Simon

I wanted to thank everyone for the all the kind words regarding my loss of Simon, my Chow/Sheltie mix. I said goodbye to my him this past weekend at the age of 16 years old. For those of you who knew him, he is hard to forget. In the world of agility, the dogs that stand out are the shelties and the border collies because of their speed. Simon was the slow and steady dog. He achieved many accomplishments, including one of the first dogs in Illinois to receive their ADCH in USDAA and not only qualified for the USDAA Nationals 6 times, but also competed in the Grand Prix Finals 3 of those times in the 22 inch division, which as we all know is one of the most difficult, especially for a "not so fast" dog. He was a very stubborn Chow, but gave his all at the big events and always had a huge cheering section. (which I thank everyone for because he loved the crowds). One of his proudest moments was win! ning a team relay event at the 1995 USDAA Nationals with Pam Juliano and Windy and Felicia Whelan and ____. He sat proudly for his picture in the middle of a pack of border collies. He will be deeply missed by many and will be hard to forget. As Gail Storm often told me, "Slow and steady wins the race." That was Simon, he ran as fast as he could and always gave it his all. I hope everyone has a chance to own a dog like him in their lifetime. He was there through many, many changes in my life and I couldn't have done it without him.