Despite The White

In our first litter, born January 25, 1989 was a puppy with a big white face blaze.  I remember going through the magazines trying to find pictures of other Shelties that had lots of white on the face to see what it would look like on an adult.  I came across a female in one of the magazines that was called Ch Istari Despite The White.  A clever name that said it all...despite the white the quality is there.  It isn't everyone's cup of tea, but markings shouldn't matter if the individual has excellence.  The ones we've kept over the years or have sold to others have gone on to prove the point.  So now we'll watch and wait to see if Cocoa's puppy will factor into our breeding program in the future. 

Above is pictured MBIS/MBISS Am/Can Ch Laureate Starlight Express (Sparkle) at 3 weeks of age.  Next to her is a picture we took this morning of Cocoa's girl at three weeks...they are similar but different.  She might look more like Ch Laureate Vanilla Sky than Sparkle, but time will tell.

This is how Sparkle looked at 6 years old...

Top left is Ch Laureate Savanna White ROMC (owned by Karen and Bob Henley) and underneath and the baby photos are her daughter, Ch Laureate Vanilla Sky.  Two more beauties 'despite the white' face markings.

Five Years and Still Tears

Am/Can Ch Laureate Search Party

January 25, 1989 - September 27, 2004

Fall is a beautiful season, but for us it is a bit melancholy to watch the leaves turn...it brings to mind our most treasured friends who are no longer with us. Even as I write this, I am brought to tears; the special ones in your life have a way of doing that. Hannah was from our first litter, and along with her sister Sparkle shared our lives for nearly 16 years.

Hannah had a doll face that always had a smile; her ears where always beautiful, and I don't think she had the ability to put them back. They were always alert and even if she looked skyward, they tipped perfectly. She finished both Championship titles with ease. Her Canadian championship was won in one weekend; her first shows as an adult. In the U.S. she finished quickly winning majors in tough New England circuits. We showed her only one weekend after that; we couldn't bring ourselves to have anyone judge her, because to us, she was perfect.

After Hannah and then two weeks later, her sister Sparkle's passing, Pete and I dealt with our grief by planting trees. We dug holes and planted, dug and planted until we couldn't dig another hole. When we were done we went around to look at all the trees and shrubs and we counted how many we had planted. Little did we realize that we had planted a tree for every year they were alive. One of the varieties we planted was the amur maple in memory of a wonderful photo shoot we had of the girls when they were 13 years old. This is just one of the beautiful shots. To view a few more you can see her page here.