I received these new photos of Bear,who just turned a year old. Bear lives in South Carolina and this is his first hunting season. His co-owner reports he’s doing great and is very steady to shot.
Atta boy, Bear! Keep up the good work!
GCH CoolWater’s The Tide Is High- “Jesse”
We had a very nice surprise this weekend. Jesse, who has been taking some time off from showing, came back out this weekend in preparation for her attendance at the Eukanuba shows at the end of the year.
This weekend, each day she was entered, she took Best Opposite Sex to the #1 Chessie in the country. The entries averaged to about 17-18 Chesapeakes each day – as such these placements were nice wins for her.
She received many compliments both from judges and other Chesapeake breeders and we couldn’t be prouder.
CoolWater’s Roane Point – “Fen”
The national Chesapeake Field Trial Specialty was held in Cheraw, SC October 29-31. It’s not very often the Field Trial Specialty is so close to home and while I’ve attended several National Show Specialties for the breed, I’ve never attended the FTS before. I had a great time visiting with old friends and meeting new ones. I saw a few beautiful Chesapeakes and without a doubt some wonderful working animals as well. An added bonus to the trip is that our “Fen” (Logan x Nova) was entered in the wee puppy stakes with her owner Laurea Griggs of Newnan, GA.
Laurea has been working diligently with Fen and her working with Fen regularly showed as Fen won the wee puppy stakes. We are quite excited about this duo and look forward to seeing what they’ll do in the future.
Today I got to see, Oak, a puppy I bred 4 years ago.I haven’t seen this puppy since he left my house as a wee baby. Oak has had some nice success with very limited showing. However, his greatest accomplishment is being a buddy to his owner, Kyle.
Some of you know Kyle, many of you don’t. Kyle is one of the breed old-timers that you don’t hear about any more. Sitting and talking with him for an hour provides more valuable learning opportunities than I can begin to state. As a long time Chessie breeder/fancier, Kyle has seen many dogs come and go. He has had wins and losses, successes in breedings and failures. This provides valuable insight for those of us currently finding our way.
Today, as I watched Oak with Kyle, and as Kyle told me that Oak will be his last “dog”, I was told Oak ended up being everything Kyle could have asked for as his last buddy. If I never produce another “winner,” that is ok. After today, I believe I have already won in more ways than one.
GCH CH Jala’s Misty Hill CoolWater Oak – Oak
Today I found out “Oak” – GCH Jala’s Misty Hill CoolWater Oak – owned by Kyle & Coralee James & Stacey Thomson – bred by me out of (CH Misty Hill Nash x CH Silvercreek’s Spiced Rum) took a **Group 2 win** today in Arcadia, FL under judge Kenneth Buxton.
While “Oak” has a few other group placements this Group 2 is a first for us. Needless to say, we are beyond thrilled with Oaks success.
Well. Where to begin?
Today, I laid to rest one of my beautiful puppies due to lymphoma – cancer which affects the lymph nodes. She was only 3 years old and there was nothing we could do. She was taken from me much, much too soon. My heart aches for her loss.
Lymphoma, although it can affect any age, is most common in middle aged/older dogs.
Saturday night, after giving her a bath, from which she drank a lot of water, her neck/face and lymph nodes swelled up. I also noticed she looked to have fluid in her abdomen. I *knew* what it was, but hoped for something different, something treatable.
Today the vet confirmed; there was nothing that could be done.
Note, up until Saturday when the swelling occurred, she was bright, energetic, happy with no real symptoms of being deathly ill. Even when her face became swollen horribly she was bright, attentive, happy.
Needless to say, today sucked.
May my beautiful girl rest peacefully.
We received some great news. A while back I posted about this puppy and how a bad situation sometimes turns out for the best. Well, today I received these photos of the same puppy out on his first hunt – in Canada.
The pup will be a year old this month and he’s handled his first hunt wonderfully. I’m thrilled with the progress he’s made and the updates his owner has reported. Here’s to many more successful hunts for Bear.
It’s always nice when you receive good news from puppy owners.
Today there was a show supported by the American Chesapeake Club in Franklin, Tennessee. Two CoolWater pups were entered and I’m happy to hear both did very well.
Gabby – CoolWater’s Fly Me To the Moon (Risk x Nova puppy) – took reserve bitch to a major. Not bad for just turning a year old and only her second time in the ring.
Oak – Jala Misty Hill CoolWater Oak (Nash x Morgan puppy) – Best Of Breed. Whoop!
How thrilled I was to receive such news. I didn’t even know Oak was entered. 🙂
Sometimes good friends accompany good times with dogs. Today we had a great day training with our good friends, Jim/Karen Brown, Cole Fertic and Jean Bates. Jessie, Rip and Morgan went along to train.
Today, our Jessie turns 11 years old. I’m not sure where the time has gone as it seems like yesterday when we picked her up from a Chesapeake Breeder in MS.
Jessie has always been a handful. She’s probably the smartest dog I’ve ever encountered. I know everyone says that about their dogs, but this is true. And, Jessie isn’t just ‘book smart’ (in that she picks up on things easily) but she is conniving and she is always scheming up ways to get what she wants. For example, one day my mother was watching Jessie for the day. When I went to pick her up, I noticed Jessie standing there very proud of herself with this rather large nice stuffed animal which I KNEW wasn’t hers. I went to take it away from her and my mother stated, “Don’t she earned that.”
Puzzled, I questioned her. “She earned it?” Immediately I think, oh boy what did she do.
The story continues:
Mom: “You know the closet in the sewing room?”
Me: “Yeah.”
Mom: “You know the wire shelf at the very top?”
Me: “Yeah.”
Mom: “You know how there was fabric at the very top?” “Well, the stuffed animal was on top of all the folded fabric at the very top of the closet. She saw it there and I told her, NO, Not for Jessie but she had other ideas. So, I stood back and watched her.”
“You know how there is that small tote in front of the closet?”
Me: “Yeah.”
Mom: “Well, Jessie stood on the tote and she looked up at the toy. She jumped once and she couldn’t reach it. The next time, she jumped higher. The third time she jumped even higher and that time she was able to reach the fabric at the very bottom of the pile on the wire shelf. The next time she jumped she pulled the fabric out of the bottom. As she continued jumping each time she would pull the fabric just a little more. Eventually, she pulled all the fabric down out of the closet and all that was left was the stuffed animal.
You see, she earned it.”
I wish I could say that this is just one story that Jessie has given me. However, Jessie’s life has been story after story after story. Gosh. I wish everyone a dog like Jessie. Although, I’m not sure everyone could handle a dog like her.
Happy Birthday Old Girl. We wish you many more.
