Dreamer Rocks!

What a wonderful day today has been!!!

Today at the San Luis Obispo KC show in Paso Robles, CA, GCH Bellatak McDreamy (Dreamer) was awarded his second Best In Show of the year from Judge Dr. Klaus Anselm. It was a star studded Best In Show ring and Dreamer was among the best in the dog show world thanks to Gay Dunlap who chose Dreamer as the Toy Group winner and Best of Breed today. I would have loved to have been there to see it all unfold!

Dreamer started his "special" career off with a bang in Palm Springs earlier this year and has remained the #1 Havanese all year.

John Oakes, Carole Shea, Jane Samson co-own Dreamer with Tom and I and we are all very fortunate to have David Murray expertly present Dreamer. We are a team and we all have so much fun and respect for each other. THANK YOU John, Carole, Jane, and David.

Also today, Amanda, who has been doing agility with her Bellatak boy, Bellatak Dash of Holiday Cheer (Dasher), qualified for the 2011 AKC Agility National to be held in Lexington, VA in April, 2011. This is an awesome accomplishment for Amanda and Dasher as Dasher is under 3 years of age which I am told is young in the sport of agility to come so far. Amanda and Dasher make such an awesome team! I knew from the beginning that she would earn many titles with Dasher and boy has she.

Till next time.......

Memorial Weekend!

Today our youngest child turned 16. Today our youngest grandchild celebrated his 6th birthday. It is pure joy to be able to be a part of watching a child grow. They are pure, fun, exciting and new. Tom and I are blessed to have such a wonderful family. Our 16 year old invited several of his friends to go paint balling. They were there all day. No injuries thankfully! They had a great time. Dad was with them but didn't "play", instead he read a book and got to relax for several hours, something he needed. I attended our grandson's party along with mom, and our other two adult children. The food was delicious! Our oldest son has a fabulous recipe for a marinated chicken, oh YUM!!!! It was nice to see everyone and watch our youngest grandchild be the VIP for the day. He plays that role very well.

After we got home, played with the puppies and got a chance for some R & R myself before Tom and 5 teen boys arrived back here for pizza and ice cream cake and lots of video gaming!

May has brought tears of joy and tears of heartache. Dreamer getting a BIS made us all cry tears of joy. I realized the other day that Dreamer getting a BIS means his mother has produced 2 Havanese Best In Show winners. Not sure any other Havanese has accomplished that. Then shortly after that "high" we learned that my daughters Biewer Terrier has LCP and will need to have surgery, which of course brought tears of heartache. He started limping in severe pain suddenly so she took him to her vet having no idea what could be wrong. Who would ever think when they see a limping dog that they have some kind of genetic defect??? We sure didn't!!! We got a second opinion to be sure. Yes, she has a contract covering this type of genetic issue with the breeder, but.....doesn't seem to matter. This month we also learned that mom was given a clean bill of being cancer free, which brought more tears of joy! Her oncologist had felt all along that even though the biopsy's had shown no cancer that she still did in fact have cancer. Well, after a couple more tests this month, he now believes she does NOT have cancer at all!

Some of the puppies have gone to their new homes and some are still here waiting for pick-up. I love watching them and am pleased with how nice they have all turned out. I plan on taking them one at a time out front to work on their lead training this weekend since the weather is suppose to be nice and they have had their second shot.

BIS

Yesterday was such a wonderful day. Dreamer, CH Bellatak McDreamy, was chosen by Judge Robert Slay as his choice for Best In Show at the Rio Honda KC show in Pomona, California. Dreamer is exclusively handled by David Murray and owned by John Oakes, his wonderful wife Carole Shea, Jane Samson and Tom and I. John and Jane were at the show to see it too, which is even better. Both Jane and John had thought of leaving the show after the Toy Group, but thankfully they decided to stay. Dreamer is the first Havanese to ever win a BIS in California and he is the first Havanese of 2010 to win a Best In Show. We are all so very proud of Dreamer as he just started his "special" career in January at the Palm Springs Toy Specialty show where he won Best In Specialty Show his first weekend out!

Dreamer is a half sister to Vallee, CH Bellatak My Funny Valentine, who won 2 BIS's in her show career and broke many breed records. Both Dreamer and Vallee are out of our awesome Molly, CH Amor Good Golly Ms Molly. Molly has produced many very nice Havanese. Dreamer seems to have a desire to out do his sister, which is fine with all of us who own him and love him!!! Dreamer is a great example of what a Havanese should look like and move like.

We are all on a natural high to say the least!!!

All the puppies are doing great and some of them will be leaving for their future homes very soon. All puppies have been spoken for more or less, it's just a matter of us deciding which ones to keep. A decision that is proving to not be easy.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you wonderful mom's.

Lot going on

Well, it has been a little over a month since I last posted. A lot has been happening here and so time has been short in being able to "blog".

Dreamer, CH Bellatak McDreamy, is doing very well being shown as a "special". John, Carole, Tom and I welcomed a new member to the Team recently and it has brought more pleasure, joy and laughter for all of us. Thank you Jane! Last I checked, Dreamer was in the top 5 All Breed Havanese. Needless to say we are all very proud of him. Go Dreamer and David!

This year is the first time that Bellatak Havanese has had two litters at the same time. Even though they are 3 1/2 weeks apart, it is the same time to me!

CH Bellatak Stealing Kisses of DJ - Queenie, had her litter of 7 (5 boys and 2 girls) first. Then CH Bellatak My Funny Valentine - Vallee, had her litter of 4 (3 boys and 1 girl). Needless to say, it's a wee bit busy around our household. We are all enjoying it though. We have not had puppies in the house for over a year now. I am not so sure I will have 2 litters at the same time again (don't know how other breeders do), but this time was special.

I am so excited about these two litters and am so thankful the sire owners allowed me the honor of using their males. Both sires are awesome examples of the breed and both have all their health testing done and both were bred and owned by very lovely ladies I admire and respect. I had decided a long time ago to do an outcross breeding, something I had not done, with both girls and what they both produced with their "husbands" is just stunning!

Mom is doing very well. Thank you to all of you that have asked about her and are keeping her in your prayers.

Till next time......

Last weekend of February

We have had so much rain this season, we are beginning to wonder when it will end. Thankfully though no flooding as we do have a day break here and there. Rained most of yesterday and last night again, but this afternoon the sun came out and I opened up the house. Felt great! This is about the time of year I get the feeling of being closed up and can't wait to be able to have all the windows open very soon.

Tom went to practice today even though it was raining. Glad I wasn't out there in it! Bobby's first swim match was canceled yesterday due to the bad storm. So the team stayed after school and reviewed video. Reminds me of what the football team does. Bobby earned his High School varsity letter as a freshman last year, he loves being on the swim team. There has been talk around town that the district might have to cut all sports due to the budget crisis in this state. We are hoping that won't happen.

Today I spent the day cleaning. The house sure needs a deep cleaning, but I just didn't have the energy to start that today! So, focused instead on only a couple of rooms. Also bathed a couple of dogs. With all this rain though it seems silly to bathe them as a couple of them love to run out in the rain and mud! Yes, mud, since all this rain has about cleared out the lawn!

Happy Valentines Day!

While I have always felt this day was for retail stores to make money, it is a day I think is special as this is when Molly was due to have her Buster puppies. However, she decided she was ready a few days earlier. This week marked the 4th birthday of the Bellatak Valentine litter. Poker, Queenie, Vallee and Rudy (in birth order like the picture below), how special you all are to me. I have tried to contact Cheryl more then once in the past week but no response. It has been a long time since I have heard from her. I hope she and her family are well, but I would love a recent picture of Rudy.

This week was long, not sure why, but it was. Of course now the weekend is speeding by! I don't get tomorrow off, so a normal work week for me and Tom too.

I have been enjoying the great weather. We got a lot done in the yard yesterday. Now it isn't knee high with weeds in the flower beds! Tom was going to wash the cars today, but he decided I think it was more important to be lazy and I can't say as I blame him.

How lucky I am to have my Tom. He is the most wonderful husband, father and friend a woman could ask for. Everyday with Tom is Valentines day for me!

Tomorrow marks the first birthday of the Bellatak Presidential Litter. I love getting the pictures of what they look now compared to what they looked like a year ago, they all still look awesome and all have the greatest homes! Happy Birthday (in birth order) Riley, Cramer, BJ, Dolly, Harry, Duffy, Gabby, and Henry.

Tomorrow is the beginning of Westminster 2010. While Vallee qualified to be invited and Dreamer was entered too, we decided to not make the trip this year. Vallee finished her show career by winning the breed at the 2009 Eukanuba and we all felt there was no better way for her to retire then with that show. Dreamer is still young and will have another opportunity to go in the future. We look forward to hearing the results for the Havanese and wish all those competing the best.

update

I know it has been a while, but as usual never seems to be enough hours in the day to get all done that I hope to get accomplished.

I am sorry to share that on January 26, 2010, Sadie crossed over the rainbow bridge. While her life on this earth was short, she brought smiles of joy and tears of happiness to all that knew her, especially her mommy, Alicia and her grandpa Tom. Sadie, we all will miss you, but I know you are heaven playing with lot's of great Cocker Spaniels that were waiting for you. I bet Roxy and Samantha were there too.

Mom is doing great and enjoying being able to drive again (when it's not raining of course) to get her hair done weekly and run most errands she needs to do. I went over to see her yesterday and when I walked in she was sweeping her patio! I asked her if she should be doing that and her reply was typical, "I can if I feel like it!". Oh how I love her! She loved the Havanese Forum Calendar I gave her, but of course wanted to know what all the dogs names were. That might be something that could be done in future calendars. I certainly didn't now who they all were, but she just would like a name with a face she said.

All the dogs are doing well. I have added Orijen kibble to their diet as the commercial raw was too expensive to feed all the time and there are a couple that don't like the homemade version plus I still don't have a freezer where I can store it all. This way, I know they are all getting fed well and receiving all the good vitamins they need too. Also, when we have puppies again, I can ween them to both the raw and the kibble.

Rain

I feel like since returning from Palm Springs we either have had fog or rain. We did get a small glimpse of sunshine for about 10 minutes one day! While I understand we need the rain, it is getting old now. We have been having some pretty bad storms. Wouldn't it be great if it rained only after 2:00 AM and stopped by 4:30 AM every other day?! LOL The dogs are tired of it too. I have dogs that think they will melt in the rain. Although a couple are ok with it. Wednesday the rain and wind was so bad we locked the doggie door and didn't allow anyone to go out. Pee pads was it that day! Typically the dogs are free to go in and out at will, but not that day.

Mom is doing well. She drove last week for the first time since July 2009. While my sister and I were nervous about her venture, we also understand how important it is for her. She was exhausted afterward and for 2 days after had pain in spots she didn't have it before. But she said it felt GREAT! I bet it did.

Lizzie and Vallee have become buddies. At first Lizzie wasn't very nice to Vallee and therefore Vallee let her know she wasn't going to be allowed to behave that way. Now, they play with other and do great. It was pretty funny actually as Lizzie would run up to Vallee and do her growl and jump on Vallee and Vallee would move slightly and turn to look at Lizzie as if she was saying, "what was that? you are crazy!". Vallee didn't know how right she was. Lizzie is crazy, but a fun crazy. It's her way of getting someone to play with her, too cute!

New Year, New Beginnings

I am sorry it has been so long since last posting anything. With the holiday's and all it has been hectic around here.

We had a wonderful Christmas and a nice beginning to 2010.

Last Wednesday we learned from mom's oncologist that she does NOT have kidney cancer! We couldn't believe it to be honest as her appointment was supposedly to discuss treatment options. Well, the oncologist doesn't want to see her again until May and then they will do another PET scan to see if there are changes to either her kidney's or the bones. We are thrilled to say the least since they told us last August that she had both kidney cancer and bone cancer based solely on the PET scan, CT scan and MRI.

Thursday, January 7th Tom and I left for Palm Springs for the dog shows down there, with a renewed since of hope for 2010. We left Sacramento after not seeing the sun for over a week, nothing buy high fog, no rain! Once over the Grapevine, it was sunny and 76 degrees and stayed that way all weekend. It was glorious!

Tom and I love going to Palm Springs this time of year for our annual "Tom and Kathy" getaway (the only one we get all year by the way) because we both get to do what we enjoy so much. Several of our good friends also went which made it even better. On Friday Tom played golf (in shorts) with a couple of the other husbands, while I attended the dog show. After the guys were finished playing 19 holes, they joined us at the show in time to see BJ (CH Bellatak's Greatest General) finish his championship at the Toy Specialty and to see Dreamer (CH Bellatak McDreamy) our new special, win the breed. We all stayed for the group to cheer Dreamer on. Well, it was awesome to see Dreamer win the Toy Specialty under Judge Reinaldo Burgos! His first weekend out and he did great. John, Carole, David, Tom and I were all thrilled to say the least. Afterward we all went out for a nice dinner to celebrate! On Saturday, Dreamer won the breed and went on to also win a Group 4 under Judge Charles Scott.

It's the beginning of a new year with renewed hope for good health, success in life and family. Thank you my friends we are thankful you are a part of our extended family.

Tom and I feel very blessed!!