Past

When I was 10 years old, my mother bought us our first dog. It was a Dalmatian male and next year we got a Dalmatian
female, Int CH O’Soul Talahassilassi. During the following years and to my father’s dismay, we got a new dog almost
every year. We had an Old English Sheepdog, a Löwchen, a Standard poodle, couple of Maltese and an Irish Setter. We
attended dog shows almost every single weekend and I of course, being so young, attended Junior handling.

We must have been very lucky with our dogs, because they all did so well in the shows. We had International
champions, group-winners and one Multiple BIS-winner, our beloved Maltese Int CH Anyara, who got a Finnish
winner -98 title at the age of 12!

I showed our dogs and also competed in Junior Handling with great success through the years. I also showed other
peoples dogs no matter what the breed was. All those years I admired afghans, but because we had so many small dogs,
we thought we couldn’t have one.

 

When I moved to live with my future husband Jan, I was thrilled to get rid off dog hair. That didn’t last long, because
Jan had never had a dog as a child and now wanted one. Juha Kares helped us to get an Irish setter from Australia,
Quailmoor Paint The Town, aka Felix. We had to wait for him almost a year and during that wait, we companied my
mother to an Afghan specialty. Six days after that show we already had our first afghan, Choice Ain’t A Loser, aka
Leslie. I want to thank her breeder Maija Arlander for trusting us with this wonderful dog.

Leslie was a wonderful showdog, but she was also a wonderful pet. She was funny and witty and she loved our
children. She left us two beautiful litters and her legacy will live on in them.