Summer shows were put on hold as Bob and I went to Europe for a few weeks. My sister kindly looked after and spoiled the dogs. While we were in Amsterdam we visited Willem Wijnberg and his lovely wife along with their berner Dingo and newfie Jessie. Members of our BC Newf Club had been asked to submit headshot photos of their dogs as Willem had kindly offered to paint 4 of the photos of which were auctioned off at the Canadian Newfoundland Specialty held in Chilliwack of this year. The money was then donated towards canine cancer research. One of the photos he chose was of our dear Maxwell. Needless to add but I bid on the painting, had it framed and it is now hanging in our living room. We had a nice visit and I was able to thank Willem personally for the wonderful painting he did of my Maxwell. Willem showed us his studio and his subjects are all so realistic. It was an honour to have met Willem and our visit with him was one of the highlights of our trip.There is a study going on in England in regards to Newfoundland dogs and cruciate ruptures. We have been busy collecting saliva swabs on our dogs. We hope there will be some findings as to the cause of this dreaded ailment that seems to be affecting so many of our wonderful breed. I guess we have been lucky in the sense that only one of the twelve dogs we have owned ever had a cruciate injury (we purchased him as a breeding male but never bred him and had him neutered). The study compares the DNA of dogs that have had cruciate injuries to the DNA of dogs who have not had any cruciate symptoms over the age of 5 years.
We wish you a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.
