The Sparta Girls!

Today we were taking care of Kyrie and Leo's daughter Astra for her people, so I decided that the girls needed a play-date! I hope you will enjoy the photos. We went out just before dawn and then the sun came up. :)

Astra says HELLO! She is a white/buff plush girl from Kyrie's litter with Leo, and is 20 months old. :)

Play with me!

Astra loves frisbees! You can see the shaved spots behind her shoulders--those are from the heart testing she just completed. :)

Astra and her younger half-sister Blazie!

Blazie is Kyrie's daughter from her litter this year with Piston. She is a smooth coat grey sable and is 6 months old. :)

Blazie: Where did they go?

Oh, there they are! Chasing me!

Blazie loves to chase blowing leaves. We can tell that fall is her favorite season!

Blazie and momma Kyrie as the sun came up. Kyrie appears to be trying out her dance steps!

Playtime! Photos of the girls having a good time. :)

Kyrie: Let's PLAY!

Wrestling time!

The girls all get along. :)

Everyone together during a brief moment of relative stillness! Such a variety of colors. :)

Kyrie says: Astra should visit more often!

Thanks for reading, folks!

The Littlest Hobo Book Project

Hi everyone! Well, Kyrie and her fans have inspired a new project. I thought I would share it with you here.

Ever since I started writing here about Charles P. "Chuck" Eisenmann and his dogs who played The Littlest Hobo on TV and in movies, I have received comments and emails from some very cool people who shared their memories of Chuck and his dogs with me. I can't even tell you how touching this has been, to receive this series of thank-you notes from complete strangers. Many times I've been moved to actual tears. Because of all of you, I have decided to go ahead with this project.

I will be attempting to write a non-fiction book about Chuck and his dogs. I say "attempting" because I've never written non-fiction before. This project is somewhat daunting to me, but I think it needs to be tried. I don't want Chuck and his dogs to fade into obscurity, foot-noted on a few websites, subject of stories and rumors because no one ever wrote down how things happened and that's it. Chuck's books are out of print. There are dang few resources on the web--if there were more, y'all wouldn't have found me and Kyrie, here. :)

I've created a new blog and have a new email specifically for communicating about this project, because I'll need some help. You can read more about it here, on the blog: The Littlest Hobo Book Project - littlehoboblog.blogspot.com

The whole story of what and why is there--you can also look there for updates on the project in the future. Thanks so much, everyone, for reading. I hope to see you on the other side of the book!

Kyrie/Piston Puppies!

On May 29, 2012, Kyrie gave birth to six healthy, rambunctious puppies! As of this week they have all gone to their forever homes except for one--Blazie, the little sable girl, who we kept. :) You can see Blazie's blog here:

Blazie the ISSR Shiloh Shepherd!

You can see all the photos we took over the first eight weeks and beyond here, on the Kyrie/Piston litter blog:

The Kyrie/Piston Litter!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to compliment us on this wonderful litter! These pups had fantastic temperaments, gorgeous looks, and we're hoping for awesome size and health down the road!

Kyrie's Second Litter!

Yes, it's true! Kyrie has a new boyfriend: Champion and Grand Victor PISTON of Victory Shilohs! We are expecting pups any day now!

Margaret and David at Victory generously shared photos of Piston for us to post, such as the one below. Piston is a gorgeous black and grey sable boy with a rock-solid temperament, tons of confidence and an impressive presence! Combined with Kyrie's easy-to-train intelligence and sweetness we expect some really wonderful pups!

If you would like to follow the growth and development of this litter, you can check out our new litter blog at http://kyriepistonlitter.blogspot.com . Once pups are on the ground, we will be putting up plenty of pictures!

Thanks for reading, everyone! Stay tuned for puppy news!

Summertime Kyrie!

Kyrie loved her puppies, but she's happy not to have to share time with her humans with the little ones any more! She recovered very quickly from her whelping and nursing and is very fit and energetic, with a beautiful coat. Here are some photos of Kyrie outside, enjoying the cooler morning hours before the heat sets in. :)

Below, she demonstrates her lovely flying trot! Tina, our Breed Founder, always liked to see the photos of Kyrie in her trot. She's really a smooth mover!


Kyrie loves to do what we call "the flouncy-pounce". Done correctly, Kyrie explodes from a standstill into a giant BOUNCE which then comes down in a play-bow, after which there is much running around the yard. :) Below, we see the BOUNCE part of the maneuver!


Kyrie expresses her disdain for my camera work, below.


Below is an awesome, and completely accidental photo! It was taken in the evening and the light was kind of funky. Somehow the camera managed to mostly focus on Kyrie running (look at that reach!), but everything else in the photo went rather psychedelic!


My pretty girl, holding a nice sit for me. :)


Thanks for looking, everyone! I do love my Kyrie-girl, and I love sharing her with y'all. :) Have a great summer!

Kyrie's Puppies!

Well it's been a long time since we had our last update! Kyrie did have her puppies, on Saturday the 26th of March. There were three: a white, a bi-color, and a dark sable. We named them Astra, Andros, and Ajax. Above you can see them at six weeks of age.

If you would like to see ALL the photos we took from day one through ten weeks and beyond, please take a look at our Kyrie/Leo litter blog here:

Sparta's First Kyrie/Leo Litter Blog!

At ten weeks, Astra went to friends of ours here in Denton. She kept her name, and we are hoping she will make herself a reputation in the show ring as she gets older!


At ten weeks, Ajax, now named Jax, went to Lewisville TX, just south of us. He shares his new home with another Shiloh Shepherd, a rescue German Shepherd, and a Shepherd mix--lots of new playmates!


At ten weeks, the last pup to leave was Andros, now called Saber. He lives with his new family in Flagstaff, AZ, and has three kids of his own now to play with!


Thanks for checking in! Up next: Kyrie summertime photos!

Preggers Kyrie!

For those not on Facebook with us, I've been asked to post the preggers Kyrie photo I took the other day. Here you are, folks!

Cross fingers and pray that we'll get pups tonight!