2006- Marcos de Retrouvaille and Anya do Monte dos Podengos

Marcos de Retrouvaille was born on my mom's birthday, March 27, 2006. He was the first North American born WPM and was the only puppy in the litter. Retrouvaille is a French slang word that I have always liked- it means 'rediscovery' (or 'return to the adventure') and it was fitting for me.
We still had Pico, whom we tried to show. He had movement issues that we didn't want to reproduce, so we neutered him in Spring 2006 and adopted him to a pet home for simply the cost of his neuter.
With a small litter of Border Terriers as his 'littermates,' Marco grew up here and allowed me the opportunity to finally raise a WPM from puppyhood. When he turned 6 months old, we started showing him and he became the first male WPM UKC champion in North America.
In May of 2006, we traveled to my sister's in Virginia after hearing from another Podengo importer in New Jersey who wanted to get rid of his dog. We met up in Baltimore to get her.
This was Anya do Monte dos Podengos, who was imported from Portugal in 2005.
Anya was not socialized as a puppy once she got here and combined with harsh training methods and most likely being ignored (or worse, being allowed to just 'be a dog') she developed behavior issues that one sees mostly in cagebound dogs or wild canids. Mindless yo-yo yard tracking, shy/sharp biting and possibly lashing out when reached for. She struck me as a dog that would run away and go feral in a minute if she could. I remember sitting in my sister's yard with her tied up to the tree, just in tears. Guiso's owner went with me and she got me through this stressful experience. I am so glad I had her there.
Anya (now 'Peach') was spayed and rehomed to an Ibizan hound owner and then rehomed again (probably due to her behavior issues) to the Ibizan hound owner's sister, where she still is, as of this writing.
That year, tragedy struck again as my first show ACD, Tango (I got her in August 1995), who helped raise Marco, died of old age in June, the day before she would turn 11.
Then my first Abyssinian cat (I got her on the first day I worked at HSHV in 1992) died of old age the day after. I was out of town at the Border Terrier National and the Virginia Kennel Club shows when my kitty died.
Winning Best of Breed at VKC for the first time with one of my BTs felt good after the double loss.
We soothed ourselves in August with a cross-country jaunt to Los Angeles and points in between with Evita along for the ride!
Once in L.A. we met up with Steve's animation industry friends and a movie animal trainer friend I'd met on the internet. I got to meet the movie actor Podengos that had been imported in the mid-90's for movies like 'The Lake House' (2004) and 'Zeus and Roxanne' (1997) and work with them, doing tricks for people in the gardens outside of Universal Studio's animal show, where they worked.
Later, Evita barked at her movie star cousins from the car!
On the way home we picked up our new ACD puppy in Colorado at a 2x- Best in Specialty Show breeder's home.