in a Bedford Inn.
Does anyone know their
history?
While travelling around the UK after the Club show Judi Steagall and Trudi Owen from the USA came into the splendid town of Bedford. Sitting right across from the river Ouse, The Swan hotel provided not only great accommodations but a lovely surprise as they walked through the door. There to greet them was “Two Bronze Cavaliers”. They measure about 3 ½ feet long by 2 ½ feet high. What a delight they thought. When they inquired about the Cavaliers they were told that the hotel had gone through several different owners and that they didn’t have any information as to their origins. After they left the hotel they became aware that the hotel had also just received a visit from Hollywood superstar, Leonardo DiCaprio, filming his new movie, right there in the town of Bedford.
Jane and Tom Naylor lived in Chatham in Kent with their Jasenil Cavaliers before they upped sticks and settled in La Roche Chalais in France. It was sad news that reached us that Tom had passed away after bravely battling cancer. Two nicer people you couldn't hope to meet and we offer our heart felt condolences to Jane and all the family. We know we speak for many, many Cavalier friends and acquaintances. Jane will be glad of the comfort of her dogs (now shown under the French affix Du Nid Du Faisan) at this sad time.
STRANGE BREW...........
Libor Kral in the Czech Republic has come up with a unique special brew for Blenheim. Great idea. Personalised tins of beer!
NOT THE BEST NEWS
We only heard recently that Lorraine Higgins had died. Her Cottismeer Cavaliers were very well known and had good success in the 80s. She made up Cottismeer Gem Signet to Champion and Homerbrent Jeremy was in her ownership for a period and ended up Top Stud dog in the UK despite not being a campaigned show dog. Such was his virtues as a producer. A colourful character with a kind heart. Life was never dull when Lorraine was around. Lorraine’s other passion was flowers and gardening. She eventually gave up breeding dogs to concentrate on her plants and gardening interests. To her family we send our belated sympathy.
John Fothergill is well known in Cavalier circles and has done sterling work as a Steward in our rings. Word has reached me that he is very ill and has had two operations. He is in critical care and will remain in hospital for quite some time. It seems the hospital has been swamped with phone calls asking about John which makes things difficult for the medical staff, so if you want an update please phone Roy Davies on 01443 692740, Brian Rix/Kevan Berry on 01287 652925 or Rita LLoyd on 07800 735403.
"HOW ART THOU?"
Van Dyck’s portrait of the three eldest children of Charles I became one of the most iconic pictures of the seventeenth century, particularly amongst Royalist supporters. Here, Charles II is seen on the left, with James II in the centre, next to Mary, the Princess Royal. They are flanked by a pair of eponymous King Charles spaniels. The sitters are given an appropriately adult stance and demeanour, while retaining their youthful charm and sensitivity. The original version first hung at Somerset House and has been dated from between the end of November 1635 and March 1636. It now hangs at Windsor Castle. There was great demand for replicas of Van Dyck’s royal portraits both during and after the Civil War. They became symbols of political affiliation to the Royalist cause, and after the Restoration could be displayed as symbols of loyalty for Charles II.
IN DUBLIN'S FAIR CITY
The Irish Kennel Club Celtic Winners Ch show was held on St Patricks day, 15th March, in Dublin. This year the Cavalier judge was Brian Claydon (Brymarden) and his choice for BOB was Rathbrist Rhydian, fresh from his recent big win at the CKCSC Ch show in the UK.
LEGAL TENDER
Not long after Joyce and the Reverand Denis Hall bought their 'Mr D'Arcy' they organised a theatre trip for the Parish. "The cost of the tickets was £15 and several people put their money in envelopes and posted it through our front door - we are not always at home. 'Mr D'Arcy' became adept at tearing open these envelopes and eating any £10 notes contained within. He avoided the 'fivers' but partially consumed several 'tenners'! My poor husband had to keep writing to the Bank of England enclsoing what remains we had manged to salvage. The form asked "Where is the rest of the note now?". Denis used to put "You really don't want to know!" The photos of the two 'euro eating' Cavaliers reminded me of this trait of our very obedient and well behaved boy. Thank you for bringing a smile to our faces. We do wonder though, if £5 and £10 notes smell differently. They certainly seemed to taste differently."
COME JOIN US
"The first Coventry Cavalier Fun Day last year was a great success", writes Kate Hughes," about 50 people and 60 dogs enjoyed themselves and we sent £225 to the Animal Health Trust for the EBV project. So we are doing it again this year on Saturday 24th April. Same venue, St Francis Church. Links Rd. Coventry. CV6 3DQ. The Companion Dog show starts at 12.30 with Sylvia Lymer (Lymrey) judging and then 2 simple Obedience classes judged by Betty Wilson. There is lots on offer. "Have a Go at Utility", Springtime theme photo competition, raffle, BBQ and homemade cake to follow, dog treat stall and an information table. The proceeds this year will be going to The RV College's CKCS Foetal Tissue Research."
Sounds like a great way to spend an afternoon. For more information please contact Kate on 024 7659 3694 or email kate879@btinternet.com
'Emma' and their story that endorses
why we have all chosen Cavaliers
as our life long companions.
"I could write a book about my little Emma. Living on my and own and having to work, my dream of having a dog had had to go on hold. I had read a book called ‘ Emma and I’ by Sheila Hocken when I was young . It was a book about Sheila’s life with her Guide Dog 'Emma' .She had pioneer surgery later in life and gained the sight in one eye and went on to write several books. I was so moved by this book that I said to myself if ever I had a dog I would call her 'Emma'. 6 years ago I was diagnosed with stomach cancer but tests confirmed that the cancer was contained and I was able to have 3/5 of my stomach removed. I knew I would be off work for at least 6 months so thought this would be my opportunity to get the puppy I had longed for. I had no idea how much 'Emma' was going to change my life. She came from Diane Searle in Leicestershire and her pedigree name is Stonepit Thumberlina. 'Emma' gave me a reason to get out of bed in the morning and helped me to recover quickly from my surgery . When I was looking for obedience classes I found that Sheila was teaching obedience and it was amazing to train with her.
When 'Emma' was a year old we saw an agility demonstration at an RSPCA sponsored dog walk and I longed to have a go. We found a class and we were immediately addicted. I registered her with the Kennel Club for agility as ‘Baby Boo’. Last year wasan amazing year. 'Emma' was: Runner up in the Agility Nuts Winter League, Winner of the Agility Nuts Summer League, Winner of the British Open Championships for the BAA, Novice Micro Dog of the year at BAA but finished top of the leagues for agility and jumping against all size dogs. She won into Agility Grade 4 and gained her gold Agility Warrant in the Kennel Club.She also won Dog of the Year and top of her league at our own Agility Club where we train.I still can’t believe that we have competed at Crufts. I am 62 and my friends at agility all call us the ‘OAP with the long eared rat’!!!!! We have just completed a year being featured in the Your dog Magazine Dog Diary articles which has been fabulous fun. 'Emma' also has her gold Good Citizens award is a qualified PAT Dog. We have done a little heelwork to music but only for fun. Our pride and joy is a routine we do to "Singing in the Rain" and have done a couple of demonstrations for our obedience club. More important than all this 'Emma' has the most amazing personality. She is clever, very brave, cheeky sometimes and fabulous fun to be with.
Is the greediest dog on the planet and loves rolling in anything smelly and horrible. I will never be able to thank her for all the love she has given me and I swear blind she knows exactly what I am thinking and what I am going to do next. Having just retired from work, I want to have a few months top quality time with Emma and then we are going to look for a new puppy. Sorry to go on so much but as you have probably gathered I love her to bits."
GO WITH YOUR HEART
Mr Simon Swift will be heart testing at the Eastern Counties CKCS Society Ch show on 10th April 2010. Do not forget that you will need your dogs' registration papers.
BOTTOMS UP
Say hello to 'Poppy' who belongs to Marie-Ann from Broadway in Worcestershire. 'Poppy' was "rescued" at 5 months old, when her original family discovered they were expecting twins and didn't feel able to cope with 5 kids and a young puppy. Marie-Ann can see why! "She is VERY energetic and in fact, with her longer legs and longer muzzle, we have often wondered if she may have a touch of Kooikerhondje somewhere in her ancestry"
Our thanks to Bet Hargreaves from Thankerton in Scotland for drawing our attention to the following article which appeared in OUR DOGS.
Spotted at
the ringside by an OUR D0GS reporter
A LITTLE bird told me someone had been spotted at the ringside at Crufts! Who? None other than the 'great' Jemima Harrison, the producer of that grossly biased piece of gutter TV, Pedigree Dogs Exposed. This was done, as we all know, through her company, comprising herself, her partner and a cameraman, 'Passionate Productions‘, a name more suggestive of a baby factory-line or soft porn enterprise!
In a recent piece in the Daily Mail on the Beckhams' Bulldog, she is grandly described as a 'broadcaster and campaigner', but what are her credentials for such a title? In another publication, we are informed she has a couple of Flat Coated Retrievers and had done some rescue with that breed. Hardly sufficient for her to set herself up as an arbiter of what is right or wrong with pedigree dogs, is it? Clearly, she believes it is! And it is all good for the bank balance!
'It was reported she had been seen at the ring for the Basset Hounds, one of the breeds singled out for criticism, and had to be told to stop videoing or taking pictures. She was also seen at the Chinese Crested ring, a breed and its exhibitors that have also been criticised recently. Now it may well be the case that she was simply wishing to see if the Bassets had improved since her scurrilous programme or to see if the comments about the Chinese Cresteds were justified. Or could it be the case she is looking for more ammunition to keep her vendetta against the Kennel Club going. If you are in any doubt, you may be interested to know, if you did not know already, that Harrison was quoted in the Observer supplement of 7th December 2008 saying 'she wanted to puncture the Kennel Club's arrogance and she did not care who she offended in the process'! No further comment required!
So has her sensationalism, supported by one or two other fellow attention seekers' and egomaniacs, really helped? Has her avowed intention to damage the Kennel Club really benefited dogs? The one thing that folk of her ilk will not recognise is the good work that has been done for many years, in fact decades, by fanciers of numerous breeds in collaboration with the Kennel Club to deal with specific conditions affecting them - often the incidence of such conditions is so low that if we were dealing with humans they would be considered of such minor importance that it would not be cost-effective to take action. Of course taking such aspects into consideration and acknowledging all the good work that has been done, would have put things into perspective and she admitted herself in these columns that she deliberately did not give a balanced point of view as 'it would lessen the impact'! Again no comment needed!
While one cannot but concede that those involved with a very few breeds needed to be prodded into recognising certain problems, the claim that well over 90% of breeds are pretty healthy' is undoubtedly true. There was one particular dog short-listed in a group from Crufts 2008 shown on ~ I shall not mention the breed, as I do not wish to cause more problems, which caused all reasonable experienced dog folk to squirm when they saw it, such were certain anatomical exaggerations. Cases like this are indefensible, I am sorry to say. If a dog like this provoked such a negative reaction in dog folk, one cannot but imagine what the watching public thought of it; do not underestimate the pet owning public which, in my experience from the comments of colleagues usually on the Monday after Crufts, have a better eye for a dog than you may expect and almost invariably show a preference for sound sensible breeds (I would guess Yogi will go down well)!
On the other hand, Harrison, and her main sidekick who has a fetish for inane sound-bites, may actually have impeded progress in other breeds. Take the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel for example and syringomyelia. In no way do I wish to minimise the importance of the condition but headlines like 'brains too large for their skulls' are totally counter-productive to the proper investigation of the condition, leading hopefully to cure and prevention. Of course, she had been aided and abetted by a few within the breed who were all too happy to talk about the problems they had encountered. Unless they have the ability to stand back and look at the matter objectively such folk would be better to remain silent. I did seek information, shortly after the programme, about the condition from Clare Rusbridge, the veterinary neurologist, and from the information received, including figures from published studies, it seemed they had no idea .about the actual incidence of clinically affected dogs. From recent discussions, it seems they are not much further forward, although responsible breeders are doing what they can by getting their stock clinically examined and MRI scanned before breeding, from what I can gather. In fact, a very experienced vet I was talking to felt, in his opinion from what he had read that they did not really know what a normal Cavalier skull looked like. This may or may not be true, but it highlights the problems. If I am correctly informed, the condition was only described recently in the breed so those involved have actually had very little time to collect sufficient data. Now Cavaliers have been very popular, not only in, recent times but, with their forebears, for over century or even centuries in certain circles, so surely symptoms of the condition would have been noticed if it were common. It may be that their skull shape and size has altered over the years but although making photographic comparisons are notoriously difficult, archive pictures up to a century ago suggest little change has occurred in the basic shape. This lack of facts and figures, allied to the fact that involvement of any genetic mechanism has yet to be described, makes it all very difficult for breeders trying to deal with syringomyelia, let alone eradicate it. Of course being fair to such breeders is contrary to cheap sensationalist TV.
So has Harrison achieved anything for dogs? Well she no doubt prides herself she made fools of those in Clarges St - damaging the Kennel Club was her avowed intention, was it not? She does not care whether her means are fair or foul as she has also made clear, nor does she care if any innocent parties are offended in the process! Any positive changes she may have achieved are insignificant compared with the damage she has done and the acrimony and division caused, none of which benefits dogs in any way whatsoever. But in her efforts to damage the Kennel Club she has also damaged other bodies such as the Dogs' Trust, the National Dog Warden Association, the PDSA, and any other that followed, like sheep, the RSPCA, led by its chief veterinary adviser who is frequently erroneously referred to as its chief vet (an insult to its real Chief Vet) by the media, out of Crufts. Perhaps now they will realise she has made fools of them too! Although she did give faint praise to the Kennel Club in her article about the Beckhams' Bulldog, it would be naive to think she was at Crufts to see how much progress she considered had been made. It is not in the least cynical to conclude she had to be there to gather more ammunition to damage pedigree dogs and as we said above, it's good for the bank balance!
Norma and Gordon
29th MARCH 2010
