2009 Looks Busy for Us!

That's Missy on the Left!

This is the year I get to go to my St.Clements' School Reunion Luncheon in Toronto on the house. (That's only 1600 miles there and 1600 miles back for a free lunch. Hence the expression, "there are no free lunches!")

The Canadian Kennel Club has sent me a message congratulating me on becoming a Life Member of CKC this year.

My feelings about these honorariums run from feeling rather old to feeling pretty good that I have now lived longer than my parents lived and even though I now live in East Texas, I still have ties to my homeland.

I was not a great achiever in school. As you might expect, I did well in English because I always loved writing. If you like doing something, you generally can do well at it! One tip I have tried to pass on to any youngster who might listen, is that I felt badly once I realized that History and Geography were strictly memorization subjects. Why didn't my parents point that out? I did play basketball, field hockey, and tennis. I even taught tennis to children at St. James-Bond United Church, one block from the family home in North Toronto.

I loved socializing and partying and making friends - I was always outgoing.

My feelings about the Canadian Kennel Club run deep and I think it is very special to be a Life Member. I had never owned any dog, much less a purebred dog until at age 37 I married an international all-breed dog judge (John Devlin) and was thrown into the deep end, as it were.

I quickly learned a little bit about all purebred breeds because I never knew what breed my dinner companions would own. We travelled Canada extensively and into the U.S. and Latin America. I wrote about purebred dogs and travel. I am still pretty good at identifying the breeds as well as their characteristics. I edited the Canadian Shih Tzu Club bulletin for about four years.

I owned, bred and showed Shih Tzu for 25 years and really studied that breed. When my last homebred Shih Tzu (Harry) died, we decided on Buddy, the Lhasa Apso. I had owned three Lhasa - BoBo, Garbo I and Garbo II, so I did know quite a lot about the breed. We found Buddy in Nacogdoches on a street named Martha at Lucas Lhasas who breed very fine dogs. The great part is that we do not show or breed Buddy and so he is free to be himself.

Buddy has become a wonderful addition to our household and tends to keep us on our toes! He is pretty much to the standard, although perhaps a bit Texas-sized. His joy is guarding our backyard, something his breed is supposed to do. He also is a little more clown-like than my others as well as being very smart.

So, we are just at the beginning of the year and already have lots planned. I get to visit my dear friend, Judy in Port Hope who always treats us like royalty. And on our way back, we will get to visit Keith's sister, Louise in the Cleveland, Ohio area. (Note to Missy, Louise's cat: sorry to be talking so much about dogs today!)