Finally - Calgary Zoo

I just love going to the Zoo and here in Tasmania we really don't have much in the way of zoos with exotic animals. So it goes without saying that I simply HAD to visit the Calgary Zoo and it was well worth the effort. It is a beautiful zoo crisscrossing across the river and the display areas were outstanding. So, camera in hand, Kerri and I spent the last day visiting the zoo!

More Images from Alberta

The flat lands in Alberta have very good oil reserves so from time to time you will see and oil pump as seen here on the right. Whilst in Alberta, friends of mine took me to a fabulous place

called Waterton which was not far from the US border. Here I saw my first wild bear!

Unfortunately he was too far away to get any good shots of him but I had to at least

demonstrate that I actually SAW a wild bear!!

I also saw a moose cow idly chewing away at the water weeds in a pond. And I also saw a herd of Bison! The bulls are awesome looking creatures and quite scary. People have a healthy respect for them. At Waterton the deer were very tame and walked freely around the township.

Alberta - Canada

In Calgary I caught up with a girlfriend who is a keen photographer, like me! She was instrumental in taking me to photogenic areas such as the Rockies, the Zoo and of course the many pet shops in and around Calgary. She, like Laura of Solace Kennels, fully understood my need to collect dog toys :-)

Most of these images were taken in and around Banff

And on to Seattle - WA

I went to visit Solace Kennels. Solace have state-of-the-art facilities carefully designed to enable efficient and safe management of whelping bitches, developing puppies and growing dogs. My favourite subject was Asia - she is very photogenic! You can find her in the 3rd and 5th photos.

At the top of the page is the majestic Zeke - one of Solace's stud dogs. The second image is of a young smooth bitch - a lovely mover too.

Whilst there, Laura very kindly ferried me around to various pet shops so that I could stock up on dog toys not normally found in Australia. In fact, I stocked up on that many I had to pack them separately given the excess weight of my suitcase! I think it was well worth it though!!

The line-up of Shilohs in front of the Willards building.

Winners and Grinners!! The Breed Founder with Zak and his lovely dog Leo. Below with Jessica Strauss and the breed founder's daughter.

More Homecoming Images

At the top (and second from the top) of the page is Ursa a very beautiful moving bitch. She is regarded as a smooth Shiloh. Then there is Asher who is a young plush Shiloh and to the right is the lovely Ander, also a plush coated Shiloh.

Homecoming - Buffalo NY

Sorry, it has taken so long to get this together but I had over 1500 photos to process and it was so hard to hit the delete button!! Anyway, I have come up with some nice photos of the trip. So here's the story of my journey.

I arrived in Buffalo (New York State) very late on Thursday night and unfortunately missed out on the genetics seminar being held at Willards which was where

Homecoming was being held. For those that don't know, Homecoming is the annual get-together of ISSR registered Shilohs. It goes for about four days and includes meetings, seminars and of course the shows, one being the ISSR National Shiloh Show. This is a great opportunity to see Shilohs of all ages and it also gives one a snapshot of how the breed is progressing.

So the next three days were a blur of Shilohs and Shiloh people. It was wonderful to meet those people I had been chatting with on the forums and it was also a fabulous opportunity for me to see a variety of different Shilohs. I shared a hotel with Jessica Strauss (Strausshaus Shilohs in WA) her sister and two lovely Shiloh puppies who were to be subjects for a Litter Evaluation exercise. See the photos to the right. Also with our group was Kylie, the only other Australian but she had come from the UK where she was working and studying. I had not 'met' any of these people and it was an exciting and fun time!!