Katie out in the snow before the big storm hits. Can't wait to get her running soon. She is one energetic pup, I have rarely seen her still. If her puppy voice holds, it's very deep for a female and seems quite loud. She has a sibling in Massachusetts that has started before 6 months. I see a lot of her grandparents in her.
![]() Izzy & Petra are only separated by a few days with Izzy about 4 days older. They have basically grown up together; they eat together, sleep together and I like running them together. Even though their mothers were sisters, they are two very different hounds. Izzy is powerfully built, Petra is slim. Izzy hunts in a methodical way, Petra is in every thicket & under every bush. Petra is about 2 inches shorter and is the smallest hound in my kennel but has the biggest heart of any. Izzy will stand up to any hound, Petra is not one to be in the corner, and has surprised me with her aggressiveness at times but she is not what I would call an alpha female. I really enjoy hunting them in a brace. They both are very biddable and work well as a team. Petra a bit better of a check hound and Izzy controlling the drives. The day of this picture, I was surprised to check the Garmin and see that Petra was moving almost a full mph faster than Izzy. I'm going to chalk that up to the fact that rabbits were tough to come by due to the approaching storm and the 2 had to work to get up the pair of rabbits that they did roust. Wow! Where has the time gone? Soon leaves will be falling and gun season will be here. This has been the most miserable summer that I can remember. Non stop heat & humidity and endless rain.
I've been neglecting the website a bit as I just have so much going on and they are telling me I need to upgrade to a more "modern" format. Some buttons do not work on the mobile site and it has become more of a hassle to update. I have been keeping the Facebook page updated a bit more regularly. Just like everything else, you have to adjust to change and change with the times so at some point, this site will undergo a face lift. (I try to keep this webpage and the Facebook site similar as I know some folks don't do FB. With the decreased daylight hours, I will try to do some more frequent updates here. I have many things running around my brain. From crap I see & hear, to some hounds I'd like to celebrate & acknowledge. Before I end this short blog post, I would like to post a link: https://www.nationalbeagleclub.org/Standard Now the state of the show beagle today is not good, the conformation of the field beagle is just as dire. This standard was written by very knowledgeable folks and every aspect of conformation relates to field performance. Hard to believe that it has been 4 years since Mike's passing. I think of him daily, usually when I'm in the kennel or out with the hounds. He always had words of wisdom for me and thinking back, some things really ring true. Especially with the hounds but also with the people that interact with us through the kennel. I have pictures of Mike and Willet in the kennel and I often literally talk to the pictures. I believe that Mike has guided me through some of the decisions I have had to make.
Last Day of Winter: First Day of Spring: The first full day of spring arrived and dumped about 8" of snow. Top pics are Bindi on the last day of winter. We had rabbits running everywhere and a couple paired up for breeding season. Bottom pics are Tiana, 3 1/2 months old, who was relegated to the quad paths.
Very grateful for daylight savings time, standard time is not for running dogs! Been receiving good reports on hounds from our kennel. We always like the updates and love the pictures! Mersey (on left in both pictures) and Burgess doing their thing in Nova Scotia. Will had waited quite a while for a female pup. Two days before he came to pick Mersey up, a man from New Jersey backed out on his male so Will decided to take a pair. ************************************************************************************************************************************************* Kevin M's fine little female "Patches," sister to my Chandra. Duffy X Lola ************************************************************************************************************************************************** ************************************************************************************************************************************************** Mike H's beautiful hound. Mike says he has the best snow nose of any hound he has ever had.
![]() It is with great sadness that I report of the death of Patch Cymbrian Hank. Hank was my buddy for a long time and his passing has left a hole in my heart. Hank was bred by Mike Capozzi, out of his fine female Jubalee, by Boquet River Pal Patch. I had the pleasure of watching both of these outstanding hounds run and both are an important part of the lineage of the kennel. I’ve had several of Pal’s offspring. I was at Mike’s when these pups were born but didn’t pick Hank up until the fall. I don’t recall how many were in the litter but it was a bumper crop. Hank and Pella were Mike’s keepers from the litter and that fall, Mike and I did a puppy swap and Hank was headed to Pennsylvania. He fit right in and I kenneled him with Hoss (Cymbrian Hans Blix) and the two made quite a pair. Hoss was about 16” and Hank was 13 ½” at best, Hoss was a chocolate tri and Hank more a traditional black, white & tan tri color. They got along extremely well except at feeding (Hoss was fed outside the kennel) and I ran them together quite a bit. They were close to the same age, with Hank maybe 6 months or so younger, they wrestled and horsed around but it never got out of hand. Hank was a chewer and he destroyed several boxes for me. He actually made a back door in one box. Around 8 months or so Hank was ready to start. I box trapped a rabbit at my mother’s house and Hank took off. I remember as if yesterday, that little bugger ran that rabbit check free across the creek and up the hill and back to a junk pile. I couldn’t wait to tell Mike. Hank continued to progress and he was circling rabbits fairly well so I decided to pack him. His brain was not ready for that & he felt that he had to have the front whether he could handle it or not. I thought I had blown him up. I tried running him braced and again solo. Solo he was great, no problems but as soon as I put him with another hound, he started his racing for the front again. After talking with Mike and several others I trusted, I decided to only run him by himself for a while and even not running him at all for periods of time. In the back of my head, I knew he could do it and had all the talents necessary so I wasn’t about to give up on him (others may have). Finally after maybe a year or so, he was back running with the pack. The more hounds with him, the better he was and soon was a very valuable member of my pack. He was funny about some things, he loved being petted and scratched in the kennel but didn’t want touched out in the field. He was all business as soon as he left the kennel. He was a large pack hound and I regret that when he was in his prime, I didn’t get him to a few LP trials. He loved being right there with a bigger pack. He seemed to have a pretty good nose but he would not open unless he was sure and I can still see him in a tough scenting spot, working the line with it right between his legs but he was silent until he was positive. He did this once at our club fun trial and the judge told me he had it but wasn’t opening. In about 20 yards, he opened and was off. For the next decade or so, Hank was a pack leader and a joy to take afield. Time slipped by and before I knew it, he was old. He wasn’t the pack leader and it bothered him. He wasn’t the alpha male and I could tell he wasn’t happy about it. He was relegated to running by himself and his field time was reduced dramatically. He was always a good boy and I loved having him in the kennel. A few years ago, I believe he started suffering from dementia. He would bark at the wall and go in the kennel and bark at the floor but he never missed a meal and was never at the vet. Pretty remarkable feat. He split his ear once and was covered in blood but he kept running the rabbit. I pulled a 3 inch thorn from his foot and as soon as it was out, he was back in the pack. He was one tough hound. He never opened on anything other than rabbit his entire life. He bounced deer and it never fazed him. The pack got into a porcupine once but Hank never got a quill. I knew the end was coming but I was still not prepared. The night before he passed, he walked the hallway as he did often, remembering that he was once “cock of the walk.” I buried him next to his niece Onwasa and a few tears fell into the cold January clay. Hank will be with me in my heart forever. ![]() Onwasa passed peacefully Saturday October 14. She had been fading for several days. I went to check on her about 7:30 Saturday morning, she didn't come out of her box but wagged her tail for me and looked to be at peace and by 9:30 she had passed. She was an awesome hound and sort of an end to an era. Onwasa, which Mike told me meant "Good Water" was the product of a half brother/ half sister cross (Ambe X Pella). Wasa was always a gentle hound with a very sweet disposition. She was started by Bert and Rita Hakey in Vermont (I believe) and was a very solid rabbit dog. After I brought her to PA and after her settling in a bit, I took her out for her first sniff of cottontail in my friend's enclosure. Within 5 minutes she had a cottontail on the move and looked like she had been running them all her life. She was by no means my fastest hound but she was very dependable and a very good check hound. Wasa also was a very good mother. Off hand I do not know how many were in her first litter, but her second, she had 11 and raised 9. Her third litter here she had six and raised them all. Her offspring are all through my kennel, Paco, Lola, Chandra, Taya, Izzy and Pria all descend from her. Her pups are all throughout the country, several are in California and from Indiana to Maine. A couple years ago, some of the younger bitches started picking on her so she was moved to her own kennel. Last year I decided to kennel her with Gadget and they got along great and seemed to enjoy each other. Last year her voice changed to a horse, gruff chop as her age was beginning to show. Right up to the end, she was a very clean hound and just a joy to have in the kennel. I've said before that I bury a piece of my heart with every hound and that is definitely the case here. I still look to see her and the kennel seems different without this grand dam of the kennel. Rest easy girl! |
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