My name
is Annette and I live in Hampshire with my
long suffering husband Jim who accepts the
fact that he will always come last. We have
7 Spinoni (at the moment), 2 Barbet, a geriatric
Great Dane and a Toy Poodle. We live on a
smallholding and also keep chickens and ducks.
We’ve recently built our house after
living in a mobile home for 8 years, which
as you can imagine was not easy with all the
dogs living in with us. Anyway it was all
worth it when we finally moved into our lovely
new home.
I’ve
been involved with and loved dogs and animals
for as far back as I can remember and was
always ‘rescuing’ waifs and strays
and bringing them home, much to the annoyance
of my parents. For the first few years of
married life we didn’t have a dog but
as soon as we were in a house with a garden
we bought a beautiful white longcoat GSD from
a lady called Francis Hill of the famed Loboas
affix. Francis became and still is a very
dear friend and has given me a huge amount
of help and advice over the years. I lived
with and bred GSD’s for around 15 years
and got my kennel name ‘Netis’
which means ‘Trusted Friend’ in
North American. I bred White, Black and Sable
Shepherds and bred the 2nd litter in the country
of Blues - the first litter being bred by
Francis herself. I didn’t think I would
ever change breeds until the fateful day when
I saw a picture of a Spinone.
It was
a couple of years later after buying a Dog
World Annual at Crufts that I saw an advertisement
from a Spinone breeder from Sussex. I phoned
the number and spoke to Gael Stenton (Gaesten)
and she invited us to go and meet her dogs
and get more information on their needs etc.
When we walked into her kitchen a few days
later and looked into the faces of her beautiful
Spins I knew I had to have one and was totally
hooked.
We ended
up getting an Orange Roan boy who we called
Dillon and he was followed about a year later
with a Brown Roan girl who we called Fara.
That was 14 years ago.
This
was the start of my addiction of the wonderful
world of Spinone
An addiction
that I hope never to cure!
"Grant
me the senility to forget the people I never
liked
The good fortune to run into the ones I do
And the eyesight to know the difference"
