| Back in September 2005 a French Gentleman left
a message in our Guestbook. As visitors to this website are
aware we are fans of the French and throughly enjoy visiting
France for shows. Naturally as this gentleman left his web address
we had a good look at his website.
What we found there was a revelation. Many years ago Brian and
Julie Choat (Otterspool) and Mickie George (Mortondawn) had
sent dogs to France. Dogs that originated from the Cliffhill
Kennel as ours do. I had tried to track them down on my previous
trips, but my grasp of the language was simply not good enough.
Well, staring at me, was the breeding that I was looking for.
With the help of a dictionary and using my long forgotten French
I was soon typing an email. |
| The long and the short of it was that on January
13th, I found myself with Pomo just south of Paris for a meeting
with Sandrine Bossuet and Ch Urluberlue d'Atoll de Kerguelen.
Sandrine had driven 400 miles from her home near to Bordeaux,
and Pomo and I had travelled "sous la manche". The
fact that it was Poppet's birthday was spooky, and at 8am precisely
we met and the "marriage" of Pomo and Urluberlue took
place. |
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Urluberlue is a "Champion de
France".
This is a most prestigious title.
In France not only does a dog need to qualify in the
show ring but in order to gain any sort of champion
status it MUST have attained 65% at a field trial. In
other words in France an English Springer must be the
complete dog. It should be a healthy dog too. A requirement
for the championship is that the dog has a hip score
of B or higher and holds a current clear eye certificate.
Not only does Urluberlue hold this title, but she is
an extremely lovely bitch. One that I would be proud
to own.
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Ch Urluberlue d'Atoll de Kerguelen
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Now for the long wait to see if
Urluberlue was in whelp. We need not have worried.
Thierry had spent a small fortune at the vets to ensure
that we had mated the two of them on the correct day.
On March 15th Urluberlue whelped seven lovely puppies,
four boys and three girls.
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Three black and white girls, one
black and white boy, and three liver and white boys.
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