Fiora

Had a moment today after work to take a few photos of Fiora. I started out on this venture alone but all she would do is sit and look straight at me. Derek got home about 3 hours after I did so as soon as he got here I rushed out and asked him to help before the sun went down. I got a couple that are pretty good. She is much prettier in person, believe it or not.

Sired by CH. Macdega Notorious and out of CH. Imagine Dangerous Curves.

Ironically, I gave her dam a best in sweepstakes win several years ago. I just loved her. When I found out that Jan Williams had leased her and bred her to Nathan,, I just had to have one of the babies.

I saw Nathan for the first time at the national this year and was really awe-struck by him. He was like looking at my vision of the standard,, right there in front of me.

So, as you can imagine,, "Fiora" is quite special to me. She is pictured at 21 wks,, not quite 5 months old.

Bi blacks,, a love affair.

Top: Fiora, Middle: Sunebank Thriller, Bottom: CH. Akadia Totally Intoxicating (Stinky)

Took my Ch. Stinky into work today to have a bath. She is getting her teeth cleaned tomorrow in preparation for her specials career next year. I am particularly excited about showing her as she is one of my very favorites and she is biblack!

My favoritism for biblacks started with a love affair for Ch. Harvest Hills Shoeshine Boy back in the 80's. He was just the epitome of biblack perfection in my eyes. I remember having his picture up on the wall in the bedroom in several places and I would look at it and study it for hours,, daydreaming of the day I would have my own biblack. I was in my teens then.

One of the things that I was drawn to about Shoe was his stunning profile in head. Now, since I only saw his photos and not him, I can't be sure if it was as perfect in person as in his photos. The pictures showed lovely head planes topped off with a really strong underjaw and finish. Something about this profile,, in black, set off with the white made me stumble in awe.

Now,, years later,, I still strive for that profile. I love my biblacks and have a bit of a reputation for them. In the 80's I had bought a really nice biblack male from Sunebank shelties. His name was Sunebank Thriller and he is in just about all my pedigrees now. He came pretty close to what, in my minds eye, I viewed Shoe to be. Jack's head was so smooth, clean, lean and displayed the incredible finish.

Currently my goal has been to get the soft expression of the other colors to come through on the biblacks. I think that is a hard-to-get virtue in black. I have a puppy now,, by Ch. Macdega Notorious that I see coming close to that goal. Her name is Mistybrooks Fiora.

Well,, here's to the future of these little black dogs. Its going to be an exciting year with Ch. Stinky I hope.