Today we spent much of the day visiting the dog breeders from whom we have obtained all of our dogs. We are fellow members of the Chicagoland Samoyed Club and they’ve become good friends of ours. They breed both Chows and Samoyeds and there are always lots of dogs there to visit with.
We decided to take Qila along with us. They’re crazy about him—he reminds them of his father, Noah, and his grandfather, Jesse, and all their great champions of the past. He loves them right back. The girls get too absorbed in playing with their cousins and, when we bring them, too, all hell usually breaks out. Jenny would want to re-assert her queenship. So we left the girls at home.
When Qila was a baby his mother, never much on maternal instincts, weaned him and his brother at two week—far too young. Amber, a chow, also had a litter at the same time and took Qila and his brother on. The first time we ever saw Qila he was nursing from Amber—two tiny white Samoyeds happily feeding with the red and black Chow pups.
Amber, a great, great dog, died a number of years ago. To this day whenever Qila goes to our breeders he always searches for her. Today he gently and solemnly examined each of the female Chows, sadly looking for Amber.
