When Seaver Smith arrived at Idlewild Airport to pick up these two litter sisters , he almost put them back on the plane to Oklahoma City. He agrees that an apt description for them that night might be "straggly". On the way back home, via the Connecticut Turnpike, he got into a mammoth traffic jam caused by some drunks crashing into a toll booth. Bodies all over the place. This made his arrival home at about 2:00 AM. Needless to say he was not a happy camper when he arrived. Edith told him it did not matter what the pups looked like. She knew they had the genes to be bred there at Quibbletown. Seaver knew then and we all know now that Edith knew what she was about. Seaver will tell you now that these two bitches were worth ever bit of effort he invested that night. Two of the top sisters in breed history. Famous only from the whelping box, but that is what it is all about for breeders. Evidence again of the acumen of Edith and Seaver Smith. The use of Beau-Kay Heidi and Beau-Kay Chloe is a classic study of great breeders at their best. No software pedigree programs with giant query engines here. Just knowledge, endless study, and the intuitiveness those few great ones possess. They made a grand team. Seaver told me a great story that demonstrates how much study and knowledge Edith possessed. Frankie Glover, while visiting one of the many times she did in her early years in the breed told Edith she had a litter of puppies with "pink" eyerims and lips. Seaver said Edith sat right down there in the kennel and wrote out a five generation pedigree. She then said, "Frankie, you have only one marked dog in the five generations. No wonder you have no pigment." To remember the ancestors for five generations is pretty good, but to know the color of each is phenomenal. Point being, Edith knew these two "straggly" bitches were something they could well use there at Quibbletown.
Why are we doing two bitches without Quibbletown in their name. I will produce the pedigree below and you will see.
Champion Cote de Neige Paon
Champion Cote de Neige Berceuse
Champion Cote de Neige Estaubee
Champion Cote de Neige Guerrier
Quibbletown Chloe of Beau-Kay
Champion Cote de Neige Ariette II
The breeders, Faye and Ray Ballew of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma are an interesting story and part of the Quibbletown History. They contacted Quibbletown looking for their first Puppy. I will quote their own account as told by Faye Ballew, "It was Edith Smith, Quibbletown Kennels, who wrote back to say that if we intended to raise even one litter, to buy the best puppy we could find. She went into detail about the qualities that make a Great Pyrenees good, and described various faults. She explained that what we bred might not be just one litter of puppies, but a link to future generations."(1) Quite prophetic and demonstrates the sense of history that Edith used as a guide from the very beginning. Not only did the Ballew's eventually get a pup from Quibbletown, they got a tremendous Stud. Champion Cote de Neige Berceuse was arranged by Edith Smith for Faye & Ray Ballew. I quote from her own words; "..... . .when Mrs. Smith did locate a two year old male for sale and he was our 'Bunky', CH. COTE DE NEIGE BERCEUSE, a dog with superb movement."(1) She went on to describe the personality and temperament qualities in very loving friendly terms. Seaver tells a cute story about his visit to Oklahoma City to visit Faye Ballew at Bear-Kay. He was enchanted with the dog and said it was one of the friendliest dogs he had ever met. When he got up to leave the dog blocked the door and bared all this teeth, growling all the time. He did not want to allow Seaver to leave. Faye Ballew told Bunky to behave and placed a lead on him. Immediately his whole demeanor changed. Bunky was now quite happy to let Seaver leave and pat him on the head in the process.
When you look at the picture of Champion Cote de Neige Berceuse, who is described as a dog with superb movement, I think most of us would all be happy with such a dog today. Look at the head. You are seeing the old French type "de Soum" from which Edith patterned their whole kennel i.e. Champion Estat d' Argeles. This is borne out by the gene search that identifies the important ancestors of Champion Cote de Neige Berceuse as: Estat d' Argeles-16%, Ibos de Val d'Aure-25.7%, Sultan de Soum-13.6%, and the immortal Toy de Soum-13.8%. There are other "de Soum" ancestors I could quote. It is extraordinary that in 1952 or 1953 you could still get such bloodlines. Bunky's Sire, Champion Cote de Neige Paon won Best of Breed at the 1952 Great Pyrenees Club of America National Speciality under the Basque Judge Louis Murr. Paon was described by Edith Smith in the article she wrote for the International Great Pyrenees Review in 1973 as follows, "Thanks to Marjorie's breeding acumen and superb eye for a dog, we may still see in the show ring today Paon's superb type, .... . ."(2) Certainly Bunky was representative of this observation. We are beginning to see why Seaver made that drive to pick up those "straggly" pups.
Bunky's litter sister is Cote de Neige Ballade. I show her bred one time to Champion Quibbletown Easter Token. Champion Quibbletown Hermia was the get. Champion Quibbletown Hermia was subsequently bred to Champion Bolero and produced a line of beautiful dogs through Quibbletown Regent to Quibbletown Paupette to Canadian Champion Quibbletown Thor to American and Canadian Champion Limberlost Rogue. The get from Limberlost Rogue come back into the United States and are prominent in Starlaxy, VilleVieux, Pyr-Layne, Pyr Haven, Pyrfection, Snowmass, Schnee Bar, Highview, Wyndsong, and many others.
The female pup the Ballew's got from Quibbletown, after a wait, was Quibbletown Chloe of Beau- Kay. So, Bunky went to Beau-Kay where he eventually was bred to Quibbletown Chloe of Beau- Kay. Quibbletown Chloe of Beau-Kay is a litter sister to Quibbletown Titian Beauty we reviewed in installment three. She is a full sister to Champion Quibbletown Easter Token, so represents that "first magic" at Quibbletown. Edith and Seaver always knew what they wanted and fortunately through the Cote de Neige stock they had the tools from which to work. For those of you who have not seen the prior installments, Quibbletown wanted dogs bred to type of Champion Estat d'Argeles. Remember the words of Edith Smith, " Via our Cote de Neige stock we had the type we wanted, since these early dogs were almost all close to the lovely Estat D'Argeles of Basquaerie."
Important ancestral gene contributors for Beau-Kay Heidi and Beau-Kay Chloe are: Champion Ibos du Val d'Aure (20.7%),
Sultan de Soum (17.7%), Cote de Neige Zephire (17.9%), Urdos de Soum (15.2%), Estat d'Argeles (15%), Toy de Soum
(12.8%), Barbet de Soum(12.5%), and other dogs of generally de Soum lineage. Again it is surprising to see these lines still
have such a high influence from those old French ancestors. Clearly, the best France had to offer and imported by Mary
Crane, made possible by her initiative and World War II. I suspect she brought over much of the worthy stock. I have
wondered many times what was left in France and then survived the war to be incorporated into any subsequent breeding
program. The French system of keeping pedigrees will make any such inquiry virtually impossible. Most of the de Soum stock
was influenced by the Great Monsieur Bernard Senac-Lagrange as he was a "collaborator" with the proprietor of de Soum,
Monsieur Cazaux-Moutou in Lourdes.
There were three breedings between Bunky and Quibbletown Chloe of Beau-Kay. Beau-Kay Heidi and Beau-Kay Chloe were from the last breeding, whelped 7/11/59.
Beau-Kay Heidi produced two or three litters. Her most famous offspring, Champion Quibbletown Falstaff, was a foundation dog at Barqueill. Falstaff won the National Speciality of the Great Pyrenees Club of America two times, 1970 and 1971. In 1970 Mary Crane was the National Speciality Judge. All of Beau-Kay Heidi's breedings appear to have been to Champion Quibbletown Impresario.
Beau-Kay Chloe was bred at least two times. One breeding to Champion Quibbletown Impresario produced three offspring of note. From Champion Quibbletown Mysti Maid we see a few generations later American and Canadian Champion Ventisquero Friend of the Devil, Champion Mistry Tecumseh of Catlin, and other dogs who are making a mark now in the Northwest. From Champion Quibbletown Ambassador we see through his grandson, Quibbletown Hammurabi, producing dogs at Cavalier, Charles and Marjorie McConnell, in Seattle that have resulted in Champion Rolling Hills Keep The Faith (Preacher) who won Best of Breed at the 1995 National Speciality of the Great Pyrenees Club of America, just six generations removed. From Champion Quibbletown Duch de Nemours we see through Champion Wildewood's Mountain Mist, Sired by Champion Quibbletown Billy Wink, as a prominent ancestor of Tip'N Chip and Rivergroves. We see such dogs just three and four generations later such as Tip'N Chip Sonny's L'Air and Champion Rivergroves Crusher's Re-Run. The resultant get are very important to contemporary lines of Rivergroves. Champion Quibbletown Duch de Nemours was Best of the Opposite Sex at the 1966 and 1968 National Specialities of the Great Pyrenees Club of America. From Champion Quibbletown Duch de Nemours bred to Champion Quibbletown Merry Maker we see offspring that are very important to Jonricker through Champion Quibbletown Ingrid Valhalla. Important gene contributors to this breeding combination are: Ibos de Val d'Aure-20.2%, Lawrence of Combermere- 15.6%, Estat de Argeles-13%, and Urdos de Soum- 12.5% .
One of the most important breedings at Quibbletown was Beau-Kay Chloe to Champion Lorvaso de la Colina. This combination produced Champion Quibbletown Carlotta we reviewed in the last installment.
Champion Quibbletown Carlotta's litter sister, Quibbletown Co-Coette bred to Lorvaso's son Champion Quibbletown Impresario produced dogs that went to Renefield and subsequently are prominent in Tip'N Chip and many others. This is a good place to drop some names so you can see how important Quibbletown Co-Coette is to some other contemporary bloodlines. Quibbletown Co- Coette is an ancestor of the following dogs: Champion Renefield Miss American Pie, Champion Tip'N Chip's Ice Capades, Champion Wyndsong's Whitney, Champion Tip'N Chip Sonny's Sundance Kid, Champion Rivergrove The Black is Back, Champion Tip'N Chip Sonny's Side Up, Champion Quibbletown Patrician, and many many others.
Lorvaso de la Colina produced many Sons who have had a significant effect on the breed. Those Sons are Champion Quibbletown Impresario and his litter brother Quibbletown Theme Song who incidentally went to Beau-Kay and was used there with much success. Other Sons of Lorvaso are Champion Quibbletown Good Time Charlie, Quibbletown Rennie, Quibbletown Ravel, Punkin's Prince Valiant, Quibbletown Andre, Quibbletown Beau Olard, Quibbletown Discovery, Quibbletown Windsor, and Quibbletown Zephire. Many of the above made major contributions to the breed that we will review much more thoroughly at a later time. I mention this to base my comparison that, arguably, the two top Sons of Lorvaso are Champion Quibbletown Impresario and, Beau-Kay Chloe's son by Lorvaso, Champion Quibbletown Good Time Charlie. These two dogs are of enormous importance to our present day dogs. Too many important dogs to even begin to do any justice in name dropping.
Champion Quibbletown Good Time Charlie is fundamental to the resultant get from Limberlost, VilleVieux, Belle Ami, Starlaxy, Sunmont, Pyr Haven, Wyndsong, Kenneview, Kaskadian, Caspyr, Shandee Hill, Cavalier, Pyr-Haven, Costa Lota, Pyreau, Barqueill, Rivergrove, Cour-le-Duc, Wildwoode, Tip'N Chip, Catlan, Reymaree, Euzkotar, Snowmass, Mistry, Avancer, Snowbear, Aneto, Charbonneau, Neigerie, Four Oaks, Marwell, Jenstin, Maranatha, Whispering Pines, Pyr-Layne, Highview, Pyrfection, Illium, Trottenfox, Pyr Peak, Karolaska, Grand Prix, Mantu, Dunhill, Pyrport, Black Hut, Euskari, Chapter's, Balekif's, Barranca, Basqmier's, Pyrson, Almac, Winterwood, Calilad, Summerhill, Bousy Rogue, Pyrami, Sesom, Tresor, Es-Pyr-It, Pastorelle, Pyrless, Dastekde, Schnee Bar, Pendouglas, Ripples, Vala, Galesway, Pic D'Anie, Weskuwin, Pompier, Elysee, Lazy K, K-Pyr, Suncatcher, Maleen, Shadowrun, Wildon, Montalvo, Reveres, Galen, Jerico, Persephone and others I am sure I left off the list. Twenty one descendants of Good Time Charlie have been Best of Breed at the National Speciality of the Great Pyrenees Club of America. Since his son Champion Quibbletown Jim Dandy was first Best of Breed (Jim Dandy repeated in 1966) in 1964 there have been 31 potential Best of Breeds. Several of his descendants repeated including his son Jim Dandy. Champion Tip'N Chip Sonny's Side Up won three times, 1976, 1977, and 1979. Champion Karolaska Glacier won two times, 1972 and 1973. If I have counted them all that is 25 out of a possible 31 Best of Breeds at Great Pyrenees Club of America National Specialities are descendants of Champion Quibbletown Good Time Charlie. This is from 1964 through 1995. Nineteen of Good Time Charlie's descendants have been Best of the Opposite Sex at National Specialities of the Great Pyrenees Club of America events. Again some dogs repeated. I do not think we will ever see the day when a dogs descendants will comprise over 75% of the winners at National Specialities over a 30 year period. I do not think anyone could descent from the view that these are very significant indicators of the unmatched breeding accomplishments by Edith and Seaver Smith of Quibbletown Kennels. Beau-Kay Chloe certainly deserves due credit for her contribution in this record accomplishment.
Important gene contributors to the get of Lorvaso de la Colina to Beau-Kay Chloe are: Ibos de Val d'Aure-20.5%, Lawrence of Combermere- 18.75%, Estat de Argeles-12.5%.
History now documents that Edith was correct when she told Seaver that it made no difference how straggly these pups appeared. She was sure they could use Beau-Kay Heidi and Beau-Kay Chloe at Quibbletown.
1. International Great Pyrenees Review, Beau-Kay, Suzanne D. Wallace, Volume 5, Number 2, June, 1976, P. 2..
2. International Great Pyrenees Review, Cote de Neige, Edith K. Smith, Massachusetts, U.S.A., Volume 2, Number 3, October, 1973.
3. International Great Pyrenees Review, Volume 5, Number 1, February, 1976, Quibbletown, Edith K. Smith, Page 4.