In The Beginning

"The Journey"

Well, this is where it all started, with me watching my uncles playing football from a second-floor back porch. Chicago in the early 50s.

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OMG...the knot in that tie could choke a goat! But that was the style back then. And trust me, if I have ever been anything, it has ALWAYS been a "Fashion-Mista". That is one of my college graduation pix. A very proud graduate of Morehouse College.

I started out with Afghan hounds. That's Persia on the left and Tiombe Sala on my right. I did a lot of shows with my Afghans back in the 70s and even met the great Sunny Shay of Grandeur fame. Unfortunately, I was also very interested in the club scene. I am one of the original "Soul Train Gang" as well as one of the original members of the "Just Us" social club, which brought about "House Music" "Just Us" social club used to be a Gay dance set at a restaurant in Hyde Park called Lung hings on Wednesday nights. It became very popular and moved into a warehouse on 12th and Michigan Ave. The rest is history...just like my 5-year involvement in Afghans. I went back to school to get my master's and didn't show dogs for about 6 years.

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Well, when I came back to dogs in the early 80s, I went back with a BANG. This is thanks to the brilliant and gifted breeder Sylvia Hammerstrom of Skansen fame. I can still hear her very kind and patient voice when I called her up after seeing her Dockan v. Kobuch at a show in Europe. Sylvia sent me the most beautiful and wonderful puppy she had at the time. She trusted that I would do well with this Goddess, and GREATNESS was what surely happened. AnneLisa was undefeated in her entire show career. I don't know that I have ever loved a dog as much as I loved AnneLisa. When she went around the ring, she moved as if she heard music in her head. It was electrifying! She was very male-competitive. AnneLisa was feminine in every way, but she could and DID beat the big boys all the time. That also proved to be a problem when it came to breeding her. She absolutely HATED being "mounted". Once, it took four strong men to hold her for breeding...she nearly ripped the ears off the male she was being bred to.

I have also spent some time with terriers. My terrier kennel name was Avonlea. This is a lovely bitch I bred, CH Avonlea Viveca Lynn