Jeffrey;
Thank you! Welcome to you and JoJo! And I'm pretty excited ChinookSledDogs
has blossomed into an open forum! So glad to have you onboard, and we shall
all get to unlocking more of those mysteries and intricacies here together
then.

What amazes me today, while waiting for Sparkle's get, is how much and how
often we've 'recalculated' liklihoods of ancestry of each of those 'Opens'
and 'Alternates' these past ten years or so (both a labor of love and
pain!); but how little of it in the end we truly trusted even; UNTIL first
grandprogeny of our own kennel founders were born in 2003. Thankfully then,
the individual dogs themselves did begin to reveal themselves to us like so
many pieces to the puzzle(s) they are. But I guess the 'old timers' already
knew how that all works, aye? :)

And because the science existed, even in it's fledgling state; I never gave
up on dna parent verifications where and when possible for each of our
kennel founders, and had to act the mule myself more than once, just walking
thru the hurdles others most certainly did place in my way, to get that
done. And the $ spent in others kennels to do that is still telling in how
many of our own pups remain pending their own profiling. So I wear the dna
identities of a couple of the hardest 'won' profiles still like shields over
my heart (namely in Ramsay and Ootah's parentage), for again, without dna
science, we wouldn't be sitting as relatively assured as we are even today.
Other breeders choose still, at times, to turn a blind eye to their own
Chinook's modern 'unknowns', but that never seemed to us to be a useful
practice when it came time to plan actual breedings. But I suppose some
folks truly are 'afraid of the unknown'. I simply remain genuinely curious
as to actual origins and the imprints they've made.

Anyway, I'm pleased you and JoJo are sitting with us now, as I value your
own ability to make sense where there is some still to be made, immeasurably
so. And because Chinooks miraculously remain such beauties (if you don't
mind the extra cargo they carry compared to your more graceful Seppalas:),
they tend to make all the 'no pain no gain' that surrounds them still all
worthwhile.

I'll see if I can't get a photo of Sparkle uploaded (herself one of those
first Tullibardine grandprogeny referred to above), while she's glowing so.
Will keep everyone posted as to her progress (and ours:). Thanks again for
joining in.

Regards,
Susan Murray
Chinook Trading Post at Tullibardine Farm LLP
http://chinooktradingpost.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "J. Jeffrey Bragg" <jjeffrey@...>
To: <ChinookSledDogs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 7:30 PM
Subject: [CSD] Metamorphosis!


> Susan, congratulations on the metamorphosis of this group from a puppy-
> owners' list to a full-grown breed list! I don't own a Chinook (yet --
unless I
> count my "Chinook wannabe," JoJo), so I'll probably be lurking on the
sidelines
> of this list trying to absorb more of the mysteries and intricacies of the
> Chinook Sleddog breed. I think I'm well on my way to understanding the
> HISTORY of the breed pretty well, but I have to confess that the BREEDING
and
> the BLOODLINES still confuse the heck out of me, with so many "open" and
> "alternate" pedigrees and the immense confusion of the Perry Greene rescue
> and the following years. Maybe one day it'll all start to soak in --
meanwhile,
> I'm listening with fascination!
>
> Good luck to Sparkle-Plenty when July 9 rolls around!
>