Blyss Kennels

Home to Beautiful Borzois in the Watchung Mountains in Mountainside, New Jersey

Borzoi

Change, Looked at Anew

Very few things force you to confront change more than when you are suddenly, unexpectedly confronted with the death of a spouse with whom you expected to share many long, happy years together, especially in retirement, but that happened to me.  No one ever plans to be widowed when one retires.  I had to confront that and make many changes in my lifestyle.

I believed people perceived me very differently after my husband’s death than they did when my husband was alive, and it was not on a continuum in the direction of positive, including many of his family members.

I felt trapped in an alien world where all the rules had suddenly changed.  I would have to reach into my inner most being, calling into play all of my strengths, my intelligence, even whatever wisdom I may have had, to figure out how I was going to navigate the rest of my life without ruining it.  Ruin it, I could.  If I was not careful, I had much to lose. Most of all, I had to change how I saw myself, less of a victim, and as a person confronted with just another challenge, not unlike challenges I have had to confront in the past.  I realized this required an entirely new set of skills than the ones I was accustomed to using.[l1] 

I reached deep into myself, to my most intimate being, where the core of my heart’s happiness lied:  my love of God and my faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (I come from a Catholic background); my love of music, (I play classical piano, more so when I was young), and my love of dogs, in particular, a breed of dog that I became committed to and was welcomed into its world of its breeders, something not easy to do.  That beloved breed is the borzoi, also known as The Russian Wolfhound or The Russian Grayhound, in Russia.

Today, eleven years after the tragically sad, premature death of my darling husband, my Soul Mate, the man who made it possible for me to have my borzoi, a man all deserving of my love and accolades, the man whom all of my borzoi loved, I know I have changed without seeming to have changed.  I truly have changed how I live and how I see the world.

 [l1]a

Facebook, YouTube and my own words of wisdom.

“May I never forget on my best day I need God as desperately as I did on my worst.”

Originally posted by Facebook Friend and professional dog handler, Rhanda Glenn

“The whole world changes when someone is gone. ” Taken from a YouTube video of a failed dog rescue.

It’s funny how we don’t die of unhappiness/loneliness. Lorene Connolly

After a long pause

It is almost frightening to sit down at my computer after all I have been through since this new calendar year, now almost half over. However, I force myself to type the URL and begin entering text tonight. Let me start by saying that I know a lot of people do not like me and they have no shame about reminding me of that. They find me disturbing, to the point of feeling compelled to elaborate and act out their thoughts and feelings of hatred. These people include in particular my closest family members and those whom I had held closest to my heart. It is nothing new, but it has become a pattern that has followed me through the decades. Today, I have lost my last human best friend forever. He said words implemented with actions that cannot be taken back. So here I have died, alone and friendless during the coldest, darkest days of the year, ripping me apart and rendering me mute. I have only just found my voice, thanks again to my one salvation, borzoi, the breed of dog, and the breeders who make them possible whom I regard as friends. Credit also goes to Mary Childs for sending me her lovely Silken Windhound (GCh Wind’nSatin It’s My Party) “Kensie” 2 1/2 years ago when I lost my last borzoi, Jelly, it’s never easy.

It was wise of me to have signed up for a hotel room for the host hotel and register to attend the Borzoi Club of America’s (BCOA) National Specialty Show in Mesquite TX from April 25 -May 1, 2022. I even found two different room-mates, for different nights, to help with the expense of the room. It was well attended by beautiful borzoi of all ages. The Futurity judge was my friend, and former Specialty judge, Barbara Bender, and it was great spending time with her again. The Sweepstakes judge was Barbara Lord. I, in the name of Blyss Kennels, support the Sweepstakes trophies in Opal’s name (Raynbo Opalesque at Blyss) for the Puppy Bitch classes. The judge for the Best in Specialty Show was someone I greatly admire and respect, and she did a wonderful job, Prudence Hlatky. Prudence and her husband Greg own the borzoi who won the BCOA Specialty Show last year in Ohio with her lovely bitch, Delilah, and who happens to be the number 1 borzoi in the country.

I was pleased by the borzoi I saw. Certain dogs of a certain style have their appeal to some judges, or some judges will put borzoi up for a win with a different style than I am accustomed to seeing. I try hard to see the quality in these borzoi, and not be a “fault” judge, overlooking the borzoi’s quality. Surely, it is there. I try to broaden my parameters. Still, I cannot overlook two things: Short legs with no tuck up, and tails held up and wagging when the borzoi moves. A new fault is developing at a disturbing rate, including Russia from pictures of litters I have seen from my Facebook friends. It is folded down ears, like a Labrador Retriever or a Golden Retriever. They ruin the head. Each breed has a silhouette that is a component of breed type. It is hard to get past these faults because they are so destructive to the borzoi silhouette, requisite for the borzoi to perform the tasks the breed was created to do.

I will soon be reserving my hotel room for the BCOA National Specialty Show next year, in Virginia Beach, VA. It means so much for me to have it to look forward to. It allows my dark mood to lift. And why not? I was immersed in perfect bliss!