NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
Well, here we are over halfway through January and the evenings are beginning to stay light longer, especially if on the rare occasion it is a sunny day, but it always seems to take longer in the mornings for there to be a difference, although our daughter who lives in the New Forest says she has noticed a slight improvement on her early morning dog walks.
In my Blog for 9th August 2019, I wrote that I had heard from Neil Hood whose rescue Buhund Storm recently took part in a photo shoot, he wrote saying. “The photo shoot was for a promotion of pedigree dogs that have been rescued /rehomed. There was a call on Facebook to upload a photo of your dog with their name and breed, and if successful you would be invited to a photo shoot, with the photo to appear in the KC calendar. We had an e-mail saying Storm was one of the chosen dogs and was invited to the KC building for the shoot. Unfortunately, I could not go due to work so Julian took her. When they arrived, they were taken to where the shoot was to take place and were briefed on what was happening. Julian was asked about Storm, her breed, age and how she came to us. They then went to the studio; all that was wanted was a photo of her sitting down and looking at the camera, and one of her eating (which Julian knew Storm would not mind!). She was hesitant to start and a bit overawed, but got the hang of it in the end, and made friends with a GSD and French Bulldog. We now await the results from the KC.”
Now fast forward to the 2021 KC Calendar and Storm appeared on the front cover. A few days ago, I had an email from a friend of mine who works at the KC and has American Cockers, she said the KC has an internal newsletter each week updating the staff on what is going on and giving updates on KC news articles. That week the news article showed a photo of Storm with the heading ‘Storm is Calendar Cover Girl. A rescue dog from Portsmouth has been chosen as one of the seven tail-wagging stars to feature in the 2021 Kennel Club Breed Rescue Calendar. Storm is a 9-year-old Norwegian Buhund from Hampshire and adopted by Neil and Julian in 2017, joining their Buhund family. Buhunds are a very social and family-oriented breed that find it difficult to cope with kennel life, and Storm’s new owners were familiar with these characteristics and needs. The money raised through the sale of the calendars will enable The Kennel Club Charitable Trust to continue to make a difference for dogs in 2021, by funding a wide variety of work. The Calendar is available at The Kennel Club online shop for £5. The KC press team has already secured a good amount of press publicity for the calendar, thus ensuring the vital work of the breed rescue organisations is highlighted.” The KC staff also saw a copy of the Portsmouth paper that also featured Storm. The paper says much the same as the KC to start and also showed a photograph of her but goes into more detail as to how she went to Neil and Julian. The paper said “that for the first few of her life Storm was looked after by a lady who fell on hard times and could no longer take care of her. Rather than give Storm to a stranger the owner asked the Norwegian Buhund Club Rescue if they could find her a suitable home. Neil explained how the Rescue asked him if he could look after her for a short time until a suitable home could be found, as the breed does not do well in kennels. He said he agreed to take her for a few weeks as I already had two boys. A few weeks turned into 4yrs, so Storm definitely has her forever home as they say”. As well being a lovely story as to how Storm found her for ever home, it is also great publicity for the breed at a time when with everything being in lock down the numerically small breeds could be forgotten. We often hear people saying they did not know the breed came in Black, and Storm is Black, so yes, they most definitely do come in Black!
Stay safe everyone.
Margaret Deuchar margaretdeuchar@gmail.com
The views expressed in Margaret’s Breed Notes are hers and hers alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Norwegian Buhund Club of the UK.