customers news & pics 1
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Letters and pictures from some of our customers
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Dear Joy,
Thanks for the voicemail. Sunsation who I know and love as Bart had been a true joy. He is smart, healthy, funny, very active and playful. He is a ball of love. He is a ball of fun. You did a great job with the litter as he loves to play, is very well socialized and and is very happy creature. He must have played alot with his litter mates and had alot of fun as a young pup.
Our weekday schedule is to spend about 1 hour in the morning out walking and then about 15 minutes in a dog run for small dogs. Back at the apartment he is pretty much a couch potato until the dog walker comes at 2pm for another 1 hour walk. I'm at work all day. Bart again lounges after the afternoon walk and then rouses around 6:30 for play sessions when I come home form work. Most nights I find him playing happily by himself with a toy waiting for me. He loves the red monster toy, any ball, hooves, you name it he will play with it in funny ways throwing it around himself, using his paws, pushing it off the couch and then running after it. He can play by himself or with me. Did I mention he was a genius? Did I mention he is a loyal and loving companion? He sits next to the tub when I take a bath. He watches me cook. He loves to cuddle after playing. On the weekends, we head to Central Park for even longer walks and outings. That's where we recently saw his dog sibling. A cute little red girl. I knew it had to be one of your dogs because of the fabulous tail. Bart is also very red which I like. Turns out his hair is the same color as mine.
Joy, I have given your name to dozens of people who see Bart and love him and want to know the breeder. I hope things are going well for you. Raising a puppy has been a wonderful experience for me. Sharing time with this amazing animal has been delightful. Thank you for bringing this wonderful creature into my life, Love, Mary Mulligan
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Hello,
Thank you very much for your advice. I will definitely buy the books.
She weighs 3.7 kilograms (sorry we do not use pounds) and 12 inches high.
She is very energetic (sometimes very hyper). One thing that is consistently true is that she loves people very much. She never barks at people passing by, rather she plays pleasantly any person that says hello to her.
Every time we take her for a walk, we hear people passing by say “Look at that puppy. Very good color, very cute.”, which makes us very proud of.
As to her diet, it makes a lot sense to us that raw food is very good for a dog, as we are Japanese who really loves raw food diet (sashimi, sushi, vegetables & etc.) Raw foods contain a lot enzyme we need which makes us healthier and live longer life, I believe.
One of our vet concerns about giving her raw meat, because she cares about hygienic status, I believe, but we are feeding her the same meat we are eating. I usually purchase meat for her on Saturday and cut it for her Saturday and Sunday meal and freeze the rest of the meat on the day I purchased
Only thing I care about is vitamins and minerals, but I will study it with the books you recommended.
We celebrated her one year birthday with a bottle of wine today. Please find attached her pictures. We are using a lot of our resources to her, so please do not worry.
Our current goal is to make her live as long and healthy as possible.
Thank you for Ms.Mulligan's info, we hope we can meet her and her dog someday again in the park.
For your information, we got our first baby this September.
Best regards
Kensuke & Mina Shuto
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Hi Joy! Great to hear from you. Thanks for responding. Things here are great - Tango (aka Classica) is doing great. She had a fun birthday weekend, and a relaxing birthday. She is an amazing puppy - everyone loves her, especially me. She's spunky and playful and loving - makes everyone stop and pet and smile on the street. She's not very big - about 12 inches tall at her shoulder and 8.5 lbs. I'll send a picture soon - don't have any great recent ones on the computer at the moment.
For Thanksgiving we were at my father's. He has a large Australian Shepard and my sister brought her Portuguese Water Dog. Tango was in heaven - all the dogs and then all the little kids too (ages 3, 3 1/2, 7, 10 --- plus other visitors ages 4 and 8). Everyone wanted a piece of her - and she loved it! We went for long walks and played outside a lot - it was a very dog-centric holiday weekend! The dogs also all got special bones from my dad for Thanksgiving/ Tango's birthday - Tango took hers under a low table where she could enjoy it slowly out of reach of the others.
I really can't imagine life without her anymore. She's so wonderful, and life with her is great. She still sleeps in a crate, although we cuddle a lot. She is relatively easy and so fabulous to have around. Thank you so much for bringing my amazing puppy into the world and nurturing her and her parents.
Have a wonderful evening! With love and gratitude, Abigail
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Hi Joy,
Just letting you know that our AKC Casa Strega Fancy Fudge is now on the Match show confirmation circuit and has taken two first places in the puppy division for miniature poodles. All of this at 8 and 1/2 months.
She is wearing a long puppy cut at the moment which of course is within regulations and only her feet and face trimmed.
She is dark brown with some black shading....she has a strong front and beautiful rear hocks, patella's and looks very good coming and going. Her topline is excellent and the only thing we are working on her with is her "show personality" as she isn't as "full of herself" in the ring as will develop later.
She is extremely intelligent and learned basic obedience within minutes...that to me was unbelievable.
Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving!!!!
And thanks.... And also Lukey (my love) and beautiful Lulu are just fine. And Berta...the best security dog in the lower Hudson Valley!
You take good care....Judy
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Dear Joy,
Tomorrow Chip will be one year old and a week later Mac will achieve
that milestone. We just wanted to mark the occasion by thanking you
for all you have done to enable us to have such healthy, intelligent,
beautiful, and loving dogs. They have been a joy (!) to have in our
family. Now to give you a one year progress report:
Chip weighs a bit over 9 pounds and is about 13 inches at the shoulder.
He is slender and has that lovely prancing walk. People who see him
want to know what kind of dog he is, and then they say they have never
seen that color pattern in a poodle. Everyone says that he is
beautiful and nicely marked. He is friendly, but rather reserved. My
neighbor says he is the philosopher who watches everything and thinks
about it. Chip has certificates from Puppy Kindergarten and Beginners'
Class. We are now in Advanced Beginners', and he is doing very well.
He is by far the best at sit/stay and down/stay. Walking on a loose
leash in the class is a bit problematic, as he likes to keep his nose
on the floor to vacuum up treats dropped by the other dogs. Last week
he did poorly on the separation practice. I am supposed to leave him
with one of the trainers in a strange room and go away for three
minutes. He only lasted one minute before he was anxious to go find
me. Not surprising, since he is my little shadow. We need to work on
that, since it is one of the tests on the Canine Good Citizen exam.
Mac is over 12 pounds, although about the same height as Chip. He is
not fat, but good and solid. We laugh and say he has a Golden
Retriever's personality, or George says he is like Donkey in "Shrek" -
"Choose me, choose me!" Indeed, everyone does! Several house guests
have threatened to find room in their luggage to take Mac home with
them. Mac loves everyone and everyone loves Mac. He is beautiful,
outgoing, enthusiastic, self-confident, and endlessly entertaining.
Where as Chip is a worrier, Mac is the nurturing one. If Chip gets car
sick and throws up, Mac patiently cleans up. They do fight over toys,
even though we have two of just about everything Zanie makes. But then
they curl up and go to sleep next to each other.
Joy, this email would go on for pages if I could remember all the good
advice and helpful suggestions you have given us for which I would
like to thank you. All of it has made this year go so much more
smoothly. For example, the Zanie toys are the best and have stood the
test of time and two active puppies. We have toys all over the house
and with the help of Bitter Apple in strategic places, we have had no
chewing damage. Crating when we are out of the house has worked out
well, also.
I'm sure you remember November 2005 when you had 11 puppies and were
sick on top of it. Thanks for hanging in there. May you enjoy good
health and continued success with puppies! We think of you often.
With love and gratitude, Loulie and George Kent
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Dear Joy, I hope that you and your family had a lovely Christmas and that you have survived all the " too muchness " the season brings. My cousin with the digital camera was here yesterday and took several shots of the kids and she will email them to you as she has the equipment to do so. They should be coming within a few days. Does you computer accept video because there is a wonderful 1 minute segment that was caught of the kids in the kitchen dancing on their tippy toes. It is priceless and lets you really see the comparison between the two of them. Solomon is all boy and much bigger than Sheba. He is taller, longer, and heavier and his muzzle is very masculine. His coat has a lot of white hairs in it so his color is more of a dusty black. She is all pretty girl. She is very petite in facial structure, shorter in leg length, weighs a good deal less . Her coat has only a few white hairs in it so she is really coal black, pitch black and very shiny. Their anitcs keep us laughing and on our toes. Solomon is a drama queen and very hystrionic and makes a lot of noise. He cannot stand being alone even for a second and is absolutely bonded at the hip to humans. All he wants is a lap or crook of an arm to snuggle in to. Sheba is more emotionally independent and doesn't make as much noise as her brother. He is the dominant one but she puts up a really good fight and growls at him a whole lot. I call her " Growly Pants" and he is Fagin because he constantly steals Ray's hankies out of his pockets and tries to run away with them. They no longer sleep in their crates but in bed with us, which is a great joy in our lives. They can go 10-12 hours without peeing , so we get a good night's sleep. They llove to be outdoors except in pouring rain and they love the snow. Sheba likes to eat it and chew on ice. Solomon just likes to run around like a maniac. When their is no snow they are both maniacs outside and run around the backyard like race horses. In the nice weather it is difficult to get them to come back inside and they get really stubborn about coming in. We go through all kinds of tricks to get them to come in. It usually takes me and Ray to corral them inside. They light up our lives and we love them to death. They are personality plus and everyone who has seen them or come here thinks they are just gorgeous and hilarious. I am sorry that I haven't written sooner. Life has a habit of getting in the way and I do apologize for the lack of communication. Rest assured that your babies are just fine and thriving. As we like to say, the King and Queen are in residence as are their two slaves!!!! We are besotted by them. We are wrapped around their little paws and love it to death. Thanks for the Christmas email song. VEry funny. Take good care, all of you at Casa La Strega. I will try and do better in the writing catagory. Always love, Deborah
Casa Strega's King Solomon & Casa Strega's Queen of Sheba
Dear Joy,
Just wanted to let you know that little Chief is doing great. He had a
good vet check-up last week, is pretty nearly house trained, and
interacting very well with my two standard poodles, who have been very
tolerant. I'm switching all the dogs to Innova, so pretty soon I'll just
feed them all together. Chief is quick at learning, comes when he's called
and retrieves perfectly, already. He's met lots of friends, and done very
well with everyone. We'll send more news later.
Laura
Joy,
I'm thankful that you convinced me to consider a male -
I can't imagine not having Alex around! :-)
I have a collection of photo's to send you; my latest
batch didn't come out very well (lighting is bad).
Forgot to tell you - we will hopefully start some agility training
this summer. Alex has done very well w/basic obedience and is such
a little athlete. There is a wonderful dog club very near my house that
also has a doggie day care center. Both the managers are experienced
animal behavior specialists/trainers and have excellent references.
It'll keep him mentally challenged! He's also getting much better around
strangers and strange dogs (except large assertive sorts).
Please say hello to all of the pups and poodles for me!
Have a great weekend!!!!!
Casa Strega's Alexander the Great
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Joy,
I'm happy to announce that my sister FINALLY got Alex's birthday
party pictures developed and I'm picking them up today after work.
I'll scan a few and send them tomorrow! He is doing great.
Such a little snuggle bunny/loverboy... He's the perfect dog -
he is cautious of visitors yet warms right up to certain
people (he's my character meter). Still loves going for our runs;
he's getting a Land's End squall jacket for the cold weather this Christmas.
His latest quirk is that he arranges the sofa throw cushions during the day
and I always find a toy and a chew bone propped up on top of this little heap.
And he "hides" his favorite bones just like Kris & I saw Pixie doing - so cute!
I love Pixie's picture on the "Puppy Availability" page. How is she doing?
Well, I hope everyone is doing well and that you find good homes for the
new pups. Have a great holiday!!!!
Suzanne & Alex
Alex on his first birthday Alex age one & one half.
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Hi Joy,
Like you, we were spoiled with some very nice spring weather which gave way to almost 3 inches of snow on Sunday. I had just planted some pansies and hope they manage to survive the cold. I'm looking forward to the time change this weekend....I am a big fan of more daylight and longer days.
I saw Molly's (what a great name, too!) latest pictures on your site. She's a beautiful girl! Very regal looking.
To answer your question about Willow's color well, it's funny. At first I thought she was looking blue, esp. around the muzzle. But as the days have progressed since being clipped she actually has more of a brownish tint to her hair. Suzie and I agree that her color is sort of like a Hershey bar. In fact, in true daylight you can see that the tips of her ears are jet black (like Pippin's "look") and the rest of her is a really deep brownish black. It's barely noticeable but really neat. Now when she's with Alex you really can see how truly black he is and that she's 'lighter' in color. How much do you think her color is likely to continue to change?
I have to brag a bit too...she's so smart! So much so that I'm convinced she finds me quite boring at times. I'm constantly coming up with games and other fun stuff to keep her occupied. As well, she LOVES to crawl in, around, behind, and under things. She's also a climber....she'll start in my lap, scale me like Mt. Everest and perch herself on my shoulder! If I didn't know better I'd say she's had a little feline in her. ; ) She's truly a wonderful addition to my home and my life.....I can't imagine how I survived before her arrival.
I'll continue to send photos as I get them. She's such a ham and lots of fun to photograph. Take care and all the best to you and Phil (say HI for me!).
Kris
Casa Strega Black Ice Diamonte' known as Willow
Casa Strega's Indian Rainbow ( AKA Frodo ) & Willow
We are pleased that Frodo, pictured at 3 months, has
joined Kris & Willow as their newest family member.
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Hi Joy,
Scarlett slept all the way home.Didn't cause any fuss.
When we got home she watered the grass just a little
and didn't seem to have to go much more after that.
I kept taking her out but she wasn't interested in going.
Mostly she just sat on my feet.She is really cute.
She so much wants to play with the boys and yips at them
to tell them and that frightens them and they run from her.
She is a very vocal and bossy little girl. She doesn't like the
crate and cries and yells when I put her in it, but after awhile
she quiets down and goes to sleep. She did quite well last nite.
She slept until about three o'clock and then started yipping.
At that time it was raining so hard, I didn't want to put her out
(or take her out I mean) so I let her go on the paper-just water-
no "business". I guess I fell asleep and didn't hear her complain
and I found a little "do" in her crate, but that was at 5:00.
she hasn't done anything since.She is a sweetheart, but very
different from Rhett. She is very loving, but she think SHE is
the boss.She wants to do things HER way.
Scarlett- the bossy little female.
Thanks, Joy for everything. And remember, if you ever have
anymore of the color of Scarlett's brother, keep me in mind.
I won't care about the sex.
I hope you have a fun day today. Please write soon. Chickie
Casa Strega's Scarlett Heatwave & Chickie
Quite an armfull now that I'm all grown up.
I am well trained now & travel well. Thanks for having
us for a visit and taking our picture. I am still a little devil,
but a real loving one. Scarlet
Casa Strega's Dynamic Lover (Rhett)
Hi joy,
Just a note to tell you what a joy little Scarlett is. Everybody is finally getting
along just fine, although Rhett will not stay in my chair if Scarlett comes up.
He is still very jealous. They do play a lot, though.
They chase each other around the house or more so out doors.
Rhett can outrun her, but it won't be long
before she is able to keep up with him.He rolls her and play bites her and they
have a good time.
Scarlett is almost house broken. She has very few accidents.
The cutest thing is when she thinks she can lift her leg like the boys.
She tries and tries.And wonders why she can't do it. She loves Bubba and
wants to be with him all the time. He is very patient with her and doesn't even
growl when she gets in his face or bites his ear.
I love her so very much. You should see how much she has grown!!!!
I will take some pictures and send them to you.I could have had a cute
one one day when Rhett and Scarlett were tugging on the same toy,
but I didn't have film in my camera(isn't that always the way).
I hope this note finds you and yours all well. Write when you have a chance.
As Always,
Chickie
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Dear Joy,
Hope you can download the picture. She is a great puppy. Healthy,
smart, and has a mind of her own. Jay
Casa Strega's Jewel (Pepper) at 6 months
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Casa Strega's Birthday boy at 8 months
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