Mandy Remembered
Ch. Woebgon’s Mountain Dew
at
Age 14
I just completed my ritual for every dog Pam and I have lost since we’ve been married. Every time we loose one I place their ID tag on the collar that hangs inside the entry of our home. I’m sure that most of you who have been here haven’t even noticed it. Starting with our very first dog, Ruffy, and our first basset hound, Maggie, both of whom we rescued from the animal shelter I’ve added their tag to a collar that Ruffy used. The string leash with the collar is the one they gave us at the shelter when we brought Ruffy home. The collar and leash hang in the entry as a tribute to those represented by the collar. It’s time to say good bye to our first “show girl” and the first foundation bitch of our line.
Mandy was the beginning of our wonderful relationship with her breeder, Heather. I still remember vividly talking to Heather about the possibility of getting a bitch from her to start our breeding program. Heather was delighted and had been hoping that I’d ask. Mandy finished her Championship fairly quickly. She was the first of our bassets to win at a basset hound specialty show in 2000. After Mandy finished her Championship we started working with Heather on breeding our bassets. In addition to breeding Mandy Heather bred our Moose to a sister of Mandy’s from and earlier litter and that’s where Bonnie came from.
Until Heather’s tragic death she helped with our litters when Pam and I were in school teaching. She also expertly handled many of our dogs at the shows. Heather was like a daughter that we never had.
Mandy proved to be the perfect complement to our boy, Moose. The pair produced two wonderful girls, Joy and Moxie. Since then Mandy became a grandmother to three litters. Moxie had nine with two becoming Champions. Joy had two litters. Her first had seven with two Champions and in her second litter she had six. Four in the second litter were Champions. Our litter from Miss Sassy are Mandy's great grandchildren and The litter of three that Pixie produced were her great, great, great grandchildren.
From the beginning Mandy was the queen of the pack. The other bassets showed their respect for her for all of her fourteen years. She did what she wanted when she wanted to do it. There wasn’t an aggressive thought or action in Mandy’s being. She was always very gentile. Somehow the other dogs knew she was in charge anyway. Mandy got her way with people with a simple push with her nose. The push with her nose got Mandy many hugs and treats over the years. If that didn’t get someone’s attention her high pitched bark did. The bark got her a chance to go where she wanted to go. We definitely miss her.
