Family news

No, that's not Dionne.  It's Dudley -- one of Dionne's brothers! 

Bonnie Mueller passed the picture on to me.  She's raising Dionne's sister Demi up in Orange County. We've had a few e-mail exchanges, and apparently she's also recently heard from Mary Beth Morrow, who's raising Dudley in central Ohio. Mary Beth reports that "he's a big, leggy boy, and so sweet! ...Dudley has been a confident, but calm puppy. He is a quick and eager learner, loves everyone, and was best buddies with my previous CCI dog, Kieran, who turned in for advanced training in Feb. Our biggest challenge so far has been with crate training, since Dudley did not seem to mind urinating in his kennel for the first several weeks/months. He is doing really well now and has gone to the door when he has to pee since he was a little puppy - he just didn't hold it very well or long in his crate. He can be a little bit overly excitable with initial greetings, but calms down quickly and seems to be fairly low key otherwise. I think he shows good potential so far..." (As he's her 14th CCI puppy, she speaks with the voice of Experience!)

Steve and I are pretty astounded by how much Dudley resembles Dionne.  Also amusing is the fact that we all were told initially that everyone in her litter was a blonde (including Dionne). No one seems to know how that miscommunication occurred, as none of us have had any contact with the "breeder/caretaker" (in CCI parlance). In contrast, when Steve and I were raising Dionne's predecessor, Darby, we had the polar opposite experience. Her breeder/caretakers wrote us regular and effusive e-mails, sent dozens upon dozens of her baby pictures, and generally maintained a very close contact.

We probably won't ever meet Dudley but hope we eventually do meet Demi (most likely on that dark day -- when the girls turn in for Advance Training.)