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Dear Barrett,
on Friday 23th of June 2006 you had left us for good after 13 years and 2 months.
For Dagmar it was very difficult to let go, but she knew, that the time had come and
that you wanted to find peace.
She still remembers, when you were five years old and you had a blow up of the stomache
and three weeks later a "turn over" of the spleen. A lot of dogs die, if
this occurs, but you had such a will to live, you survived with a 50/50 change both
operations and the family was lucky to have had you with them for another 8 years.
When you were 10 1/2 you showed the first symptoms of getting old. But together with
Dagmar you managed to live another 2 ½ years. You knew now, that the time had
come and Dagmar knew, that she would have to let go. Dagmar was with you until the
end. She held you in her arms until your heart stopped beaten. It was no struggle,
you did not have to suffer, the time just had come. As Dagmar was sitting there with
you holding your head in her arms during the last 15 minutes of your life, a thousand
pictures passed her mind. Pictures of you over the last 13 years.
On Easter Sunday in the year of 1993 six little puppies came into the world. Three
of these puppies had not only a dark black back, no, they had a very interesting color
on their legs and feet. It looked like a golden red-brown. Dagmar had never seen such
a beautiful coloration on a German Shephed until you and your sisters and brothers
were born. Already on the second day of your life, she knew which puppy should be kept
for her family out of this litter. She had an eye on you. At that time she was not
an official breeder yet. At that time she only was training dogs and wanted one litter
to keep a special pup out of for her entire family, just to keep as a family dog. Years
before, as you can read in her story on this webpage, her old male named "Savage"
had died and now she was ready to keep another male. At the same time she was pregnant
with her son "Jason" and he was due three months later after you were born.
Her wish was, that you and Jason grow up together. This wish came true.
Dagmar remembers, when you were just five weeks old, she all of as sudden received
the message, that your Dad had died. His owner came over to the house being very sad.
He could not stop crying. But when he seen all these beautiful puppies running and
playing, for a short moment his eyes started to brighten up. All these little puppies
were daughters and sons of his beloved dog "Berry". Then all of as sudden
his eyes focused on one of your brothers. He instantly fall in love with him. No doubt
that this little puppy was his and still is up till today.
When you were one year old, Dagmar decided to start going to the dog-place again. She
had recognized how intelligence you were and that you needed some tasks. In only one
year you had received all three schutzhund titles, including SchH 3. Dagmar can remember,
how often people came up to her at that time and asked her about you and were you came
from. Because they loved your looks, your expression and especially your beautiful
pigmentation. At that time Dagmar did not know anything about angulations, about a
straight back and all kind of words, which were used by these breeders. She only knew,
that she had the perfect family dog with so much intelligence, which was hard to desribe
or believe. Then, when people came up to her and asked , who the father or grandfather
of you were, Dagmar told them the name "Mark vom Haus Beck" and then heard
the remarks "Oh, now we know, why he has such a good expression". "Mark
Haus Beck" was a famous dog. At that time they made Dagmar curious and she wanted
to find out more about your bloodline.
About two years later Dagmar heard about the existance of a "Longhair German Shepherd
Club e.V. in Germany". When she read more about it, she wanted to breeed German
Shepherds just like you were. In her mind a GSD should have following qualities: expression,
nice heads, good redbrown pigmentation, a nice body, intelligence, high playdrive and
of course a sound temperament.
In 1995 Dagmar had a kennel registred with the LSVD. Of course the kennel was named
after you.
When the combination for the parents for the C-litter had to be decided on, Dagmar
had choosen a male named "Fedor von El Tous". In fact he was your uncle.
He had the same father "Mark vom Haus Beck" as your mother did. Dagmar was
lucky and there was a cute little fisty female in this litter, which had all the qualities
as decribed above. She picked her out and gave her the name "Cindy". Cindys
first litter was with "Gustl von der Köhlertanne" in the year 1997.
Gustl had and still has a strong built with good bone structure and Cindy has the expression,
dark redbrown pigmenation and of course the intelligence. After these pups were born,
Dagmar also kept another female out of this G-litter, because she was afraid, if something
would happen to Cindy, at least she would have another female with this bloodline of
"Mark". Her name was Gina. Her friend purchased "Grizzly vom Haus Barrett"
out of the same litter. Both dogs and the rest of the litter mates showed these qualities
as described above.
Her dream combination was set. It was Cindy and Gustl. Since that day in 1997 Cindy
ws bred only to one dog, Gustl. She had five more litters up until this year and out
of these litters Dagmar kept more females like Nora, Queeny and recently little Hera.
She is one of the two last daughters out of Cindy. All these females carry through
the sire "Mark Haus Beck" also your background in their genes.
Dear Barrett, for all of these beautiful dogs we want to thank you. Without you we
would have never realized what qualities a German Shepherd should have. These qualities
actually makes a GSD the most famous breed in this world. And a GSD with longhair has
an extra touch to it.
In our garden a special place was made for you. Here you can rest in peace. We will
never forget you. In our memories you will always be with us and you always will have
a special place in Dagmar`s heart and of course in the hearts of the children..
At this point we want to thank everybody for the condolences we received in the last
days for our beloved Barrett.
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