After encouragement from Emer Mooney in Eire, (breeder of Borders and our IWS Grand Ch. Yehudi of Currabell, & Ch. Currabell Hedgehog Fir), Pete's honorary Irish Water Spaniel arrived and has added further chaos to our lives!

She spent quite some time using Ciara O'Casey's coat as dental floss. Ciara is our youngest Irish Water Spaniel, whose headpiece is now somewhat short, lacks length of ear feathering, and has interesting coat patterning about the hocks! We are becoming adept at ring hopping between Groups 2 and 3. At shows, Shirley displays great focus for the job at hand. For this, she has been duly awarded.

Shirley adores Harley, my younger cat. Many a happy hour is spent racing from room to room, or just plain kicking the heck out of each other! Her other favourite friend is Matthew's Standard Poodle, Rommey. About the same age, Shirley readily met the challenge to cope with Rommey's ever-rising height.

A retriever extraordinaire, Shirley has appointed herself as the pick-up dog for the Irish Water Spaniels daily ball games. A very determined hunter with a nose worthy of any working Terrier, she displays the essential characteristics of the breed. The pocket-rocket is extremely agile and jolly fast; just match her against Aislinn for speed!!

As with our big guys, Shirley has been made available for the Junior Handler classes. Kari Harding has qualified for the Pedigree Junior Showmanship finals for SA for 2005 handling the little girl to perfection. More recently, James Sheekey has been practising his skills with Shirley. He received a most favourable critique from Simon Briggs at the Pedigree Autumn International's first show, and on the Monday, placed second. under Tabitha Buckley. Congratulations to both young adults.

View pic of James and Shirley

Thanks are due to Emer for all her help and support in this madness, to Toni McNeil for words of wisdom and of course to Delma Nelson, Shirley's breeder for our big dog in a little body. We would also like express our gratitude to Dr Emma Greenway whose expert tuition and training skills have been invaluable, and to Sue Mewse for the finishing touches!

The introduction of a Terrier to the family has been a whole new learning curve. Initially Shirley was alternatively amusing, adorable and frustrating. The frustration has waned as this highly intelligent little dog continues to win our admiration.

We are sure that this is just the start of another great adventure in the dog world!