Zoey was born on November 18, 2001. From day 1 Zoey was a standout in a litter of 10. As soon as her eyes opened at 2-1/2 weeks, she was out of the swimming pool. Even as a baby she always had that "look at me" attitude, was silly as could be, and would do little leapies even as a youngster. She is sired by my beautiful boy Jimmy-George and her mother is my gorgeous girl Penny who is doubled up on Luke, and if anyone knows me knows Luke is my alltime favorite Whippet, so I was extremely excited to get a Luke look-alike.
So on a cool day in late February 2002, I packed up a few of my kids, along with Zoey, and went to Sporting Field kennels in Virginia for a day or two. I got there and put my kids out in a run. I went to find Debbie so I could drag her to the kennel to show off the Luke-alike I was so very proud of. Upon finding Debbie, I think in the cow barn, we mucked some stalls and fed some cows. I was like, "let's go look at my dogs, you have to see my new puppy". Well we started working our way up to the kennel, and got detoured along the way doing other things like switching dogs from kennel to exercise yard, scooping poop and filling water buckets for the dogs out in the yard runs. This was all amongst many phone calls Debbie got on her cell phone.
We were finally up inside the kennel, and I was ushering her out the front door to the one run along the driveway where Zoey was. She got another phone call, and answered it and talked while walking out with me. Upon reaching the outside and turning to look at my dogs, Zoey was trotting back and forth, and Debbie's jaw just dropped. She said to whomever she was talking on the phone to, "Uh, I'll have to call you back". She hung up and looked at me and said, "she is the most beautiful Whippet I've seen since Luke". My heart soared, I knew I had a good one to show, and I got great reviews from my mentor and friend.
After talking about Zoey's bloodlines a bit we went to lunch. We were eating our lunch, discussing dogs, pedigrees and me grinning ear to ear when we talked about Zoey. Debbie asked me if I would consider letting Zoey there at Sporting Fields so she could get her ready for the Eastern Specialty coming in June, as the judge should love her. Then we got into how she was that good that she would be a great Special someday, we'd get some backing, and she would show/special her at the shows. It was gut-wrenching decision I had to make in leaving my gorgeous girl at Sporting Fields, but knew with the amount of shows I'd been making the past year or so, and with a 1 year old son at home knew I wouldn't make a lot of upcoming shows either, so I agreed. I cried on the way home from Debbie's house, as I missed her terribly, and I knew in my heart that she was gonna be something special. It's hard to say how I knew she was special, we all want to think we have the next "great one", but she had that extra something, even as a baby.
I called Debbie for daily updates on Zoey. She was on the road with Trent a lot, but took Zoey along with her to whatever show she went to. This was all part of her training/socializing, but actually Zoey never needed any socializing, she was the ultimate social butterfly since day 1.
Come time for the Eastern Specialty in June, Zoey was 7 months old and was ring ready. She ended up winning a very competitive 6-9 month puppy class, and went all the way to Reserve Winners Bitch under judge Bill Shelton. Dan Black happen to be at the Eastern that year, and saw Zoey in the ring, came up to Debbie and said, "I want to own that bitch". This was the best news ever, as he was the financial backer we needed for her career. I was ecstatic, to say the least!!!!
A few weeks later I traveled back to Virginia for the Shenandoah shows and Zoey was awarded her first point and went onto a Best Puppy in Show. I was over the moon. Zoey finished her championship before her first birthday with a Group 1 along the way and a second Best Puppy in Show, this time in Canada, all shown by Debbie. I was constantly bugging Debbie when she was gonna get her out specialing, but Zoey was kind of put on the back burner cause she was currently showing Trent and you can't special two dogs of the same breed at the same time.
Debbie made her daughter Amanda start showing Zoey. Amanda hated Zoey with a passion as she never listened, or came when called. Zoey was put away for a few months, then went up to Canada in July 2003 for the shows up there. Under the guidance of Amanda, Zoey won her first All-Breed BIS in Canada, the same day she won a SBIS at the Whippet Club of Eastern Canada. The following day she was awarded WB & BOW at the Whippet Club of Canada National Specialty. The 3rd day she won BOB & Group 2 at the All Hound Assn. of Canada show. All this was from the Open bitch class over BIS/SBIS Champions. Zoey went back to Canada the end of the year to show in what the Canadians call the Show of Shows. It is open to any dog that won a BIS in Canada, and she went on to win the breed and a Group 1. Zoey ended the year 2003 being Canada's Hound of the Year.
To Be Continued.....
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