[PyrNet-L] Why you chose Pyrs as your breed contest

["Mary Staudinger" <pyr4@junct.com>]

 1.Best reason you chose Pyrs as your breed (why you got one or more!)

 My Queen(GSD) was a gift from my brother who was moving(1965) and couldn't
take her with him.  I had her for maybe 5 years.  She developed breast
cancer and I knew that her work for me was done, but before I could let her
go, I needed to find a replacement(1970).

Soooo, I started reading my AKC book about the different breeds of dogs and
their histories and temperments.  I decided I wanted a Great Pyrenees.  That
was the easy part!  Finding one that we could afford was a whole nother
quest.  Speigel catalog showed one could be ordered from them but I was
skeptical.  I wanted to see for myself what I was going to get--you
know--hands on, touching before you buy!

A friend of mine in town said she knew a fellow that had pyrs and we called
him.  Well, he not only had 1 pyr, he had 3 adults and 9 puppies--they said
I could have any or all and I said I just wanted one.  So I got LadyJ at 9
months of age, all white and this huge fluff ball.  Boy, I didn't know what
I was getting myself into!   (The man had bought 3 un-registered pyrs from a
breeder for his own private use, is what he told the breeders and that he
wouldn't breed them.  He lied!)

I took that lovely girl home to my 4 boys and they had a ball with her.  The
3rd boy was only about a year and a half old and would walk around with his
arm over her neck and would push at her to lay down and then lay down on her
when he got tired of walking.  Cutest thing to watch this pyr with my
child!!  I had had  LadyJ for 4 months when somebody ran over her in my
driveway.  I hit hysteric city and was unconsolable for days.  Then I heard
on the radio that there was a pyr at the pound in town and went to get that
one and picked up LadyJ's mom, Seri.  While we had Seri, she had a litter of
pups(pure pyr) and what was most memorable of that time was watching my boys
with her and her pups.  Seri was more tolerant of my children than my GSD
had ever been.  When we moved to town I couldn't take her with us so gave
her to somebody that knew that she was a LSGD and could train her for that
purpose.

I moved to Oklahoma in 1988 and my kids decided to get me another pyr and
that is how Regniduats Storm Shield came to be mine in 1989.  Oh and we did
things like parades and he carried part of my newspapers on my routes and
turned him loose in a classroom with 25 children for a "show and tell" day
and he was good as gold!  In 1994, discovered a lump on him that turned out
to be cancer and had to let God have him back and the day after picked up
Empy's Shylo.  I still have Shylo and he will be 6 in Jan but what I think
is really neat is that Storm and Shylo are cousins, their great-great-great
grandfather was the same dog!!!  Ch. Ripples Winter SnowStorm and the dog
called The Midas Touch is in their ancestory also.  I keep up with the
kennel names and the pedigrees of the dogs so I know what I do have my hands
on, makes my day to know!

I'm sorry this is so long but this is how I came to acquire a pyr and why I
will always have one. What else is there after you have been owned by a pyr?
If or when Shylo's time is up, I will go get another pyr!!!!

Mary Staudinger and Shylo
pyr4@junct.com