Ode to the Old Lady
This whole crazy life gone to the dogs started with a beautiful German Shorthaired Pointer puppy named Windy. Although here a Solstice we now are focusing on Cardigan Welsh Corgis my 1st dogs were Shorthairs. I had Snert, Gwen, Sigfried and Lane and on Valentine’s Day 1997, Windy arrived in El Paso.
I had been exploring showing dogs for a couple of years, I joined the GSP club, I worked the 1996 GSPCA nationals show, I stewarded with the New Mexico Stewards Association for a year and then I started looking for a “show dog”. I found one and my life changed.
Linda and Kevin Flynn of Milton, MA had a beautiful litter of 6, 2 girls and 4 boys. Their Keltic Shorthairs had done well on the east coast and they were beautiful. After many discussions they allowed me to chose one of the girls since they felt both were of equal quality. I choose Miss Pink and Miss Teal staying at Keltic.
Miss Pink became Ch. Keltic’s Winter Solstice, CGC.
aka Windy or The Diva or Woo
- Windy, Best of Breed
When I got Windy I also got Linda and Kevin Flynn. Linda and Kevin are the very best kind of people to start a new person out in the sport of dogs. Besides being wonderful dog mentors they are wonderful friends and Windy gets the credit for bringing them into my life. Without Windy I wouldn’t have Linda and Kevin or any of the truly special people in my life. I would not have met, Leslie and Bob, Harry, Kathy, Phyllis or the rest of my gang. Of course without Windy there wouldn’t be the Solstice Cardigans and El Paso would not have the Onate Trail Dog Fanciers Association, the AKC licensed Kennel club that I founded. So one dog makes a big difference.
Ch. Vacation Dog
Windy is my 1st show dogs, 1st Champion, 1st National award winner, 1st agility competitor and 1st brood bitch. Windy hated the ring, my fault, I made it too important and my nerves made it scary for her but she is such a beautiful girl that she finished in spite of my bad handling.
Windy did love to travel, so because she liked to go but hated to show I thought it would be a good idea to get her an RV. Windy loves her RV and was always happier hanging out there than in the nasty crate. When we went to look at them the salesman knew who the RV was for and went and got her a chair to sit on while we talked the deal, offered her ice for her water bucket and went and got a bigger golf cart so she could ride around to look at them too, yep the Diva!
Windy took trips to Napa Valley, the Grand Canyon, Cape Cod and she spent one New Year’s Eve with the crowd on the Rose Parade route wearing a New Year’s Eve party hat and seemed like she enjoyed the parade the next day. She also went on some neat dog show trips but she didn’t think they were so fun.
On a snowy day
Windy in the Whelping box
Windy will be 12 on November 11th and although she is getting ackey and creaky in the rear she still never misses a meal, loves to carry around her stuffed animals and chew her rawhides. Every day is a joy no matter how demanding she is.
Although she is in the autumn of her life with winter fast approaching the Diva still rules from her tattered arm chair, demanding servitude from me and homage from the younger dogs. Hail Woo! Long may she reign!
Windy on 9.23.08
- The Power of a Dog
Solstice Kennels 
OMG. I so enjoyed your story of Windy. Then when I got to the poem, I balled my eyes out. My heart dog, a black lab named Murphy, lived to be 14.
Thanks for sharing the story and the poem. Hope you have many more years to enjoy Windy.
Laura
After a bad week and a trip to vet (things are better now) I started thinking about her influence on my life and wanted to share the Woo. The Kipling poem I read in high school and it has always been with me, it is a tear jerker for sure.
Glad you enjoyed meeting my Diva girl.
Wow, Jinnie, she’s really gotten white in the face in the last 2 and 1/2 years.
Yep, and her feet are grey too, it looks like she is wearing really white socks.
What a stunningly beautiful girl!
I grew up with Pointers (And Springers). Grandpa trained, worked, and occasionally bred working sporting dogs, as did many of his friends. I always assumed I’d grow to be a sporting dog person, and today, am shocked I don’t have a Sporter in my pack!
I can see owning a GSP, or another Cocker in the future. Totally differnt world from the Cardis!
Awww, what a great tribute. My life in dogs started with the sleek-coated, too (with a couple of Springers thrown in). I love my Cardigans and Hawk the Vallhund, but I can’t imagine not having a GSP or Weim in the house. In fact, when I lost my Weim Graycie (I say kane is my heart, but Graycie is my soul), five months went by and our house was just not right. The boys were without their leader. So, somehow we found Savannah, an old, arthritic, malnourished Weim at a rural shelter. I think that we needed her as much as she needed us. Things are right in the world again. Big hugs to Windy, and lots of stroking those long, silky ears, right down to the tips. 🙂
I’m not sure I can live with out one. The GSP is my idea of a classic dog, the cardigans are sort of cartoon looking dogs but the GSP is a “dog”.
What a beautiful tribute Jinnie. Your Diva is a beautiful dog.
Thanks Holly, She has my heart.