Tagged!

I've been tagged by Jenn to describe how Tess and Jazz came to be our Dals. I'll start with Tess first, since she's the oldest. It was 2005, and we had just lost our second Dal that February. By June, our hearts were aching for another Dalmatian, but no one we knew was breeding. I finally got in touch with some old friends from the Greater Pittsburgh Dalmatian Club, and they suggested LaDonna King at Kingdom Dalmatians. LaDonna didn't currently have a litter, but she had plans to breed her Gia.

In late June, we attended the Greater Pittsburgh Dalmatian Club's specialty show to meet LaDonna and Gia. We instantly loved them both and decided to wait for a puppy from Gia's upcoming litter. In the meantime, LaDonna was talking with another Dal breeder and found out that that breeder had two female black and white Dal puppies with her, which is exactly what we were hoping for. Sensing how badly we missed a Dal in our life, LaDonna suggested that we look at these two puppies, as they came from a good breeder. I fell in love with Tess the instant I saw her. She had the mostly black ears that my beloved Dottie had and was a happy, spunky puppy. Tess' breeder had preliminarily named her Starwood's Touched by an Angel, and we liked the name and thought it was appropriate. Ever since Tess came into our life, we truly have been "Touched by an Angel."

Fast forward to 2007. We had remained friends with LaDonna King and still admired Gia. When LaDonna announced that she was going to breed Gia again, we were one of the first ones on the list to get a puppy. An extra bonus is that the sire of the litter was a sweet, handsome boy named Tolliver, co-owned by two of our Dal Club friends, Nanci Good and Barb Allison. We had told LaDonna that we'd love to have a liver-spotted female, but she wasn't sure that Gia would have liver puppies, as she had 12 black and white pups in her first litter.

Well, on November 30, Gia had ten beautiful puppies, including a liver and white girl!! LaDonna cautioned us that that particular puppy may not be appropriate for our household and we'd have to see how her personality developed. As it turns out, that little liver female, then known as Savannah, was determined by LaDonna to be the best fit for our family, and she came home with us and became known as Kingdom's All That Jazz. As you can see by all the photos on the blog, Tess and Jazz are best buddies. They are a wonderful pair, and we're thrilled to include a Kingdom Dal in our family.

Thanks, Jenn, for giving us the opportunity to share how Tess and Jazz came into the Bauer household! I'd like to tag LaDonna to tell us how Gia, Steeler and Jazz's mom, came to Kingdom Dalmatians.