that was not the extent of it.   As I got into the barnthere was another lower beam coming at me and someone yelled JUMP!!   So I bailed off sideways onto the concrete – whacking my head and back on the concrete.   I was taken by ambulance to the hospital where I was kept overnight for a concussion, and a big hematoma on the back of my head. 

I’m not evensure how I did this to my shoulder unless it was hitting the horn on the saddle on the way off.    Over the next few days it go worse so I went back to the hospital and had more xrays done.  Add to the injuries, broken tailbone and sacrum, and whiplash

So I was laid up for a couple of weeks and gradually the blood started seeping down from the scalp wound so I ended up with an early Hallowe’een costume – Bride of Frankenstein.

The dogs were all farmed out for 3 to 8 weeks.   Dolly and Chip went to stay with Mary Morris of Azure Goldens & Whippets, and Amigo went to stay with her daughter.  Libby went to stay with Mandy and Randy.  Hunter went to stay with Robyn and Kevin.  Norton and Aero went to stay with Pierry & Stan McLean of Castlegar Labradors.  Dash, Shadow and Draco went to stay with Andrea Robbins.  Rocky and Jaime visited with Lynne Ragsdale, and Naomi went to Maja Hurd and Brogan to Susan Prokopenko.   Many, many thanks to everyone for helping and to Lynne Mercer for coming up from North Caroline to help look after ME!!  

Life is slowly getting back to normal – I’m not moving too far or too fast, right now.

We had a sad departure last week. 

 

Megan, CH. Yasashiikuma Spiced Rum, had a mast cell tumour a few years ago, and unfortunately it returned very agressively.  Although Carrie did her very best to keep Megan comfortable for as long as possible, erventually Megan let her know that she wasn’t happy anymore, and we let her go to the bridge.   Megan was the mother of the Liqueur litter, the “Loose Ladies” and the “Ice” litter, and had retired to live with Carrie 7 years ago.  She will be very much missed.