NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
This week I sadly write about the passing of another club member and breeder of Buhunds in the eighties, Evan Stone. I did not know Evan as I only came into the Breed in 1992. Recently though I saw a post on Sue Bowe’s FB page saying he had died. I contacted Sue and she said although he had been living in New Zealand, one of his daughters lived near her, Sue kindly put her in touch with me, and below is the obituary for Evan written by his daughter Keri Cronin -:
“It is with a real heavy heart that I announce my father; a previous breeder and friend of Buhunds, Evan Stone passed away peacefully on 25th January 2021 at the age of 69yrs of age. He fought a short and torrid battle with bladder cancer back in his home country of New Zealand.
He immigrated to the UK from New Zealand in the mid 1970’s to start his British racing engineering career. He worked in F1, F3, Rallying, Touring and 24hr racing amongst others. Dad had a real passion for cars and animals, in the mid-80s we had our very first Buhund, Adoram Princess (Mitzi)and started showing. After a couple of years Dad decided to start breeding under the Yeleka name. Adoram Princess had two litters, the first being by Rikarlo Orion (11/01/1988) from this litter came Yeleka Ygerna who was Best Opposite Sex Puppy in 1988 with 3BP awards and 2RCCs, the second litter was with Wolfen Culture Club (10/10/1989), from this litter came Ch Yeleka Elfwyn. There will always be fond memories of travelling the dog show circuit, and I know Dad had kept some contact with some of the faces of that time.
RIP Evan (Dad) sadly missed by many. There will be a memorial service at a time when we can and therefore still to be confirmed. In New Zealand there was a Celebration of his very full life on 2nd February” Thanks very much Keri, condolences to all your family.
Sue Avery also has memories of Evan as they used to go to shows together, she said ‘they always s had a good laugh and she had been in touch with him in the last year in New Zealand, where he lived with his sister and other daughter. In Buhunds she said he had the sister to her Adoram Paddinton Bear as did Lal Knights (Imtrix), so we all had fun in the early days of our show career.’ Sue Bowe owned Elwyn, she was the Top winning Buhund in 1992 and Anne Smith owned Yeleka Embla. Sadly, at that time Hereditary Cataracts had just been found in the breed, and in the second litter when they were tested only 2 were clear. Evan was so upset he never bred another litter.
Back in those days’ Dr Bedford said no dog with HC should be bred from, and for years it is has been in our code of ethics that all breeding stock must be eye tested within the previous 12months of a dog being mated, but sadly HC will still occasionally appear. It of course does not cause blindness but if we bred from dogs that have HC it might lead to something more serious. One day we will hopefully have a DNA test for it, the AHT was working on finding a test when sadly they closed last year.
I recently received an e-mail from Dr Sarah Stonton BVM&S MRCVS or as we know her as Sarah with Jack and Loxy. Sarah wrote that “she works for a Veterinary Group in Peterborough at their main hospital practice, the premises of which is leased from a landlord, the previous practice owner. Recently an article popped up in the local evening paper not only stating that planning permission was being sought to redevelop the site to flats, but also quoting that the practice was closing as it had not been doing well. At work we received a large number of distressed calls from clients. Our head office had already been looking into new premises to convert and transfer the hospital to, close to the original site. In a response to the article and to make the plan going forward clear to our customers, I was asked to have a photo taken with one of my dogs having worked for the Group for the majority of my career since 1991.As a result Jack appeared sitting on a consult table with me hiding, thankfully as requested, in full PPE”. I hope Sarah that a suitable premise is found for you all soon.
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.