OKC Summer Classic Dog show July 1st

[Aurora5000]

We went Saturday, July 1st to the OKC Summer Classic Dog show to watch the Cairns showing. We went to the show with Pat and Jan who run the "Cairns of Oklahoma Group". When the Cairns came out, Pat said OMG there is Bill McFadden!!!I did not know him and asked who he was. Pat said he was one of the top handlers in the USA. He was the handler for "Mick" the Kerry Blue Terrier that won Best in Show at Westminster in 2003. Mick competed that weekend against 2600 dogs. Today, Bill was handling a Cairn in the ring. His services are not cheap. After the show, we met Bill and visited with him, very nice man.

Bill went over and visited with a lady sitting down watching. Pat said this time " Look who Bill is talking to...Betty Marcum of Ft. Worth!!!." That rang a little bell in my head but that's about it. Bill was handling Betty's Cairn.

Betty Marcum, breeder the most well-know names in Cairn-dom. Kennel name is Cairmar. Breeder of many, many champions. Author of "The New Cairn Terrier". When I heard of the kennel name, I got excited. My wife and I both agreed that we thought that this is where our first Cairn "Sable" came from 17 years ago.

My wife's sister and husband got Sable from a breeder in Ft. Worth but could not remember who. At the time they lived in Plano. With the death of Sable last year we were hunting up his papers to put them all together and ran across the breeders info. My sister-in-law got Sable around a year old and was already named Sable. He was going to be Stud for the Silver Brindle line the breeder had. Well he ended up dropping only one testicle. Betty gave him to the in laws.

Shortly after that they moved to Minnesota and felt Sable would be better here in OKC rather them taking him to Minnesota. We had just lost a Doberman and had a 2 year old Great Dane. Sable joined our family. The two of them became best of friends. The Dane lasted only 4 more years. Big dogs don't seem to last long, so Sable joined us full time in the house. He went everywhere with us and we really miss him.

Back to the Dog show, after the Cairns were finished, we went down and talked to Betty Marcum. I showed her a picture I keep of Sable in my billfold and asked her if that looked familiar. She looked at it for a few seconds and called her husband Joe over. They both looked at it and both got big smiles on their face. I told them the story and when the dog was received and she said " That is SABLE"!! She told her husband, do you remember so and so the mother?.... that litter that had 2 pups? this is the brother of so and so. ( I did not know the names). She said she had always wondered about that pup. I told her we had him for 17 years and he was such a great dog. We told her stories about our life together. She thanked us and told us that it meant so much to her to hear the stories. She still carries the silver brindle line and invited us to visit sometime.

After the show, we went to Toby Keith rest. to eat. Great food.

Thanks for listening

[maggie]

That is a really interesting story, I bet she was really happy to hear about Sable!

[bradl]

What a great, fun story. How sweet to bring Sable 'full circle' as it were - I bet Betty was genuinely thrilled to see him again, if only in a picture. I love that you carry a picture in your wallet. I knew Cairns were special when I asked my wife when we first started considering a dog what kind of dog she had growing up - she immediately produced a picture of her family's Cairn Dusty from her purse.

Bill is a terrific fellow. I've never failed to be impressed by his kindness and professionalism. Here's picture from ten years ago of him showing Haggis. The dog and I have changed a lot over the past ten years but I swear Bill looks exactly the same. If you saw him at a dog show or on TV at Westminster you'd recognize him in a microsecond. Tall, handsome, and decent. I tell you, it's just not fair to the rest of us

[kayharley]

What an enjoyable read...thanks!

[Tracy A.]

First off -

Brad- That is amazing that Haggis has changed that much- He almost looks Wheaten/Red in that photo- I don't even seen any black stripes.... Very neat to see!

Second- I'm glad that this topic came up, because when my Grooming teacher talked about 'Bill' I had no clue who she was talking about.... and I didn't ask. I just assumed that it was a dog show friend of hers... little do I know!

[Binx75075]

Aurora......

Hey, I live in Plano.......... just thought I would chime in & mention this!

[Dawnya]

The Marcum's live a few miles from me (and she works with a friend)

I haven't met them in person, but have talked to them by phone and they are good people!

[Lesley]

Thank you for the post - I found it fascinating - and a great ending to the story. I'm putting a picture of Rusty in my wallet today !