Zephyr was our meant-to-be dog. I had been asked if I was interested in a pup from his litter when the litter was born. We were dealing with Hurricane’s cancer and we said not now. When the puppies would have been about 9 weeks, I start putting out the word we were interested in getting another Flat-Coat. Less than 48 hours later we were arranging to pick up Zephyr in a couple of weeks. He is everything we could have asked for. He is loving, silly, loves to retrieve and learn. He is laid back but still energetic. His enthusiasm for whatever I asked him to do has even got me to go back in the show ring, which I had vowed I would never do.

We went from being dog-less to two dogs in 3 weeks. Patches was my niece’s dog. My sister was going through a nasty divorce and had to find homes for the family dogs. We said we would take in Patches. So 3 weeks after Zephyr came to live with us, Patch was added to the pack. She was about 12 years old. She had had a very rough time and needed lots of TLC. She adopted Zephyr instantly as her puppy. Living with him brought out her zest for life. She now retrieves, and specializes in keeping our yard free of moles, squirrels and chipmunks. She is a typical terrier mix, letting the world know her opinion.

My first love when it came to dogs was Shetland Sheepdogs. Although I’m very active with Flat-Coats now, I still have shelties and Storm joined our family back in 2006. I think he thinks he is a herding, retrieving FC-Sheltie cross breed. He likes to run in the field with the big dogs and even though he is a small guy, he has the heart of a lion.