In the Beginning……
We
have always been an ‘animal mad’ family, with the usual myriad of pets,
including dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, and fish. We always had
poodles as pets, and bred a litter in 1976. We’ll never forget that night, the
puppies just kept on coming and we ended up with 12! This brought us our first
taste of fame through dogs, as we, and the puppies, were featured in the local
newspaper!! It was then that the ‘Harana’ affix was born, used to register this,
our first ever litter (for those wondering ‘Harana’ is an amalgamation of the
first three letters of my Dads name and the last three of my Mums – Harold &
Diana!)
When I was 9 years old my cat died and I was promised a dog of my own. Although,
at that time we still had a Miniature Poodle, I fancied a spaniel and had set my
heart on a golden cocker. However, some friends of ours, whose daughter I
regularly played with, had recently bought a ‘black & white spaniel’ and I fell
in love. After a bit of research, we discovered it was a Cavalier King Charles
Spaniel. So, the local newspaper was scoured and a blenheim boy duly arrived,
bought from Sheila Collier of the Sheilings affix. Sheila ran a ring craft club
at the time and encouraged us to take him along. We thoroughly enjoyed it and
started to enter him at a few shows. A few months down the line, and a few prize
cards on the wall, and we were well and truly bitten by the bug!! He was an
Astraddle Sigh 'n’ Nara son who was by the legendary Ch.Crisdig Leading Seaman.
We went to Crufts for the first time in 1980 and sat watching the judging. We found
two types that we admired, kept jumping out at us. They were Mrs Burgess’
‘Crisdigs’ and the Frys’ ‘Amantras’
We approached the Frys and they agreed to sell us a 12 month old tri bitch called
Sea Pearl of Amantra. She was a daughter of Amantra Naval Encounter, who was a
son of Ch.Amantra Anchors Away, and gave us our first real success in the ring,
winning well at Open Shows. We approached them again and this time bought a tri
dog called Amantra Arrowmint who was by Amantra Dicky Mint.
We then bought a Ch.Alansmere Aquarius granddaughter, Cottismeer Corsage at Harana,
from Lorraine Higgins and a blenheim dog from Clive & Iris Marriott, Burkwoodi
Down Town Boy at Harana. He was another Leading Seaman Grand-son and these four
dogs were the foundation for all our parti-colours.
Corsage, mated to Down Town Boy, produced Harana Down Town Boogie, our first
homebred Crufts qualifier in 1984. We were thrilled when Mrs Burgess asked to
use Down Town Boogie on Ch.Crisdig Girl Friday. Two puppies resulted and we were
lucky enough to buy one back. She was Crisdig Caribbean of Harana and when mated
to Toraylac Christopher Robin (twice) produced Ch.Harana Christa at Toraylac,
Harana Chumley, and Fr.Ch.Harana Constance. She also produced Harana Jemima,
from a mating to Harana Hanky Panky. She was the dam of Harana Jean Muir – Bitch
CC Crufts 2001 and Int.Ch.Harana Captain Whiskey who had quite an impact on the
wholecolours in Scandinavia.
