jennifer roberson's books, art & animals
G A L L E R Y 2
CH. Cheysuli 's Peekaboo Blue
Panda was born a pretty little black-and-white girl--no, scratch that. Panda was born a blue merle, but she was 99.5% black-and-white except for a very small, very light merle patch on each cheek, and one smaller spot right where the white of her collar met the black of her body. But as her coat grew in, those spots disappeared. She resembled a tan-pointed tri. When her eyes opened, it became apparent both were clear brown with no merle spots. Panda was what in those days we called "cryptic merle," in which the merle spots are only lightly, or almost invisibly, expressed.
As a puppy Panda lit up the ring at the Southern California Specialty by taking Winners Bitch and Best of Winners; then finished her championship a couple of months later by again taking Best of Breed over 8 champions. Later, at the 2009 National, she won an Award of Merit.
And Panda also lit up the whelping box by giving me two outstanding puppies in her first litter: Kennedy, the boy who went to Finland, and his blue sister, Gypsy, who went on to be a multiple Group placer and was the foundation bitch for Rita Wagoner's Rochar Cardigans.
(CH. Cheysuli 's Silver Lining X CH. Winbuck's Lyric )
CH. Cheysuli 's Jumpin' Black Flash
Gryphon was Panda's litter-brother. I had not thought to keep a boy because I had two already, and I wanted to keep a girl. The one I selected was Panda. He was destined to go to a first-time show home I spent days qualifying as a good home, but when it came time for him to leave, the buyer disappeared. She did not answer any e-mails. I had no other show home prospects and, frankly, he was "too good" as a potential show and stud dog to let him go to a pet home (none of those were waiting, either), so I kept him. And he paid me back by becoming my heart dog, my mooshy boy. 8-)
He and his sister stampeded the same Southern California specialty together; she took Best In Sweeps, Winners Bitch, Best of Winners, while he took Winners Dog. (This means Panda defeated her brother!) A few months later, at the National, he was Reserve Winners Dog.
Both Panda and Gryphon were wonderfully loving dogs for 13 and 14 years. I lost Panda earlier this year, and Gryphon a year before that.