HAPPY NEW YEAR! January was a busy month ending with The American Chesapeake Club supported Golden Gate Kennel Show at the Cow Palace. There were 26 chessies entered including 4 of mine and our Papillon that I co-own with my roommate, Marcie. It was the puppy Molly’s debut into the conformation ring and we pretty much threw her to the wolves by taking her to Golden Gate. Of the 26 chessies entered I think mine were the only ones who were not crated on the bench!! Molly did great with the crowds! For the record, Our entries were Lacey, Molly, Annie, and Disco the Papillon along with Henry owned by Greg and Luann Nealon from the first litter of Lacey and Ben. Ben was also there on Saturday and was entered in the Stud dog class shown with his daughter and son, Molly and Henry. Lacey was entered in the Bred-By Exhibitor class and brood bitch class both days; Molly was entered in puppy 6-9 both days and won her class beautifully handled by co-owner and co-breeder, Catherine Collins...who, as I finish this, is probably landing in New York City for the Westminster Dog show with Team Stone! Annie was entered in the Best of Breed competition, but I ended up scratching her as she was out of coat and down on weight and simply not competitive for those shows. We had fun and met lots of people who were all very taken by Molly and Lacey. It was great to see Laura, Darby’s mother, and Beverly and her husband who have Nala. Here are some of the pics I took in our benching area and of Molly and Lacey, the great mother-daughter team and our wonderful diplomats for our breed with the crowds that weekend.

Molly and Lacey




Lacey and Molly



Molly and a very bored Lacey




The Sandy Oak bench section! Henry was always out in the aisle socializing with the crowds!




The lovely Molly!

Sadly, we’ve lost some of our more special friends over the last three months, beginning with my 26 year old Quarter Horse mare, California Champagne aka Callie, to colic. I purchased Callie as a 2 year old from Chesapeake friends and she’s been an integral part of Sandy Oak ever since.

At the beginning of January, Derrick, our webmaster and new owner of Martha, a Ben/Lacey pup, had to send our wonderful Fire, aka Ch. SandyOak Webfoot Hearts Afire CGC to the rainbow bridge after her health took a bad turn that the vet felt she would not recover from. I thank Derrick, his adorable daughter Kaylee, and his wife Kim for giving Fire a wonderful two years and am so sorry it couldn’t have been longer. Your memory will live on.




And, the weekend of Cow Palace, my beloved Jazz, aka Sandy Oak Touch O’Honey Jazz RN CGC, had a major stroke at 13 ½ years of age and had to be put to sleep. I knew Jazz’s time was coming eventually because of her advanced age, but that morning she seemed perfectly fine when we left for the Cow Palace, so it was all very sudden. Jazz was my constant companion, nurse, guard, mother, friend and a constant reminder of all the wonderful memories of both her grandfather, my Rusty and her grandmother, my Star. Rusty was still with us when Jazz was born and a lot of him rubbed off on her!! It’s never easy to accept the loss of our favorite companions no matter when or how it happens...we will miss Jazz a lot and for a long time to come.

Tags: jazz, fire, molly, lacey