Champion Joyslyn's Secrets of the Heart ROM
August 21, 2002 - March 15, 2019
Today Lynn and I mourn the passing of our beautiful "old lady", Secret. Secret was the daughter of our Champion Joyslyn's Rebel At Heart and Champion Joyslyn's My One N Only. She is the mother, grandmother, and great grandmother of many of our Lhasas.
Secret was one of three puppies (Piper, Secret, and Walker) we kept from three different litters, all born within a few months of each other, and all shown together until each finished. She was the second of the trio to earn her championship. She became a champion in May 2004.
Here are a few photos of her through the years.
9 weeks old |
First major age 8 months |
Taking Reserve Winners Bitch during National Specialty Week |
A Head Study |
In the show ring |
Clipped down in her later years |
An Essay By Ernest Montague:
DOGS NEVER DIE...
"Some of you,
particularly those who think they have recently lost a dog to 'death', don’t
really understand this. I’ve had no desire to explain, but won’t be around
forever and must.
Dogs never die. They don’t
know how to. They get tired, and very old, and their bones hurt. Of course they
don’t die. If they did they would not want to always go for a walk, even long
after their old bones say: 'No, no, not a good idea. Let's not go for a walk.'
Nope, dogs always want to go for a walk. They might get one step before their
aging tendons collapse them into a heap on the floor, but that's what dogs are.
They walk.
It’s not that they dislike
your company. On the contrary, a walk with you is all there is. Their boss, and
the cacophonic symphony of odor that the world is. Cat poop, another dog’s
mark, a rotting chicken bone (exultation), and you. That’s what makes their
world perfect, and in a perfect world death has no place.
However, dogs get very very
sleepy. That’s the thing, you see. They don't teach you that at the fancy
university where they explain about quarks, gluons, and Keynesian economics.
They know so much they forget that dogs never die. It’s a shame, really. Dogs
have so much to offer and people just talk a lot.
When you think your dog has
died, it has just fallen asleep in your heart. And by the way, it is wagging
its tail madly, you see, and that’s why your chest hurts so much and you cry
all the time. Who would not cry with a happy dog wagging its tail in their
chest. Ouch! Wap wap wap wap, that hurts. But they only wag when they wake up.
That’s when they say: 'Thanks Boss! Thanks for a warm place to sleep and always
next to your heart, the best place.'
When they first fall
asleep, they wake up all the time, and that’s why, of course, you cry all the
time. Wap, wap, wap. After a while they sleep more. (remember, a dog while is
not a human while). You take your dog for walk, it’s a day full of adventure in
an hour. Then you come home and it's a week, well one of your days, but a week,
really, before the dog gets another walk. No WONDER they love walks.)
Anyway, like I was saying,
they fall asleep in your heart, and when they wake up, they wag their tail.
After a few dog years, they sleep for longer naps, and you would too. They were
a GOOD DOG all their life, and you both know it. It gets tiring being a good
dog all the time, particularly when you get old and your bones hurt and you
fall on your face and don’t want to go outside to pee when it is raining but do
anyway, because you are a good dog. So understand, after they have been
sleeping in your heart, they will sleep longer and longer.
But don’t get fooled. They
are not 'dead.' There’s no such thing, really. They are sleeping in your heart,
and they will wake up, usually when you’re not expecting it. It’s just who they
are.
I feel sorry for people who
don’t have dogs sleeping in their heart. You’ve missed so much. Excuse me, I
have to go cry now."
Me too...
Joyce