BISS GCH Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity, CGC (Miss Ginny) Heart Hound

Godspeed, Ginny. February 2006-February 2014.

Best in Specialty

GCH Gryffindor's Wild Rose O'Starry Glen, Best in Specialty, IWAWC

At the Irish Wolfhound Association of the West Coast Specialty on July 26, 2013, Breeder-Judge Ms. S. Kelly Cromer awarded Best in Specialty Show to our own GCH Gryffindor's Wild Rose O'Starry Glen (Rose). Thank you, Ms. Cromer. Thank you, handler Erin Hines.

Rose, born Feb. 1, 2010, was the only girl in a litter of 8. She is Gryffindor's first home-bred champion, grand champion, and bronze grand champion.

Rose was co-bred by owner Pat Murkland and by Jocelyne Gagne.
Her mother, our own BISS GCH Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity, CGC, won Best in Specialty at Irish Wolfhound Association of the West Coast in 2008. Her father, CH Taryn Tate of Limerick, SC, won Best in Specialty at Irish Wolfhound Association of the West Coast in 2002 and 2006. Thank you to all the dogs and people behind Rose.

There's more! The day before, on July 25, 2013, at the first IWAWC specialty, Judge Mr. Bo Bengston awarded the select Grand Champion award to our Rose. Thank you to Mr. Bengston. Thank you to handler Erin Hines.

We believe this win propels Rose to Bronze Grand Champion.


Rose would be the first Irish Wolfhound girl in California to achieve Bronze Grand Champion status. And she would be the second girl to do so in Irish Wolfhound history!

All in all, a fantastic specialty show weekend!

Fred reads the show catalog (Pat Murkland Photo)

Fyre's on Fire

Fyre! Photo by Kevin Peuhkurinen

Fyre, our Gryffindor boy in Canada, won Best of Breed in lure coursing at Canada's National Specialty for Irish Wolfhounds!

Shortly afterward he earned his Canadian coursing championship title.

Fyre is not only outstanding in the field, he also is chasing some ribbons in the conformation ring.

Fyre winning first place, novice dog, at New England specialty,
under breeder-judge John Lewington of Australia. (Mike Wilkinson Photography)

Fyre, who is formally known as Starkeeper Glenamadda Fyrenze of Gryffindor, SC, recently crossed the border into the U.S. and went to his first all-breed conformation dog show.  He won a 3-point major toward his AKC championship title.

The same weekend he won Best of Breed at a lure coursing competition in the United States.

Fyre is owned and loved by his co-breeder, Jocelyne Gagne.

At the Canada national specialty, Fyre's son Jake won honors as the best puppy courser. Fyre's Dad Tate, like Fyre, held a senior courser title ...

So, now it's three generations of coursing wolfhounds.

The Rose is a Grand Champion

Rich Bergman Photo

Rose finished her AKC Grand Championship title with a Best of Breed win and her seventh major at Kennel Club of Beverly Hills. Thank you to Judge Mrs. Betty-Anne Stenmark, who then awarded Rose a very competitive Hound Group 4 placement. Thank you to handlers Erin Hines and Bill Buell.

Now she's GCH Gryffindor's Wild Rose O'Starry Glen. 

Rose and her mom, GCH Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity, apparently are the only mother-daughter Irish Wolfhound Grand Champions.

Veteran Bitch, Irish Wolfhound Club of America National Specialty Show 2012

Photo by Bill Meyer

BISS GCH Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity, CGC
First Place Veteran Bitch (entry: 16)
2012 Irish Wolfhound Club of America National Specialty
Thank You to Breeder-Judge Jacqueline Carswell!
RESULTS

Photo by Helen Cullum

Photo by Helen Cullum

Photo by Helen Cullum

Verity at Our National Specialty

Photo Courtesy of Helen Cullum

Our own BISS GCH Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity, CGC, won Veteran Bitch today at the Irish Wolfhound Club of America National Specialty.

Grand Champion

BISS CH Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity, CGC, is now an AKC Grand Champion!



(pictured winning Grand Champion Select Bitch at Irish Wolfhound Association of the West Coast 2011 specialty show, Breeder-Judge Thomas Powers.)

Canine Good Citizen: The Third Generation

(Courtesy of Brian Valente)

Congratulations to Gryff, our newest American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen.
Gryff and his brother Ocho are the third generation of Good Citizens in the wolfhound family. Their mom, Verity, and her father, Merlin, also were Canine Good Citizens.
The CGC is a combined temperament, socialization and obedience test.
Read about it at http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/index.cfm

Farewell, Raleigh

Farewell,
MBSS Can. Am. Ch. Starkeeper Glenamadda Realtan.
Farewell, beloved Raleigh,
July 7, 2002-October 18, 2011.

Thinking today of this Irish Wolfhound who is truly one of the great ones, our mother and grandmother Raleigh.

We all can be thankful for everything she did and accomplished in her life to bring the breed forward ... A global legacy.

Hugging her daughter and grandchildren extra hard,
with thanks.

Glam Girls

Our daughter and mother photos from

the Irish Wolfhound Assn. of the West Coast 2011 specialty.

Thank you to Breeder-Judge Mr. Thomas S. Powers.


Reserve Winner's Bitch at 17 months

Gryffindor's Wild Rose O'Starry Glen
(Vicki Holloway Photo)


Grand Champion Select Bitch

BISS CH Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity, CGC
(Vicki Holloway Photo)

See results HERE.

When You Need A Smile ...

You can count on an Irish Wolfhound.

© Pat Murkland

Miss Canine Good Citizen

© Pat Murkland

© Pat Murkland

Guess Which One

© Pat Murkland

Hey Starbucks ... Guess which one of these is "tall."

Showing Our Joy

BSS CH Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity © Pat Murkland

Verity had not attended an Irish Wolfhound Association of the West Coast specialty show since she won Best of Breed in 2008.

On July 28-29, 2011, she returned.

This time she brought her daughter, Rose, with her.

Gryffindor's Wild Rose O'Starry Glen © Pat Murkland

Rose won first place in the 12-18 month puppy bitch class on both days of this year's back-to-back specialties under two breeder judges.

Then on the second day, she won Reserve Winner's Bitch!

We are deeply appreciative to Breeder-Judge Tom Powers.

Rose flies around the ring. © Pat Murkland

We thank Breeder-Judge Dr. Lynn Simon for his kind remarks on Thursday about Rose's conformation.

Dr. Simon examines Rose. © Pat Murkland

Rose had fun!

We thank our handlers Bill Buell & Erin Hines.

And her mother, who loves being with her.

Rose in the ring. © Pat Murkland

On Friday, we were again thrilled when Mr. Powers chose Verity as his champion select bitch, earning a major toward her Grand Champion title.

Verity at age 5. © Pat Murkland

There's more!

Verity went back into the ring with Rose and her handsome son Colin, and won Brood Bitch.

While at the specialty, Verity also earned her AKC Canine Good Citizen certification.

So, now she's BSS CH Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity, CGC.

You've Got Mail!

We've got mail! A mysterious package from Texas.

Rosie (at left) says to her mom, Ginny:

"Hey, this could be from my brother Ocho."

Ginny (right) to Rosie: "Yes! It is from our dear Ocho."

Look! Ocho even helped wrap the presents inside.

Wow! Two cards, beautiful and funny,

three cool Ocho decals ...

... And wonderful studio shots of Ocho

(pictured at one year old).

Check it out. Feel envious. It's an OCHO T-SHIRT!

Here's the newspaper with the Page 1 article about Ocho.

He received his certification to be a therapy dog, in case you have not seen the glaring headlines.

And here's another view of the t-shirt.

Thank you, Ocho, and the Cox family,

for such magnificent gifts.

We love you!

Five Years Ago

Harry and Baby Ginny. Now she's the matriarch.

True Love

© Murkland photo

Wolfhounds laugh at our jokes, and we laugh at theirs.

Happy, happy birthday

Pat Murkland Photo

Our Funny Valentine

Four weeks old, in 2006

Courtesy of Glenamadda Irish Wolfhounds

This week our Ginny turns 5!

Her official AKC registered name is

Glenamadda Starkeeper Verity.

She gets to wear the crowns of SBIS (Specialty Best in Show) CH (AKC Champion) in front of that.

Her registered names each have meaning:

Glenamadda for the kennel of Susan Prokopenko,

and Starkeeper for the kennel of Jocelyne Gagne,

her wonderful co-breeders.

Verity means Truth.

The "V" name comes from being in the V litter.

But when she was a tiny pup, her litter nickname was Valentine.

In these litter photos, she is the lady in red.

When she came to her forever home with us,

she answered to Red.

She soon named herself Ginny

because of her crush on our Harry Potter.

But once you're named Valentine, you never lose it.

She's our forever Funny Valentine.

Our Heart Hound.

Have you hugged your heart hound today?

Thanks, Harry

Harry and Ginny, 2006 (P.Murkland Photo)

Our Harry died several years ago. We still miss our dear friend.

His best friend, Ginny, pictured above, will be five years old this coming week.

Harry suffered from pneumonia when he was young, and we almost lost him then.

He was saved because our vet at that time was willing to try Rocephin, a drug we read about in Mary McBryde's amazing Irish Wolfhound book.

Since then, other wolfhounds around the United States have been saved by this powerful human bacteria-fighting medication, also known as Ceftriaxone.

Longtime breeder Mike Genovese, also a vet, shares his experience here.

But it is sometimes tough convincing vets that the protocol really works.

In a wolfhound, pneumonia can kill rather quickly.

An antibiotic that doesn't work can mean death.

The symptoms also can be rather subtle.

And this is where we thank our Harry.

NIGHT AT THE ER

Our baby wolfhound caught kennel cough, and we thought she had recovered.

She was playing, eating well, acting normally.

Then, suddenly, in the middle of a meal, she stopped eating.

She couldn't or wouldn't lie down.

She seemed agitated.

She was panting.

She was pacing.

She seemed to be trying to vomit.

She began drooling.

She was standing strangely, with her head in an awkward position.

These are all warning signs of bloat.

But her stomach wasn't distended.

She had just pooped, and she did vomit her half-eaten dinner.

A friend suggested she had a stomach-ache, and to wait and see if she began feeling better.

Her temperature was 103 degrees F.

And then I knew. Thank you, Harry.

The way she was standing, the way she was acting ...

these are symptoms of pneumonia.

Sometimes dogs with pneumonia don't even have a temperature.

But she did. (Here is a fact sheet for you.)

I rushed her to the ER.

Along the way, friends emailed a protocol, for Rocephin.

Already knew about it. Thank you, Harry.

Late at night, the ER vet said the x-rays showed a mild pneumonia in one lung. She thought Rocephin was too big a cannon. She said she would use a different antibiotic.

This worried us. We began searching for someone who could help us. When the clinic closed in the a.m., we found help thanks to our regular vet, and brought our wolfhound to a specialty hospital more than two hours away.

The x-rays there showed a collapsed lung (the one that had been clear in the ER).

Severe pneumonia, they said. They planned to use Rocephin, the vet told us.

THE FIGHT TO LIVE

It was a fight to save her.

Pneumonia can kill a wolfhound in less than 24 hours.

It has killed other wolfhounds, in recent months.

After several days in the ICU and an anxious wait for us, our baby made it. Two weeks later, she continues to recuperate.

If we had waited to bring her to the ER, she would have died. If we had never heard of Rocephin, we may have been more complacent about medications.

We have Harry to thank.

We sure miss that big goofy guy. He was so sweet. Anyone who met him, loved him.

During these past dark days and dark nights, we have been thinking of Harry often.

And we believe somehow, his spirit is with us, still.

He loved Ginny so much, and she loved him back.

He was her protector, her guardian. The Pack Patriarch.

And now he has helped save her baby's life.

We love you, Harry.