with this marvelous dog........ And yes, I have lots of memories. The first time I ever saw him...to this day, it's one of my great memories of all my years in dogs. The first time he won GV in Canada...I was home, on the phone with Randy Darnell, who was at ringside......suddenly I couldn't hear anything except a tremendous roar...and Randy screaming at me, over the phone, "Scoop won, Scoop won, Scoop won!" And then the trip to St.Louis...where I discovered that even tho he didn't live with me, he'd double for me... and I remember Ed in the bar that night, beginning every sentence with "Your dog..." as if he were mine alone. The day at Lehigh Valley...where the lineup of judges looked so good for him (and was).. but it rained, and he didn't care for the rain in his ears. He showed well enough to win the breed, tho, and then the rain stopped. I remember him under the tent, standing on the grooming table, far away from all the other exhibitors, who were all whispering about him, pointing to him -- as he stood without being tied, with no one holding him (we were sitting in chairs and pretty much ignoring him, but Kevin told him to STAY, so he did)... and after he won the group, how the buzz went around from all the big time famous all-breed handlers, westminster winners, most of them, about the beautiful German Shepherd....and then, when it was time for Best in Show, how the ringside crowd loved him, and how the handlers of the other 6 dogs in the ring tucked their leads away and clapped for him when he did his individual.......and how happy all of those big shot handlers were when Lee Brown came out with the big ribbon and said "German Shepherd." It was the first and last time I ever saw a dog's competition happy when they lost...... And then he won in Canada again, and then we were off to Daytona...where Terry told me I had to get out of the building because Scoop was so busy looking for me he wasn't paying attention to Terry......(my bad...I'd given him the leftovers from my steak dinner...he watched me like a hawk after that :-))....so I had to hide............ As I said...lots of wonderful memories.......... he was truly a once-in-a-lifetime dog not only for me, who only had a teeny bit of it, but for Kevin and Barb and Mark... Farewell, big man...I'll keep a bit of steak in my pocket to give you at the Bridge... Peggy ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2011. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Each Author is responsible for the content of his/her post. This group and its administrators are not responsible for the comments or opinions expressed in any post. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org SUBSCRIPTION:http://showgsd.org/mail.html NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================