GYPSY

Gypsy is the first pure bred Catahoula we owned.  She is a liver leopard with white trim with two blue eyes born on August27, 2003 at Florida Red Wolf Catahoulas in Ft. Myers, Florida.  We found her through an ad in Boar Hunter magazine.  Gypsy was the first puppy we looked at and fell in love with her instantly.

How did Gypsy get her name?  Gypsy was “the puppy to be named later” for several days.  We knew we wanted to choose a name that fit the origin of the breed but could not decide.  Tim suggested two names: Gypsy and Gumbo.  We both liked Gypsy and decided to go with it.  We added Cajun to Gypsy and she was officially named Florida Red Wolf’s Cajun Gypsy.

What is Gypsy’s favorite toy?  Gypsy likes the big Jolly Balls with the handle or a rope toy through it.  She loves to play tug of war with anything she can grab and especially loves to grab the rope tug toy.  She will play with any other dog that will play and if she can’t find anyone to play she’ll bring the ball over and beg us to play.  If we won’t play she’ll grab the ball with the rope toy and swing the rope around usually slapping herself in the head with it.  Guess that explains why she is so dense.     If Gypsy gets wet forget trying to towel dry her.  She’ll grab the towel before it gets close to her and then it’s game on.

She had her first heat at seven months.  We began looking for a stud dog just before her third heat.  We also had her hips x-rayed and sent them to OFA for a preliminary evaluation.  Gypsy’s hips received a preliminary rating of good.  We contacted BLT Catahoulas and made arrangements to breed Gypsy to Buck’s Kunan, a solid black dog with that was OFA fair.  That breeding produced seven puppies.   We kept three puppies from that litter (Buster, Cyrus and Lefty)

Gypsy turned two in August 2005.  We had her final OFA hip evaluation done then.  Gypsy’s final OFA score was good.  We bred her on her next heat to BLT’s Touche.  That breeding produced a litter of 12 in January, 2006.  We kept one puppy from that litter (Mojo).

Gypsy was bred again to Kunan in February 2007.  While she was still in season Gypsy was accidently bred by BLT’s Jack, another solid black dog.  Gypsy produced a litter of nine puppies in April.  Each puppy was DNA tested through the University of California at Davis to determine parentage.  Every one of the puppies proved to be Jack’s.  We kept one puppy from that litter (Phantom).

Gypsy had a fourth litter in March 2008.  Gypsy was bred by Spot.  This was an accidental line breeding that produced four puppies.  We kept the lone female from this litter (T-Boo, Cajun for little sweetheart).

Gypsy was given an ultrasound about four weeks after she was bred by Spot to determine if she was pregnant and to get an idea how many pups she was carrying.  Although it is impossible to get an exact number of puppies it appeared that Gypsy was loaded with pups.  A few days before she was due Gypsy went into labor.  She still hadn’t delivered a puppy 12 hours later.  Gypsy was induced and delivered two puppies shortly after.  She was induced two more times and delivered three more pups for a total of five.  Four of those pups, three males and a female, survived. 

Because of all the problems Gypsy had with both the pregnancy, it appeared that she absorbed more than half the litter, and the delivery she was spayed after this litter. 

Gypsy is the foundation bitch for T bar S Catahoulas.  She produced four litters of very nice puppies.   Of the puppies that Gypsy has produced there are three in Germany and several others all over the United States.  We added at least one pup from each litter to our kennel.

Gypsy has been shown in conformation several times without placing.  Several of Gypsy’s puppies have been shown in conformation.  All of those have placed with Phantom having his UKC champion and both Phantom and Mojo being very close to their NALC champions.

Gypsy is now retired from showing but she still likes to bay hogs and tree raccoons.  She is also a great watch dog.