Ashby

This is Ash with his favorite toy, the only one he would play with.

Westpoint Astro's A. Ashby, he was my first Golden Retriever, my first dog that was really mine. I thought that I would name him after my favorite baseball team, because I was a huge baseball fan. Then he needed a really good call name, so I chose to name him after the catcher for the Astros when I was growning up, Alan Ashby. I wrote to Alan Ashby and told him that I had named my dog after my grandmother's favorite player. I told him my grandmother could pick him out from the cheap seats without field glasses by the way he walked! I also sent some puppy pictures of Ashby and asked for an autographed picture of him. I didn't really think I would get it, but a few weeks later I got a package in the mail and he had sent the picture and signed the one of Ashby too!

Ashby was to be my first show dog. I wanted to show him and do obedience with him. I got him from Nancy Mendell in Northern California. Ashby was a hard dog to get because when I was calling breeders to get a show quality puppy, they don't just give them to anyone. I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't when I talked about my experience or lack there of with Goldens. I would tell them I'd never owned a Golden and I couldn't get one. Then I would say that my boyfriend had a Golden and that was how I came to love the breed, then came the question, do you live together. Yes, well, then you can't have another Golden. So, by the time I found Nancy, I had read alot of dog books and found out alot about the breed and she tried to turn me down, but I did something so out of character for me. I got irritated at her and I asked her how I was ever supposed to get experience with a Golden and in the show ring if no one would give me a dog! And with that, she granted me Ashby.

I flew out to get him and she picked me up at the airport. I had forgotten to eat in all my excitement and so when I got there and was sitting on the floor with Ashby and his Mom, Chickie and I just had to ask her for something to eat. She gladly said ok and heated me up clam chowder. I had not ever had clam chowder and it didn't sound at all appealing, but after all what are you going to say when you are starving and have just asked for food. Today I love clam chowder and I didn't realize until we were driving home from the vet when we sent Ash off to the bridge, that it was him who introduced me to that food. So, I made Gary stop and get some at the store so that we could eat it on that day when we said Good bye, It only seemed fitting.

Ashby and I learned how to do conformation showing. We met all of our friends while showing the boys, Ashby and Bailey. We met our friends and mentors, Bruce and Gretchen and then a little later, Tara. We met our Phoenix showing friends, Arlene, Vicki, Sabine, Debbie, Cyndy, Bev, Dawn, Pam and Linda. If it weren't for Arlene we would not have met our Tae Kwon Do friends. Then we also traveled all around and met our show friends from California, New Mexico and Texas. Our first National was a hoot. We now have fond stories of sitting in the bar doing obsenely named shots with all of our friends and the next day getting the ring at 8am with a hangover! And that is the National that Gary became known as the "Zipper Man."

Three Years later Ashby tells me that he HATES showing and was only doing it for me and so at the Westworld shows I retired him and we began to look for something new. This is when we found Agility, because obedience was so not us! This is where I met Julia who in later years became co-founder of the NCCF. I also met sooooooo many good and supportive agility friends.

Then Ashby started to get older and would limp when we jumped in agility, so it was time to retire him from that as well. He LOVED to swim. We couldn't keep him out of the pool. Gary saw a competition on television, it was Dock Dogs. So, he decided to test Ashby and went out into the back yard to throw his KONG in the pool and measure his distance. He went all the way across the pool. We really wanted to try him in this officially but there were no events in our area and we didn't have the means to travel for awhile so it wasn't until November of 2006 that we got him up onto a dock and he had such a fun time! He jumped 11 feet and then Gary decided to rest him just a little bit between heats for his last jump and then he jumped 15ft 9in!!!! He was spectacular and 9 years old! And he had sooooo much fun doing that!

There are so many good memories of Ashby. He would Tigger jump at you and scared the crap out of you just to get you to play with him iin the back yard. And even though he was my dog, he loved to sleep under Gary's side of the bed with his head hidden under the bed. Everyone that met him seemed ot love him the most. He was my Mom's favorite too, because he was so calm and gentle with her.

I have pictures of all these memories, but most of them are before my digital era, but I'm going to drag them out and scan them to complete his page. Because Ashby is really my very first and patient model. He helped to teach me dog photography by patiently sitting and wearing all manner of things as he grew up. Even in his last days he demanded to be my model. Gary says the picture below is a very sad picture to him because he was so sick in it. However, to me, it's a good memory of who my Ashby was. When I set up the background to do a test on my new lights, I chose Duncan as my model because Ash was sleeping and sick. When he realized what was going on he demanded to be let into the studio area and he stumbled over onto the background and plopped down and fell asleep. So, I put the other kids in the same pose as him and took the picture. My model to the last.

Emma, Casey, Morgan, Duncan and Ashby January 26,2007 I Miss You Every Day Big Dog.

I encourage you to donate to the National Canine Cancer foundation in Ashby's memory. Cancer in dogs is virtually undetectable and that is why they are taken from us so quickly and unexpectedly.