BEAUTY OF THE BEASTS

Click here to see our new All-American shirt, featuring all five of these great dogs!
Beauty of the Beasts will donate 10% of our profit on all retail sales of the All-American shirt to no-kill shelters.

	DESI, OWNED BY NANCY BEN-DROR Desi's favorite activity in life is to lie upside down, in my lap, all four legs splayed out and nap. She does this at obedience or agility shows (where judges have commented to me that this is what agility is all about--bonding with your dog) or during a class. The only problem is she weighs almost fifty pounds, so my arm usually falls asleep as well. She loves giving licks and French kisses to all of her adult people friends, at the same time, she will go after any adult she doesn't know who gets too close to her traveling buddy, the yellow lab, Cody. Even though she never gives him the time of day, she is fiercely loyal to him and protective. At the end of the weekend, on the way home, she sleeps up against him in the car, telling him "job well done!" By Design (Desi) was found tied to the Hargraves Vineyard sign on eastern Long Island early one morning, by an animal shelter employee on the way to work. My husband and I came along three weeks later to see this adorable six month old puppy jumping six feet high in her cage. She became our next All-American, joining her sister, By Chance, who we had found a few weeks before at the same Southold shelter. We had decided that puppy Chance needed a puppy because she was too much for our fourteen year old lab. I cried all the way home from the shelter, with this sweet little Desi on my lap, thinking that someone had actually thrown her out. Her misfortune was my good fortune. She's the love of my life! Desi received her TDI & CGC at fourteen months. Obedience titles: American Mixed Breed Obedience Registration (AMBOR) CD; Mixed Breed Dog Clubs of America (MBDCA) CD; United Kennel Club CD (UCD) and working on CDX. Agility titles: USDAA PD I title, NADAC NJC and NAC titles and trying to finish Open.
CHIPS, OWNED BY LARA SCHOENFELD Chips, a terrier mix, was adopted from Animal Friends shelter in Pittsburgh in November 1993. A little twelve pound ball of fur, appropriately dubbed "The Whirling Dervish" in the neighborhood, he was always busy. Even today, everybody's business is Chips' business, at least that's how Chips sees it! Quite a handful as a pup, he needed to go to doggie school and trained in Obedience for 3 years, doing quite well, until my nervousness in the ring caused us to bomb in competition. Then we discovered AGILITY! Chips now enjoys going to dog class each week, and after he greets all the other dogs he's ready to jump, climb, and weave. Now at seven years of age, he's no longer a whirling dervish and enjoys the agility obstacles at a slower pace. His favorite obstacles change from time to time--at this point in time, he enjoys jumps and the tunnel. Currently he holds a NADAC Novice Agility title and is looking forward to competition in Open classes.
	JEFFERSON, OWNED BY ANN MARIE HILL I am a probation officer who monitors people on electronic monitoring/house arrest. This takes me into some pretty nasty areas. While on one of the worst streets in the city of Poughkeepsie, I saw a little puppy that looked like a German Shepherd with bright blue eyes. He was full of fleas and worms, scrounging for food, his coat was stubby and dull, he was unsupervised and was treated roughly by the children in the neighborhood. While working, I began to seek him out to play with him a little and make sure he was all right. This street is very high-traffic--both drugs and cars--with many pitbulls and rottweilers. I was worried that he would, either purposefully or not, be used as fight bait, be hit by a car, etc. I figured out which tenement he "belonged" to and went one night after work and asked if they wanted to give their dog away. They said no but they would take my phone number, just in case. They were living in total squalor so I never believed they would find my phone number again if they wanted it. A couple of weeks later, I went back and asked if they would sell the dog. Again, they said no. Now, I started scheming: "how do I get him without getting caught..." I was too chicken though, what with a job in law enforcement. Another month went by, all the while I was still stopping to find him, and the woman called and asked if I still wanted to buy the dog. Of course I did, I couldn't believe I'd heard from her and I raced over before she could change her mind. About his name: he got that long before he actually came to live with me. At the time, my husband and I lived in the guest cottage of an estate that bordered Vanderbilt Mansion and the Hudson River. The lady was a total animal lover with no dogs of her own so Jefferson would have the run of fifty-plus acres. Going from the crime/drug ridden, high-traffic, very dangerous neighborhood where I found him to an estate with free rein would be like doggie-heaven. I told my partner shortly after spotting this puppy, that I would get him someday and that his name would be Jefferson because he was going to "move on up." When I finally got him, the vet estimated that he was about four months old. We started agility training when he was two (when I heard of it for the first time) and he is now four. Jefferson's USDAA info: He's earned the AD title and is competing in Masters Jumpers, Masters Snooker & Masters Pairs. He has one Masters Jumpers Q and three Masters Snooker Q's. Jefferson's NADAC info: He has his OAC, OGC, and NJC titles with one Open Jumpers leg and one Elite Regular leg. (We don't do much NADAC.)
JESSE. OWNED BY BARBARA ESHLEMAN My family and I adopted Jesse from our local animal shelter. She had been brought in to the shelter as a stray so what mix of breeds she is is anybody's best guess. Jesse is the first dog my family and I have owned. My younger son begged us for years to get a dog, but my husband and I didn't know if we wanted to take on the responsibility. Boy, were we wrong. The pleasure we get from Jesse is well worth the responsibility involved. Jesse has been wonderful from day one. She was housebroken, didn't chew anything she wasn't supposed to--she didn't have any bad habits at all. We are so lucky to have her. I have a lot of fun doing agility with Jesse. We do USDAA and NADAC events earning an AD title with USDAA and OAC, OJC, and S-NGC titles with NADAC, and we look forward to trying to earn others.
	XENA (AKA "BIG Z"), OWNED BY DONNA ROHAUS & MIKE SWANSON We found her on the internet, at a local shelter, and we were going to just foster her, but it was love at first sight! We think she is some sort of Border Collie mix. She has half a tail, the vet thinks it is natural. When we got Xena, she was about a year old. She didn't know how to go up stairs or how to play--she had no idea what a ball was. For the most part, Xena would rather chase anything she gets a scent of than hang around with you. The only time she's ever allowed off-leash is in the agility ring. In spite of her tendency to chase and roam, she has never once run out of the ring at an agility trial. She took to agility right away, and is a natural, and a beautiful jumper. She has achieved the O-OAC, O-OJC, and O-OGC titles, and the AAD, Snooker Masters(SM), and Jumpers Master(SM) titles, beating those fast Border Collies. She got second in Pre-Elite in her height division at the 2000 NADAC Nationals. Big Z loves to play with her soccer ball in the backyard and loves to snuggle behind your knees when she sleeps.

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