Zareba's Original Trio: Gaia, Keesha and Jake
Zareba’s Two Histories, Past, Present and Future...
Tea's beginning:
I have always had dogs, and having been born in Estonia the natural dog to have would be a German Shepherd or a Norwegian Elkhound. I rescued a young Elkhound from a snow drift when I was seven and since then our footprints have crossed and joined several times.
I was talked into showing in ’79 by a lady who lived down the street and she showed Boxers. We had just bought an Elkhound puppy and she thought he held promise in the show ring. She gave me entry forms for an upcoming show and I sent them in. Two weeks later Toke Vidor Vikingson and I made our cold entrance at the Livonia Kennel Club show. I did not have the proper collar, leash and neither of us had ever seen the inside of the show ring! The Judge was patient and we got first in the puppy class. So we tried again and again but at 12months of age turned out that Toke had hip dysplasia and so ended our show experience.
Years passed and once again I got the urge to show, this time I had done my homework and decided upon the elusive Rhodesian Ridgeback. I was in luck and we found a breeder not too far who had a litter of puppies. My husband and I visited her and put a deposit down on a small very active deep red bitch. Three weeks later I went back and picked up Keesha who would be the Foundation Bitch of my line. Not being very imaginative we called her Callyhi Keesha of Koya.
Keesha and I made our debut that fall, she was 7 months of age and neither of us had attended training classes. I had bought a book on Dog Handling and we knew what we should do, but not ‘how’. We entered the ring and tried to copy the handler ahead of us. We went around the ring with Keesha jumping up and down. We did a ‘stack’ and the Judge pointed at us and said , “Number One”. We got a blue ribbon! The ring Steward told us not to leave but wait, for we were to go back in for ‘Winners bitch’. That time we were directed to stand at the end of the line, Keesha being a puppy. Again we went around, the Judge picked the Winner’s Bitch and pointed at us and said, “Reserve”. So, that was our introduction the ‘Show game’. We started going to classes and being a team we finished the following summer, Keesha being 17 months of age.
Now was time to find a Kennel name, I spent hours and hours in the Webster’s dictionary and finally settled on the word ZAREBA which means an enclosure of bushes or stakes protecting a campsite or village in northeast Africa. I thought it was a most appropriate name for a pack of Ridgebacks.
Keesha had four litters and 13 Champions to her credit. She received her ROM (Register of Merit) and # 1 Brood Bitch award from RRCUS in 1997. Keesha left us at 12 years of age, having lived a long active life. We had kept a gorgeous bitch puppy from Keesha’s first litter and named her Zareba’s Gaia By Kwetu. She was my first Bred By and we finished fast. Unfortunately her life was cut short due to intestinal obstruction . Her loss was hard, for she was our First Born to the Zareba name.
We
must not forget Jake
AM/CAN. CH. Riveroads Serengeti Jakeriah, ROM, CGC. who
entered our lives in 1992 at 3 months of age. Jake was a cool kid, very
tender hearted and eager to please. He showed well, but was really not
enthused, so when Gaia came along he was happy to retire to the couch.
In 1999 he was diagnosed with Mast Cell Ca. And despite surgery he died
a year later.Since then I have shown many dogs, some have been easy, others much more challenging. All in all it is a wonderful obsession and I would not have missed it for the world. We have produced with Keesha and Jake’s genes many beautiful Champions, pets and performance dogs. We are now on our 5th Generation and I can see the two of them in our current dogs.
