Wow... I do not know how or where to start this post, but I find myself very emotional today. As the year wraps up and I reflect on everything my guys were able to achieve despite the pandemic, and the plans I have for next year, I found myself remembering a little girl and her dreams.
In 1998 my mom purchased a game called Dogz3. I already had a love for animals and video games at the time, so this became such a huge obsession for me! Something that combined two things I loved was a deadly combination for little me! In Dogz3, you could essentially own and raise digital versions of dogs. You could take care of them and if you did not, they would run away. You could also have puppies with them. You could take them to different locations, groom them, play with them. A truly digital dog owning experience.
At some points I learned about the internet, and somehow learned about personal sites people made dedicated to this game. They had full blown digital kennels! They would breed dogs, adopt puppies out, and host shows. I would spend a hours everyday looking through these sites and sending applications in for puppies I wanted. Long application where my 12 year old self would express how well I would take care of the puppy and how bad I wanted them. I would write novels trying to convince strangers that I was the best candidate for their puppy. Most of the time I was ignored.
I would read and learn about the rules for showing a dog, and eventually decided to enter my dogs into shows. Line the legs up so that they were parallel, ideally you could only see one front and one back leg. Begin taking photos of your dog. The dog would puff and proud, and you were to stop the photo exactly when it’s face was looking at you. That was the perfect stack. I spent a lot of time moving dogs into just the right spot and perfected stopping the photo exactly with the dog facing me. I would email these photos and entry forms for my dogs, and entered any and every show I could find. There was an agreed upon title and ranking system in the community, and I found that some of my dogs eventually earned some of the highest show titles created.
I was enthralled really. It is hard to remember the exact people/names/events... it was so long ago. However, ultimately I decided I wanted to open my own kennel. I had made one friend who would “take a chance” on me and let me have some of her Dalmatians and helped me make a website. I don’t remember her name now... But she helped get me started. This was waaaaaaaay back when Geocities was a thing. She helped make my kennel page using HTML. I had a home page, my males, male females, adoptions, shows... so many pages putting together my digital kennel. I had a little counter at the bottom which I especially like, and preteen little me was thrilled every time it went up. Stream Falls Kennels became my pride and joy.
Fast forward some years, and that digital kennel was one of the largest Dalmatian kennels in the Dogz3 community. I could easily get the dogs I wanted or applied for. SFK was very large and popular. I had a lot of people consistently entering the shows I hosted. I had tons of emails sent to my first email with applications of people wanting an SFK puppy. My lines were known for a specific type of movement (it had a name... I think we called it prancing at the time, but I cannot remember), and being spotless Dalmatians in a variety of colors.
I never knew what an impact this game would have on my life at the time, but fast forward almost two decades. Everything has changed, yet nothing has changed.
I am that outsider looking in again, in a world that I knew I loved, but had no idea how to be apart of. I am still that little girl sending out tons of applications, pouring my heart and soul out trying to get a puppy and being ignored. I am still that person who has spent hours... days... years at this point learning the game and how to show. I am still that little girl that took what she had and just tried, entering what I could. I do not have the highest titles dogs, but have found moderate success in multiple venues which I am so proud of.
I am also still that little girl who found people to "take a chance" on me. People who really believed in me. I won’t name them individually but I am so thankful to the individuals who have invested in me and the future of my program. Whether it be helping me understand handling better, helping me understand showing better, helping understand conformation better, helping me understand breed history better, helping me understand ethics better, helping to inspire me to continue through the hard times, giving me their time and seasoned knowledge, trusting me with a puppy, or trusting my vision so much so that they would give me access to their lines to help achieve it. I am forever humbled and thankful to these people.
Someone “took a chance” on little me before and quite a few people have now. I am overwhelmed thinking about how things have never really changed, just evolved. I have no idea where exactly Ivie Huskies will end up, but I have goals, dreams, and visions that I have slowly worked towards, just like I did with Stream Falls Kennels. I’m incredibly excited to see what the future holds, and look forward to a great 2021!
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