Blast from the Past

It has occurred to me that while I've been writing this blog, and mysteriously people have been reading it, I haven't ever really detailed my 'qualifications' as it were ... so maybe I'm just talking out of my ass. I've never thought my past was all that interesting and having met people with more complicated histories I think mine is downright boring. Still I should detail a bit of my childhood ... try to stay awake.



The best place to start is at the beginning and the beginning begins with my parents. They moved to Canada from England in the early '70's with their Pulis and within a few years had two children. I was in the ring before I was born and literally grew up attending dog shows every few weeks. There is a picture of three year old me at a Puli Specialty in CA covered in dirt and grime having been 'lost and found' by some Puli people and returned to my parents when they got out of the ring.



I have many memories of Puli Specialties in San Franscico, Los, Angeles, Portland, & Denver. I went to Disneyland when I was 6 but of course it was a day's break from the round of dog shows we were attending. I travelled to Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington ... we were taken out of school without a moment's hesitation to attend dog shows. What was more important? Learning the elements and the existential meaning behind the 'The Grapes of Wrath' or learning how to win and lose with grace and see the world?

My brother and I often showed the dogs that were 'not supposed to win' and sometimes we won anyway. I didn't want to compete in junior handling when I was very young because I think on some level I knew I wanted to be better at it before allowing someone to judge me and not the dog. Mostly I showed the dogs in the classes and my mom took dogs into the group but as I aged that sometimes changed depending on the circumstances. Somewhere along the way my brother stopped coming unless he was absolutely required and it was usually just me and my mom.


I grew up knowing and seeing the same people year after year. They got older watching me grow up. Occassionally I'd get the "I remember you when you were this tall" and I would think "I remember you when you had more hair." People have come and go from the show scene but there are still the die hards who religiously attend the shows and remember me as a child.

I wasn't a really competitive handler until I was in my early teens and was the Puli lackey hauling crates, walking dogs and showing the fillers. Pulis encompassed my life and time at home and on the road - the only thing that captivated my attention outside dogs was the horses we had on the acreage. It was sometimes a toss up between Mouse the Shetland Pony or playing with puppies ... some tragic childhood I had.