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Ch Kwetu Koya ROM
Koya was the first "home-grown" Kwetu Champion. Koya was born in a litter of eight. Larry Downey had handled her mom Tuli to her championship and he came to my house to grade the litter, my first Kwetu litter. He pointed to Koya and said "keep this one because you may breed for many years and not get one as promising as this one!" He called her "very appealing." She was the smallest of the three bitches. (Seven of the litter had show ridges, one was ridgeless. We called the ridgeless "Freddy the freeloader"). At the time Julia Minotto (Mission Kennels), a very respected RR breeder had heard from Larry about this promising puppy and phoned me to buy her. I was very honored that this big time breeder (and real life princess!) wanted one of my puppies! (This was in the days of those great kennels, such as Blanbeeridge, Lamarde Perro, etc,) so I agreed. But fate took a hand--Koya at age eight weeks old came down with distemper, after visiting the vet for her innoculations, and I had to keep her alive by nursing her through the disease. I remember using a tongue depressor to place Gerber's strained meat for babies on the roof of her mouth to force feed her. Koya lived, but was not well enough to go to a new home till she was four months old and by then, as I tearfully told Mrs. Minotto, I had bonded too strongly with this very sick puppy to even think of letting her go. Julia responded in a ladylike way, saying she understood and did not hold any bad feelings towards me for backing out of the sale. At six months she was in the stands at the Specialty and watched Koya win the 6-9 puppy bitch class and shouted with glee "that's MY puppy!" Koya was the dam of many Kwetu champions: Ch Kwetu's Koya's Ruffian, Ch Kwetu Koya's Patriot, Ch Kwetu Koya's Jacob, to name three of them (Ruffian and Patriot being the most well known). She was a good friend to both me and my children. I always felt that her grandson Rusty came closest to resembling her. (By the way, Koya was the first RR I ever put points on with my handling and won a group placement with!) In that year she was the #3 RR due to that single group placement, because in those days RRs rarely placed in the group. It was a Group 2 and the judge was Margery Siebern, a RR breeder, and she said she would have given her the group had she had better underjaw! Koya also was winner's bitch at the Specialty during her quest for her championship. She finished her championship with that Specialty win.