Moxie was MY first dog, though my childhood was filled with puppies, dogs and friends of canine nature,and I was no stranger to their loss, Moxie was the first dog that was totally MY friend. Because she was so special to me and to the people who knew her best, I wanted to make her tribute page a series of the stories which endeared her to me and those closest to us.

In 2000, I had all but given up on dog shows. I had struggled with Junior Handling Labs and I had dabbled in showing other breeds for close friends and I had had it. It was sooo political I had thought- I was done. I was going off to Cornell University to get an education and start my life and a dog was just not on my mind. I lived for a year in the dorms and met my best friend Ashley-a sweet southern belle with a common love for animals. We rode horses to together and talked of pets and grew very close. In our second year we wanted to rent an apartment together and each get a dog. She had a love for Great Danes and that summer got one, and drove back up to Ithaca, NY with one goofy looking black female Dane- named Bella. I was OK with being sans dog for a while but was getting pretty antsy...the time had come to get one!

I was pretty sure I was going to the SPCA to get a pup or a dog- and mentioned that to my mom. But I struggled with the "activities" concept. I wanted a "safe" dog for obedience and hunting...it was going to be a challenge to find one at that SPCA.... What I didn't know was that there was a litter of Curly puppies from Softmaple kennels sired by a dog I had helped my mom train, and then helped show him to his Championship- and I really loved him. This dog really changed my opinion of Curly Coated Retrievers, his name was Jet (aka Ch. Softmaple's O' Dark Thirty CD, MH, WCQ, ROM, HOF). He was goofy and sweet and very special! To give you an idea of how chill this dog was, he was rolling around on his back in the blind waiting for his turn to run a Master Hunt Test. While every one else was restraining their dog with a tight lead, yelling at them, trying to get their attention for even a split second... my mom was in that blind with a big black dog off leash scratching his tummy. 

My mom was puppy testing the litter with my sister, Laura who was home for winter break from Rochester Institute of Technology. I got the infamous phone call just before the week of my toughest semester of finals. I was taking Biochemistry, Food Engineering and Microbiology that fall- which was suicide at an Ivy League University and I was about to go into finals....The call went something like "I have a surprise for you! Can you meet me at the Syracuse Thruway in a few hours?I was like "yeah" and then the phone was passed to my sister who proclaimed "It jumped up and ripped my favorite pair of pajamas!" I knew it, I was getting a puppy! I told my mom, I hope it is a black male, like Jet! I don't like chocolate and won't like liver...I am sure.

So we met and then I saw her- a misleadingly sleepy docile liver girl. We went to dinner and then drove home where she slept on the lap of my roommate who said she was just the sweetest most perfect puppy. We got home and I let her sleep in my bed to ensure we were the best buds. I felt bad for her first night away from her mom and siblings.

Well, the next morning I saw her in full effect. She was a pistol, unbelievably busy and constantly running a commentary on what was going on.  She would sit in front of me and bark, whine and wag her tail! She was impossible to crate train for a few weeks and didn't seem to care when she made a mistake, and when she did it took hours to clean up her, the crate and everything in the immediate area. She wouldn't stop screaming in her crate and so I let her sleep with me and one morning woke up to missing glasses. I found them...all over. She had removed the lenses from the frames and chewed them up. For extra effect she peed near my head. Wow, really?  Between the finals, and that puppy I was so stressed but I survived both passing all my classes and not giving back that demon baby. I had landed on name...Moxie. She was going to be Rocket...named after her dad, but Moxie seemed most appropriate. Ashley had even said " I am glad she's your, cause I would have given her back". My sister reported that during the puppy test the most intelligent, devilish and structurally beautiful puppy was selected. I believe it was revenge on me, for myself being a difficult to raise child... 

Over the next year, I adapted to her activity level.We took a lot of walks and worked out our routine. She was super super energetic and there were moments she wanted to do stuff so badly I thought she was going to loose her mind. She would do tuck-butt circles on the porch in a wild play fit. It was so funny to watch her complete joy of life, until she took off and jumped over the porch railing and down to the ground. Ash and i thought "this was it"- she's dead, or at least a broken leg- nope completely wonderful and still in a play fit.

She was often too much for Bella the Dane, who would tolerate several hour of rough play but then at any opportunity would squash her by laying down directly on her. It was like a comic in real life-nothing but brown feet sticking out and some protests to go along with it! Ashely and I loved to watch the puppies, in fact we had no TV for several years because between studying and playing with our girls we had plenty to do.   We went for walks in the gorges of Ithaca. Moxie was on a leash while Bella picked delicately through the water. I didn't trust Moxie's crazy human like eyes... there was too much danger here, so Moxie remained on leash. That is when Moxie saw the bubbles. Oh, they were fascinating to her, she would chomp and chomp on them and chase them all over. Wait for the next one and pounce. She was so happy! Then shechased one off a small waterfall to my complete disbelief. I reeled her in with the leash and collar and proceeded to have a panic attack, but she was unscathed and wanted to go back for more.While at Cornell I was pretty dirt poor so I worked three jobs one of which was milking cows at the vet school. I would occasionally sign up for night duty and check on the cows and scrape their food up and check for calves which were born at night. I wanted company so I grabbed Mox. The first time I thought she was going to eat the manure or get kicked so she was on leash, but she knew to stay away from the back ends and was much more interested in their silage and feed than in the manure. She startled anytime they stood up and had a healthy respect for large livestock. She was a great companion to take with me, surprisingly calm and collected in all that cow chaos.

Moxie went with me on my first summer internship at the country's largest dairy sheep cheese company. I set up the lab and did some efficiency studies, but I was pretty much alone all summer living in a ramshackle trailer painted dark green. In the evenings I would walk Moxie through the expansive fields and we would watch the lambs play and jump on their mothers. We would go fishing together and found some of the greatest fly fishing spots together! She never got in the way- she would swim around and find some stick to shred.I noticed then her love of shredding vegetation. Some poor unassuming leaf or plant- Moxie would grab and put between her front feet and pluck. Many a plant, tree and dog toy met it's fate this way. I used to scramble to prevent it- thinking she would eat the wrong thing and be poisoned, but yet it never happened.  Our favorite place was a fishing hole which we would swim in or could fish at. I shared this with Ashley when she Bella and her rabbits visited for a week. We have lots of pictures at that place and I tried to take pictures of Moxie retrieving in the water but all you saw was a splash. She hit the water so hard- there was no dog, just an explosion. Moxie and I slept in the livingroom on a borrowed couch that summer because the trailer was so unbelieveably hot- pained green (duh) and the air conditioner was there. I was also so scared that someone would show up at night and steal me away, but I was very comforted by Moxie. I knew she was a protector extraordinaire...except if they ever figured out she was all bark no bite.

We all went to our first jobs and I worked for the largest food company at the time as a Quality Supervisor/Lab Manager in Delhi, NY. Mox was with me and I chose a apartment that's backyard went right into the Delaware River...she loved jumping into the river and was totally fearless with the moderate current. I was living in a shit apartment, of the worst kind, and the cost of the electric heat was killing me in the winter. I absolutely refused for spend hundreds on heat. Moxie and I spent the nights cuddling under an electric blanket- she had the best coat that year! I would wear a coat in the apartment because I was so stingey, she was in her full glory! I was lucky my pipes didn't freeze, but I was a silly college kid. I would kayak and fish there in the Delaware river- class A trout stream- the locals would tell me...and was it ever! My best friend Tara, from high school moved in and we shared a 3 bedroom apartment with Moxie. She fell in love with her as much as I was!

I remember when my childhood friend from Pennsylvania visited and we wanted to kayak the Delaware a few miles, I asked Tara to hold Moxie as we put into the water and not let go of her until we were out of visual. So Rod and I pushed off and I watched Tara and Moxie as they were there on the lawn watching...phew! But then Tara let go of her collar and I saw the splash...I knew what had happened. We surely couldn't turn back and Moxie was on a course to catch up to us. Soon she caught up and swam behind us, so happy to come along.  She paddled alongside us and I worried about the first rapids we we going to hit. " Should I stop and walk her back?" There really was no place to stop and the farther we went the bigger the mess that idea would be... I figured I would see what would happen. When we hit the first rapids- she simply got out of the water and walked alongside on land. Completely safe and completely confident! We got to the end of the run with her dipping in and out of the water as she needed to. She was so smart she knew when to paddle and when to walk. She was one tired pup that night.

It was when Mox was about 3 years old that my Mom said that the Curly National was in Pennsylvania that Spring and it was the closest it would ever come. I should go...meet the other Curly owners and see people. I hadn't shown in years, I was pretty discouraged from the Lab ring and I wasn't sure I ever wanted to do it again. But Mom made it sound great...stay with my friend in Harrisburg, party and have a great time. Moxie was one sound structured dog, and I knew enough about structure to know she was very very pretty. But I didn't think I had a chance, I had chalked up dog shows to politics. I was a nobody and Moxie was pretty, but also a nobody. one thing about me in the show ring, I compete, I can't help but try. I work pretty hard and can't help my competitiveness at all. Moxie won open bitch in a class of like 9 dogs I think. Then came Breed and I remember running and running and running. The judge was a Dobie breeder , which people told me loved movement and good sound structure.We took Best of Winners that first show together, it was incredible. We partied that night and had an extraordinary time with my parents, my friends and curly friends. That night a friend an I took Moxie to the Yellow Breeches creek to give her a walk and swim. Typical male, he had to throw the bumpers in hard to reach spots to challenge her and landed one under a pile of crappy leaves and silt. She nailed it and brought it back- with debris all up in her curls...we enjoyed the evening and I had thought that was the last of the big wins...it was all over that day. I never gave her a bath after those retrieves- because that was it- we were done. The specialty was adjoined to a 3 day all breed show (ie Harrisburg) which was a top 10 largest dog show in the US.  That next day I showed Mox amongst the same dogs at the specialty...and we got the Open class, then winners! Whoa. Wait a second...she was finished? I skipped the 3rd day since I hadn't moved her up to Specials and to take a major was a crappy thing to do...so we watched. The last day I moved her up to specials as a new champion and we were at the end of the line...the newbie champion. Before I knew it- the judge pointed a finger in our direction and we won the breed. Best of Breed...I was completely floored. Moxie was well happy for liver treats! Off to group, which was on TV that night as the Eukanuba tournament of Champions. I was getting nervous..Moxie was the WORST pacing dog I had ever dealt with. She was just a hardcore pacer- it was her lazy movement and she was going to do it no matter what. I was so nervous about her making a mistake in the ring or doing that pacing stuff. But the time came and we were in the ring...she pretty much posed herself and took very little work to free bait, but getting her to trot was almost almost impossible. all I could do was rough her up a bit and start super fast and hope it worked out-you can see that in the Eukanuba show- it is kinda clumsy, but no pacing. It was a surreal day.With the top Sporting dogs, in a packed room, cameras and blue carpet, and my friends and family. In fact the family was a close call...My dad pushed my mom to leave because it was Sunday- they had a long drive. So off they go, when a half hour into the trip my mom turns to my dad and tells him to turn around. They grab our family friend Sherry (rod's Mom) and they show up to watch. Moxie and I show in the group ring, and she is pushing my buttons like crazy- pushing up to me, and barking and not staying still. But at the final line up I make eye contact with the judge and he is totally watching Moxie. We are pulled for second place. Group 2 at Harrisburg??? It was an incredible, proud day!

Moxie has produced national ranking CCR's including the top CCR (breed points) for 2008. She took the brood bitch class in 2008 and pulled a Award of Merit from a tough breed competition.

2008 National Specialty Dorothy MacDonald

Award of Merit

Winner of Brood Bitch

 We miss Moxie EVERYDAY, she was a truly wonderful gal and my heart dog.

2004 National Specialty

Best in Show- Veteran Sweepstakes!