Thistle continues to improve. Regularly she has blood work and tests done that monitor her all important liver values. We are all thankful for this and will never forget how close we came to losing our precious GCH CH J&A's Sisters of the Heart JH in the fall of 2014. Her mother Pippin (CH J&A's Heartfelt Legend of Acton) has recovered completely from her emergency C-Section in October, her 3 beautiful pups sired by Wilson (CH J&A's Quiet Courage JH, NA 107 Prize 1) are all in their loving homes with well experienced bird hunting families.
The entire ATB crew has had an uneventful winter for the most part here. John has kept the running tracks for the dogs plowed and at one point the sides were almost 5 feet high.
This is the first winter puppies have not been born here in years. I've always enjoyed a litter winter of puppies because it helps the time pass so quickly. It's also the opportune time for starting a young pup in the spring while spending the summer in the field training and preparing them for their first bird hunting season. Also, having pups to look forward to will counter for me the feeling of cabin fever or winter doldrums. I notice the difference this year especially because of the record breaking snowfalls and freezing temperatures but not for lack of pups. On February 13th Luna (CH Birch Springs PC Lunar Eclipse JH, NA 11) owned and loved by our friends and fellow breeders Phil & Sherri Thayer gave birth to 8 beautiful pups sired by our Hemi (CH J&A's Magnificent Obsession of Acton JH). And on March 13 another litter of pups is due out of Brandy (Merrymeetings Brandy JH) who shares her life with our friends and once again fellow breeders Bo & Christine Longley. This was a repeat breeding for them with Bullet (CH J&A's High Caliber Harris Special SH).
As 2014 came to a close I sensed in my heart that 2015 would be a time of transition on many levels. So far that is exactly what it has been so I am going with the flow of this even though this direction has not been absolutely confirmed or proven. Years ago when studying for the ministry I use to love to do word studies using the Strong Concordance. I still enjoy doing them using ordinary words. Some synonyms for transition include a shift, transformation, passage, changeover, development, growth and realignment. And so far that seems to be exactly what I am seeing in this new year. I don't want to write a book here about the specifics but it's the way this year is unfolding. It is all good.
One thing I believe to be important for anyone who feels they are going through a season of transition is to try to be very aware of where you may be in the process. Seasons are more than natural progressions in the world around us. They are personal stages of growth effecting physical as well as spiritual realms. As surely as the first autumn leaf that falls from the ground marks the beginning of fall so does the first day of warm sunshine mark the beginning to an end of a long, cold, difficult and challenging winter. A winter appearing to be one of long periods of inactivity when indeed, it has been full of plans, goals, and the achievement of them.
It's almost a year since since my left total knee replacement surgery. I am so thankful to have had this. My recovery has been more difficult than most but this too has taken place in it's own season. And the new season with the new knee is now upon me, the season of recovery seems to be coming to an end. As a matter of fact I plan to give my new knee a test run in the show ring soon. I hope also to be involved with NAVHDA myself such as John was last year. I'm show chair for the 2015 American Brittany Summer Specialty Show to be held in Maine in just a few months. I plan to be by John's side this summer in the bird field more than I ever have before. What is interesting is that John's focus has never wavered. Hunting dogs. Period. I desired to prove our program through competitive venues. We did. And now it's time to fine tune it all and bring it full circle.
In closing, I'm going to share a photo and a comment I made the other day on Facebook:
"Another FB group about bird dogs etc. asked about showing the dogs they hunt with. It was fun to get to share my perspective so I posted this picture and shared: "Our focus is on the Brittany as a gundog for the walking hunter who wants their dog to find, point, retrieve grouse, woodock, pheasant etc. Sometimes we'll enter a trial for fun but usually do well. Hunt tests are more our thing, and we test our own dogs and are at the master level now. We never did much showing until just a few years ago because people kept saying we ought to take our bird dogs into the ring and show them off so we gave it a try. Within 2 years we had our first 5 show champions including our first Grand Champion smile emoticon This guy here is CH J&A's Magnificent Obsession of Acton JH and he has a strong background of Dual Champions, national winners in both AKC and AmField. We have Brittanys that will never see the inside of a show ring but all of them make great bird dogs."
As always, take care and God bless. Thanks for your interest in J&A's Brittanys. Especially for reminding us who we are, what we are about, what we believe to be true, and helping to keep us grounded and faithful regarding "All Things Brittany." It's not easy sometimes. Getting side tracked and distracted happens to the best of us. The best is yet to come. John, Ann & ATB
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