In memoriam Ch. Caratoots Convince Chantalle
It is with heavy hearts and sadness we wish to inform you that our veteran bitch Ch. Caratoots Convince Chantalle (Gizmo) is no longer with us. Although our hearts did not want to accept it into the very end, we had to realize that she would be better off to be put to sleep. Although her mind still was clear and joyful, her body was ultimately giving up on her.
Gizmo was born on Kaj’s birthday June 12 in 1993 and has been part of our lives for sixteen and a half years. In comparable dog-years she would today be 122 years old. She was the great grand-daughter of Kaj’s first papillon, Carovers Tootsie, and many of the dogs living with us today are related to her in different generations. As it feels like she has always been with us, where ever we have lived, her absence is of course hard to comprehend. Still every time we call the dogs for feeding or taking them in from the garden, we call out also her name before realizing that she will not come anymore.
We will remember her as a gentle and playful girl, who would never do anything mean or mischievous. She just loved everybody, regardless if they were known friends or strangers. She greatly enjoyed running around the garden playing with and barking at the soccer ball, chewing on pine cones and bones or chasing birds or frogs. Would she see a deer through the garden fence, she would excitingly keep looking for it for days. What we especially keep in our minds is her fascination for our garden fish pond. For hours she would walk around in the pond looking at the gold fish. In the beginning we were not too pleased with her splashing around there, but after some time we did not have the heart to stop her seeing how happy she was. You can imagine her frustration the first winter when the pond froze and she could only look at the fish through the crystal clear layer of ice.
Not only has Gizmo contributed greatly in our breeding, giving birth to top winning offspring like Ch. Caratoots Captain Courageous, Ch. Caratoots Complete Charisma, Ch. Caratoots Count Christopher and Ch. Caratoots Captivating Conqueror. She has also herself done well in the show rings, acquiring championship titles in Sweden and Denmark, becoming Swedish Winner 2005, and placing herself seven consecutive years on the Top 10 Papillon lists. Especially during her veteran years she did very well, becoming BOB Veteran 68 times, BOS Veteran 8 times and BIG/BIS Veteran 28 times. Without checking facts we are sure this must be some kind of record.
Although her hearing deteriorated the last years, she was not hindered by this. Not hearing she instead learned to understand hand signals, and during dark winter times we would blink with the garden flood lights and she would know it was time to come inside.
Although she physically is not with us anymore, she will always stay close to our hearts. Fortunately her soul and spirit will also continue to live on in the offspring we still have around us.