We expect to have two litters of whippets at Avalonia this spring if all goes according to plan. These pups will be ready to move to new homes throughout May, a wonderful time to be a pup in Canada , as we welcome reliably warm spring weather.

We hope to have puppies from a litter sired by our Danish import Monty -- Cdn.Ch. Frontrunner’s Full Monty (Dk.Swed.Ch. Nevedith Veefa Vagabond x Int.Fr.Ger.Dk.and World Ch. Honey Honey du Tadjoura) -- who was bred to Billie --  Cdn.Ch. Avalonia Billie Holiday (Cdn.Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta x Cdn.Ch. Avalonia Lagavulin) at the end of the first week of March 2006.  This breeding is a repeat of a litter of five pups that was born in August 2003.  We are hoping for pups of similar quality and personality this time around. 

We have also again used our wonderful red brindle and white dog Erik -- Fin.Swed.Cdn.Ch. Scheik’s Ardbeg Avalonia (Cdn.Fin.Nor.World Ch. Avalonia Wheatfield Waving x Int.Fin.Swed.Dk.Ch. Scheik’s Royal Choice) for a new litter expected at the very end of March.  Dam of this litter is Ceely – Eng.Cdn.Ch. Nevedith Ceefa Ceely (Eng.Aust.NZ Ch. Nevedith Rare Rogue x Eng.Ch. Nevedith Justa Jenie).  Check out updated photos of Erik on his webpage!

  All of the Avalonia pups in our Fall 2005 litters are now nicely settled into their new, permanent homes and we are clipping a few new photos of some of them.  

  Avalonia Django Reinhardt is from our September litter sired by Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta x Ch. Avalonia Barbados .  Django is owned and loved by Marina and Alex Pavlovic of Ottawa who are hoping to show him.

Also featured are pups sired by Erik out of Ch. Avalonia Wispa Jesta (Edith) who were born on 16 November. All these pups are named after some of our favourite daylilies hybridized in the last few years by some of the world’s top daylily breeders.   Daylilies are our other passion – a passion that is reflected in the nearly 1000 different cultivars we grow in our home garden, the thousands of hybrid seedlings in our garden, and our three brand new hybrids recently registered with the American Hemerocallis Society.  Pictured here is Mick’s 2006 registration, Sun Moon Stars, which featured very heavily in our daylily breeding program in Summer 2005.

Avalonia Zahadoom (Gunner) is owned by Dan Dodge of Ottawa , and Avalonia Blackberry Candy (Lola), is owned by Jill Nicholson and Jeff Brandman of Toronto .  Both are named after favourite cultivars produced by hybridizer Patrick Stamile.

Edith Frankie and Dan on 25 January

Two of the Erik/Edith pups, seen here in a too small basket with Mom, remain at Avalonia and will be shown by us in 2006/2007.  The red brindle and white dog with the stunningly gorgeous head is Avalonia Across the Universe – call named Dan.  Dan is named after hybridzer Dan Trimmer whose wonderful cultivar Across the Universe took the daylily world by storm in 2005.  And the blue fawn brindle and white girl is Avalonia Moment in the Sun – Frankie, named after Moment in the Sun, a gorgeous in your face ruffled yellow daylily introduced in 2005 by hybridizer Frank Smith. 

  Stay tuned for news of these two pups in the months ahead.

NEWS NEWS NEWS ( 25 November 2005 )

NEWS UPDATE (2 October 2005)  

A new litter at Avalonia

Pictured here, the poster child for canine maternal bliss, is Cdn.Ch. Avalonia Barbados (Fox) with her litter of 7 pups sired by Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta ( Nev ) who were born on September 9th.  There are 5 males and 2 females in this photo showing the pups at 3 weeks of age.  All of these puppies are promised to wonderful new homes in Canada and the United States .

A possible November litter at Avalonia

It is a bit too early to tell yet, but we may have another litter at Avalonia this year as we have bred Cdn.Ch. Avalonia Wispa Jesta (Eng.Ch. Nevedith Justa Jesta x Cdn.Ch. Nevedith Wotta Wispa) (Edith) to Fin.Swed.Cdn.Ch. Scheik’s Ardbeg Avalonia (Cdn.Fin.Nor.World Ch. Avalonia Wheatfield Waving x Fin.Swed.Nor.Ch. Scheik’s Royal Choice) (Erik) bred by Jarmo Vuorinen in Finland .  We are ourselves looking for a show candidate from this litter which features these two astonishingly wonderful dogs.  Stay tuned for – we hope – developments!

Where are they now?

The two puppy girls from our early 2005 litter now reside in Guelph and Thunder Bay with members (mother/father and son/wife) of the Mullis family.  Pictured here is Phoebe, owned by Gill and Graham Mullis, enjoying the warmth of Dad’s jersey, a very typical way for a good Yorkshireman to keep his young whippet warm.  And for the record, Phoebe’s eyes are chocolate brown: the blue is simply flash reflection!

Show news update

While mother Fox was taking up maternal duties, her son Avalonia Edradour (Apollo), from her 2 puppy first litter, born on 29 July 2004 , and sired by Ch. Nevedith Local Lancer, was being shown once again, at the CanSave shows at Richmond , Ontario in mid-September.  We are delighted to report that  Apollo is now a Canadian champion, adding to his wins at Kars in late July by going BOB twice, along with a Group Third and a Group Fourth, and taking Winners Dog at the CASA Sighthound Specialty show held the same weekend.  And Int.Cdn.Belg. Ch. Avalonia Macallan (also a daughter of Ch. Nevedith Local Lancer) was BOS at the specialty.

Late breaking show news

NEWS UPDATE (30 July 2005)

A new litter at Avalonia

Our much anticipated litter sired by Ch. Frontrunner's Full Monty out of Avalonia Ella Fitzgerald made its debut on July 4th. We are disappointed to report that there were just two puppies, both females and not the five or six we were hoping for! Mom and the pups are doing well, as this photo taken at 3 plus weeks shows.

Another litter bred

We have bred a second litter for 2005, this one sired by Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta (Nev) out of Ch. Avalonia Barbados (Fox). Both dogs are pictured on this website. This litter is due around the 12th to 14th of September, so stay tuned.

Fox is the dam of two pups from her first litter, born on 29 July 2004, sired by Ch. Nevedith Local Lancer. The first of her very similar sons to enter the show ring, Avalonia Edradour (Apollo), made his show debut as a senior puppy this month.

Show news update

Avalonia Oscar Peterson, shown in several shows earlier this year with great success, has made way for some shows featuring Avalonia Edradour (Apollo).

Shown at Kars, Ontario, in three shows in mid-July, Apollo was three times Best of Winners, and three times Best Puppy in Hound Group. He sits at 6 points towards his Cdn.Ch. His attributes are clear in this photo showing Apollo with one of his puppy group wins, handled by our friend Connie O'Brien.

Also in the show ring this month for just one show as a junior puppy, was Avalonia All Hallow's Eve, a daughter of Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta x Eng.& Cdn.Ch. Nevedith Ceefa Ceely. Eve is owned by Jalynn Almond, of Westminster, Maryland, and her show debut in Canada at the Lombardy Kennel Club show was just to get her paws wet in the Canadian show ring… or so we thought. It was a delight therefore when English judge Frank Kane chose what is obviously an immature, but very promising puppy as his best of breed, based on her strong breed type. Pictured here on that happy occasion, though obviously flagging from the 100 F heat that we enjoyed that day, is Eve with her owner Jalynn.

Jalynn also debuted her homebred bitch Dumond Ain't Misbehavin' (Nevedith Hfa Hanky Panky x Cdn.Ch. Spicewind It's All About Me) during her visit to Canada with excellent results. Beebee left Canada with 8 points towards her championship, which included a Second in Group placement under Argentinian judge Roberto del Puerto, pictured here with Beebee and Jalynn.

Some more sad departures

No matter how hard you try to steel your heart to the inevitable, the loss of much loved dogs, whatever their age, hurts. July saw two of our most senior citizens cross over the Rainbow Bridge.

Runaround Jenny Wren, who died on July 5th at 17 years of age, was our tiny perfect fawn brindle whippet. We purchased her in England at 8 weeks of age from English breeder/judge June Cross, who became a very good friend in the years after we bought The Wren, until her early and untimely death in 1997.

Born in early 1988 Wren was a granddaughter of the great Eng.Ch. and Waterloo Cup Coursing champion, Chyton Copy Press and a half sister to Eng.Ch. Runaround Rosalind. Never shown nor bred, the Wren was the most perfect pet anyone could wish for.

Wren enjoyed good health until three days before she died, alert and active and continuing to explore the garden and hang out with her friends right up to that point.

NEWS UPDATE (30 May 2005)

  After a dreary, long, cold, winter that began far earlier than normal -- in late October here in Central Canada -- we have endured a spring of prolonged colder and far wetter than normal weather than is typical in this part of Canada where we have usually enjoyed warm, early springs.  We are hoping the few nice days we have been able to enjoy at the end of May  -- albeit every day has at least some rain and the mosquitoes are B52 bomber size – is a harbinger of a better summer for us here at Avalonia.  We see places like London and Belgrade enjoying temperatures in the 30 C range in late May, and hope some of those days of summer eventually come our way as well.

With spring come dog shows and litters and we have news of both to report in this update.

The first show news for 2005

Our first entry into the show rings this spring returned home after a weekend at the Ottawa Kennel Club shows with 6 of the 10 points needed for his Canadian Championship title.  Avalonia Oscar Peterson (Avalonia Wotta Jesta x Ch. Avalonia Lagavulin), born August 25, 2004, and seen here in this casual photo taken today playing in the yard, is still in the senior puppy classes, but he is showing all of the promise we saw the day he was born.

Named after Canada’s greatest living jazz musician, the legendary Oscar Peterson, Oscar reflects the quality we have come to expect from descendants of the late, great Eng.Ch. Nevedith Justa Jesta.  Oscar’s father is a Jesta son, and his mother is out of Cdn.Ch. Nevedith Local Lancer, whom we and others believe is the best son Jesta ever produced.  We expect Oscar to finish his Cdn.Ch. title easily in the coming weeks.

 An update on our Nev – Ceely litter

A late October litter would not be our personal choice of a time to whelp and run on a litter of 8 puppies, particularly given the early and difficult winter we experienced here this year, but when your choicest female gives you that option you exercise it.  We did so with Eng.Cdn.Ch. Nevedith Ceefa Ceely, who, as we reported, had a litter of 8 on October 31^st 2004, sired by Avalonia Wotta Jesta (Nev).  While all but one of the pups available from that litter have moved on to their new homes in Canada and the USA, we’d like to provide an update on how those on hand at home look today. 

This photo shows three of the Halloween litter taken in early May at 5 months of age.  Pictured here are – from left to right – bitch puppy Avalonia Ghostly Mostly (Tansy), and dog puppies Avalonia Hocus Pocus (Tristan) and Avalonia Treat or Treat (Tricky).  Tansy and Tricky are staying with Avalonia and will make their show debuts later this year, while Tristan will be moving to Sweden in July 2004 to take up residence with Grethe Ljostad (Nippy’s Kennel).  

A new litter for 2005

We expect a new litter of whippet puppies in the first week of July 2005.  Sire of the litter is Cdn.Ch. Frontrunner’s Full Monty, our Danish import bred by Rudi Brandt.  Monty is a son of Dk.Swed.Ch. Nevedith Veefa Vagabond out of Int.Germ.Dk.& two time World Winner Honey Honey du Tadjoura.   Dam of the litter is Avalonia Ella Fitzgerald, a solid mahogany brindle bitch with white points, sired by Avalonia Wotta Jesta x Ch. Avalonia Lagavulin.  She is litter sister to Cdn.Ch. Avalonia Billie Holiday and a full sister via a repeat breeding to Avalonia Oscar Peterson (above) and his sisters Avalonia Nina Simone and Avalonia Diana Krall who have also been retained by Avalonia.

Visitors to Avalonia know Ella well… she is the bitch everyone considers to have been pick of her litter, though she has never been shown – strictly our fault, not hers.  A picture of Ella at 8-weeks here shows what we saw in her then and continue to see in her now.

Updated pictures of Ella, and her litter will be provided in a later update.

NEWS UPDATE ( 7 January 2005 )

It is the depth of winter and the show season hasn’t begun, so there is little news to report at this time, but we cannot help but delight in our latest litter, now turning 9 weeks old.  Sired by Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta out of Eng.Cdn.Ch. Nevedith Ceefa Ceely, these pictures show four of the five male puppies born on 31 October 2004 at their January 6^th vet visit for their shots and Canadian Kennel Club tattoos.

We quite accidentally missed photographing one of the boys, but he too closely resembles his littermates.  Several of these boys are spoken for, but several others are still available to loving whippet homes.

NEWS NEWS NEWS ( 31 October 2004)

We have had a busy several months, between dog shows, puppies, visitors from Belgium (see the photo of Bart and Maddie with horses of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), and a two-week trip to England visiting whippet friends and attending the South Yorkshire Whippet Club and Driffield championship shows, all of which makes this update both necessary and timely!

 

	NEWS UPDATE (31 August 2004)  Pictured here is Buffy, Cdn.Ch. Avalonia Lagavulin (Ch. Nevedith Local Lancer x Ch. Sporting Field Perfection), checking over her 12 hour old litter of 7 pups sired by Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta (Eng.Ch. Nevedith Justa Jesta x Ch. Nevedith Wotta Wispa). This is a repeat breeding of the litter that produced our Jazz greats litter including Cdn.Chs. Avalonia Billie Holiday and Avalonia Duke Ellington, and these pups will also be named after Jazz greats. The beautifully marked litter of 4 females, and 3 males were born the evening of August 25th 2004. Five of the litter are black or mahogany brindle and white, while two, a dog and a female, are mostly white with fawn brindle patches. The near black male is almost certainly staying with Avalonia but some of his littermates may still be available!
	NEWS FLASH (21 August 2004) We are thrilled to pieces with the wonderful news we have just had from Belgium. Cdn. & International Ch. Avalonia Macallan (Tess) completed the qualifications for her Belgian Championship in style winning BOB and then going BIG at the show Mechelen, shown by our good friend Bart Scheerens of Boxing Helena kennels and she is now Int.Cdn.&Belg.Ch. Avalonia Macallan. This title completes an eventful year for Tess, who has just returned to the show ring after her first litter, sired by Eng.Ch. Nevedith Eefa Empra, currently number one whippet dog in England. We are deeply grateful to Bart for all he has done for Tess, and for Avalonia in Europe!
	NEWS NEWS NEWS (17 August 2004) New puppies at Avalonia July 29th saw the birth of a small, two puppy litter at Avalonia. Sired by Ch. Nevedith Local Lancer out of Ch. Avalonia Barbados, the two male puppies shown in this first photo show early potential. Since we planned this to be Lancer's last litter - he is now 10 - we are keeping one of the males who we hope will become our stud dog of excellence for the next decade, and the other is available for adoption. The five puppies from our May litter have all found terrific homes with two staying here in Ottawa and the others moving further afield - to Vancouver, Edmonton and Discovery Bay, California. Pictured here are the last two to leave - Mr. P (Avalonia Positano), sister Tori (Avalonia Capri) and their mother Chess (Frontrunner's Guys 'n Dolls, our Danish princess). There will be a final litter at Avalonia this year, due at the end of August. Sire of this litter is Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta and dam is Ch. Avalonia Lagavulin. This is a repeat of our Jazz greats litter that has produced two Canadian champions in the show ring this year, Cdn.Chs. Avalonia Duke Ellington and Avalonia Billie Holiday.   New puppies featuring Avalonia bloodlines at Kingscourt in Indiana, USA Patti Grove and John Fisher have a litter of 5 males with tight Avalonia connections in Indiana. The boys, born on August 7th, are a mix of dark brindle and white particolours. Sire of the litter is Kingscourt Classic Bentley (all Nevedith connections via his sire, Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta and dam, Pardee Bo Peep at Nevedith) ex Avalonia Beach Bunny (Cdn.Ch.Scheik's Avalonia Whisky, bred in Finland by Jarmo Vuorinen out of Avalonia Toast Ghost who is half Nevedith/half Sporting Fields). These are splendid looking puppies. Photos of the litter, and a contact e-mail address and phone number for John can be found at:    http://www.geocities.com/ajindiana2003/Whippets.html?1092101914978   Update - Eng.Cdn.Ch. Nevedith Ceefa Ceely We have several individuals patiently waiting for puppies from Nevedith Ceefa Ceely. We believe we missed the opportunity for Ceely pups in 2004 because Ceely had a silent season which we did not detect. Sometimes, in hindsight, these things seem to happen for a reason, and in this case, we think we have found it. While our original plan was to breed Ceely to Ch. Nevedith Local Lancer for what we planned would be his last litter, the arrival back at Avalonia for a brief visit of one of our homebreds has given us ample cause for reflection and we have changed our minds. One look at this picture shows why. Pictured here is the grown up version of a dog featured on our Much Loved Pets page in the past. This is Avalonia Iceman, better known as Jake. Jake was sired by Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta (Eng.Ch. Nevedith Justa Jesta x Cdn.Ch. Nevedith Wotta Wispa ) out of Ch. Sporting Fields Perfection (Am.Cdn.Ch. Sporting Field Kinsman x Gatsby's Gypsy of Sporting Field). Both his littermates are in Finland and we had not seen Jake since he left with his owners, Bob and Elaine Covey, as a young puppy. When he returned last week to be boarded while they took a family trip to the east coast, he took our breath away. We have gone over Jake with a fine tooth comb. He is utterly sound and fantastic on the move, flawless coming and going, with wonderful reach and drive. And his qualities extend to his sweet, affectionate temperament. The Covey's have offered us the opportunity to use Jake, and we have made the decision to breed him to our very best, our English champion, Ceely. Stay tuned for when this happens because it should be magic!
	NEWS UPDATE   ( 22 June 2004 )

We are pleased to report our newest Canadian champion, Ch. Avalonia Billie Holiday (Ch. Avalonia Wotta Jesta x Ch. Avalonia Lagavulin).  Billie began the trip to her championship in June 2003 with one series of shows, then took time out for her first litter later in the summer.  She returned to the show ring in May 2004 and completed her Cdn.Ch. title on Friday, June 11^th, going BOB and 4^th in Group under breeder/judge Max Magder.  She finished the show weekend with two further BOBs, and a Group 3^rd.

NEWS   NEWS   NEWS   NEWS   ( 30 May 2004 )

NEWS NEWS NEWS UPDATE 16 February 2004