2007- Foozer (Fabuloso de Veiros), the May Day and Lunar Eclipse Litters

At the very beginning of January 2007 I was phoned by another of the puppy broker's buyers. The dogs (a WPM and a small Podengo) were fighting and he wanted to wash his hand of the whole thing.
With no support system from the breeders in Europe (aside from the option of sending them back, which nobody did) for new owners, it has been very hard on American importers when they have a problem with their dogs. It is far easier to 'eat' the few thousand dollars and dump the dogs on the fanciers, namely myself.
I was always more than happy to get a free dog, especially one that the former owner paid for the flight and signed over the registration to me. Particularly, after all those years of hoping I could do this project in America.
This time it was 'Ed,' as his old owner called him. I decided to name him 'Foozer,' after a friend who had succumbed to ovarian cancer the previous September at age 34. That was her nickname (she was a champion foosball player). We operated a small-time training business called 'Dog Training for the Real World' mostly in 2005, before she got sick. She tried her darndest to get me interested in flyball, which she loved doing with her border collies but it was just too anarchic and noisy for me! Flyball, to me, was the total opposite of manners training.
Foozer had a delightful temperament and looked nice enough in the show ring.
Mostly I evaluated him for temperament and conformation. When I decided that he was good enough, I bred him to Evita in March and on May 1, she had our first major litter- 6 healthy, beautiful puppies with lots of showy white markings.
One male, 5 females:

M- Terzo de Retrouvaille
F- Mica de Retrouvaille
F- Ursa de Retrouvaille
F- Ameela de Retrouvaille
F- Jolena de Retrouvaille
F- Maui de Retrouvaille

A real breeder's dream litter. I liked Mica from day 1 and in June had the opportunity to have Vitor Veiga, president of the Podengo club in Portugal evaluate the litter in person.
He had been brought in to judge our breed at our first UKC Podengo Club's specialty show at the main UKC event- know as the Premier show- in Kalamazoo.
Steve drove home, picked up the kids (I was showing Evita, hanging tits and all, in the UKC Top Ten ring. She was the first Podengo in the Top Ten so I had to show her!) and we let him look at them in the back of our Escape. He chose Mica as his pick, too. So, she got to stay. At that time, due to my Maronite Lebanese heritage on my mom's side, Vitor told me perhaps I was 'destined to have these dogs.' The Maronite Lebanese are the actual people who descended from the Phoenicians, who sold these dogs from their trading ships all over the Mediterranean thousands of years ago.

I gave this litter away for people that promised to do things with them, to get the breed 'out there' where it could be seen.

Ursa/Bear (renamed Whimsy) flew to Alaska (for just the price of the flight) where, despite breed trait challenges, she still lives with her first owner and does agility. In 2009 she won a Podengo specialty show in Texas.

Ameela flew to Nebraska (again for just the price of the flight) but the owner never did anything with her.

Maui (renamed Ouiser) was transported via car to Tennessee, lived with some Cirneco dell'Etna dogs who spoiled her by teaching her even nastier fighting and barking habits (which I was not informed about) and was returned to me about 2 months later. She seemed fine here so I rehomed her to a show home in Washington state. She could not live with the other dogs (fighting) and was spayed and rehomed to a pet home in Oregon where she lives as the only dog and still is.

Jolena had a promising career as a tracking dog (she was the first AKC Tracking titled Podengo after they obtained the ability to earn AKC performance titles in January 2008) and possibly, agility. But she climbed a fence in the dog yard at her new owner's home and was hit by a car and killed at the end of May 2008. I still cry about it if I think about it. Like now.

Terzo (renamed Tyler) I personally delivered, to the desert outback above Los Angeles, (via plane in July 2007) to another animal acting compound. They showered me with promises of me being their Michigan company representative if we had any filmwork here in exchange for this puppy (and another from the upcoming August 2007 litter). On that flight, I drew up my breeding blueprint for the existing WPMs in America for the following few litters.

In summer that year a competitive lure coursing home in North Carolina was interested in Marco. When they got him they fell in love and dearly wanted another so they could compete. After a great deal of thought, I agreed a few months later to (RELUCTANTLY) send Evita, the only other dog I had that he guaranteed would get along with. They spayed her so she could course more often. That year, I got glowing reviews from them, loads of pictures and excited emails.

High on the successful placement of this litter and the Podengo project and eager to create breeding options, I bred the next litter- Hali x Marco in June, right after Premier. After much research with older breeder/mentors I realized it was unlikely that Hali would produce more undershot bites if a good program was followed.

Hali, whom I had just rehomed to another fancier in Michigan (who had babysat Maui when she was a puppy) produced 4 amazing puppies (and one that died within days) on August 26, the night of a full moon and summer eclipse:

M- Zeke (Ally's Full August Moon)
M- Zeus (Ally's Fire and Ice)
M- Zane (Ally's Lunar Eclipse)
F- Zuster/Sissy (Ally's Zuster Ice)

All good bites!
Of those, the co-breeder kept Zeus and Sissy, which is where they still live as of this writing.
They accidentally bred in April 2009 and I took in Sissy and whelped her litter here. The litter was completely healthy and fine.
It's not something that one wants to do on a regular basis but it was fortunately an accident that worked out all right.

Zeke was sent to a Basenji-owning show home in Chicago and proved himself too noisy and active for the owner so, when I borrowed him for breeding to Mica in September 2009, she decided she did not want him back. So now he is co-owned by myself and my friend who owned Evita's first boyfriend, Guiso.

Zane was the other puppy we agreed to give (for free) to the California animal company in exchange for my being her Michigan representative. A new rescue enthusiast from MI that she knew (from adopting a dog through the organization for which she did rescue) was traveling out to CA and she would bring Zane to them. Meantime, in the month she had him before she left for CA, she would teach him some puppy basics, despite her inexperience in working with primitive, upper level behavior breeds.
Unbeknown to us, (and of course) she had continual behavior and training problems with him and never once thought to contact either myself or the co-breeder, who lived in her same town. She never returned concerned phone calls or emails.
When the Michigan Film Incentive was passed in April 2008, I learned that this novice rescuer was going to be that CA company's Michigan representative and I never got so much as a 'thank you' from that company.

In mid October I went overseas for the very first time, to bring back 5 Picardy Shepherd puppies from France for their club. I got a free trip (the importers paid me since it was cheaper than them having them flown to America) but wish the company I had there was better! Later I found out the women I went with were puppy brokers who labeled themselves as the Picard 'club.' Arrrgh. After what I'd gone through with the Podengo puppy brokers! At least I got to go up into the Eiffel Tower and eat good cheese.
While I was in France, on the laptop we used for email, I started getting contact from another WPM importer who couldn't keep her dog, Sancho...
When the 'club' person I was partnered with abandoned me in the airport (she ran to the plane and left me there), I struggled and ran all over, checking in the pups, returning the rental car, standing in long lines for hours (there was a strike). I missed the plane and had to move all the puppies to a hotel that didn't want us there. Nobody helped me move all those crates back and forth.
In the morning, I got help at the airport from a sweet, wonderful older Frenchman who bought me espresso and taught me some more French (my favorite language besides English). He talked gently to the frightened puppies and helped me move them here or there and check them in when, miraculously, they said there was a space for me on the plane. It was wonderful. I would have had a better time all by myself! I know that for next time.
Thank you, Francis!! I celebrated by buying myself an $85 bottle of Lancome perfume in the airport.
A few weeks later, on my birthday in December, my hip muscles gave out. I could not walk without a stick (I carved it myself) for over 8 months. I could not put on shoes or socks or turn over in bed. Driving was hell. Everything was difficult.