Bagel came to me in
November 1998, at the age
of almost 6, just as I was
starting to learn about lure
coursing. It took me
another year to learn
enough to actually get out
on the field, and Bagel ran
for her Junior Courser only
6 weeks before turning 7.
Considering how late in her
life we got started doing
things, she was quite the
accomplished old lady.
She was my heart dog, and
in every litter I breed, I'm
breeding to get another
Bagel.
November 1998, at the age
of almost 6, just as I was
starting to learn about lure
coursing. It took me
another year to learn
enough to actually get out
on the field, and Bagel ran
for her Junior Courser only
6 weeks before turning 7.
Considering how late in her
life we got started doing
things, she was quite the
accomplished old lady.
She was my heart dog, and
in every litter I breed, I'm
breeding to get another
Bagel.
Photo by Steve Surfman
| Bagel retired from all competition on December 30, 2004, only days before she turned 12 years old. However she continued to run at practices every opportunity we got. Her last (short) run only two weeks before I let her go. Click here to see a slide show of Bagel running in the fall of 2005. Bagel's health really started to go down hill after her father, Parker, died in September of 2007. I don't know if her kidney problems were caused by the heart medication she took for a number of years or if it was in her genes. Either way, I opted to keep her as comfortable as possible for as long as she was feeling good. When she stopped eating I knew it was time to let her go as food and chasing the lure were her two favorite things to do in life. Fly free, my love. |
| Health testing - I didn't do any health testing on Bagel in her final years. She had some vitreous degeneration in her eyes, a grade 5 heart murmur, elevated kidney values and she'd gotten hard of hearing. She was part of the heart study being done by Dr. Rebecca Stepien partly funded by the Whippet Health Foundation. Here's Bagel's last cardiac report |
| Here's Bagel at age 2, finishing her conformation championship. |
Copyright Close Encounters of the Furry Kind, LLC
Photo taken at age 12
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Age 14 yrs & 9 months
| Bagel's Mother, Berry, photographed in 1991 |