Sprite
GCH Banner Nevertheless She Persisted HA3
September 6, 2019 - August 26, 2024
Bred & owned by John and Pam Mandeville
Dog breeders often comment “Be careful what you name a dog. They’ll often live up to…or down to…it” Sooo true!
Sprite is as entertaining a bitch as we’ve had. Really bright, really attentive, really funny and really sweet and 100% sure she is the most important creature in any room she is in. And pretty, too. If she were human, she’d be the most entitled brat imaginable…she is as a dog, too!
As for the persistence…Sprite was scheduled to start her show career as a puppy at the “March Madness Cluster” in March 2020…and we all know what happened next. The pandemic shut down resulted in the shows being cancelled a few days before. It was over a year before she finally got into the ring. Handler Andrew Green took her out for a few shows…some training and experience.
Life intervened and Sprite went on a hiatus. But 2 years after the March Madness Cluster was cancelled, Sprite returned to the ring, winning a 4 point and 5 point major under Terrier specialist judges. Two months later, she did it again, this time outdoors, winning 2 more majors under Terrier specialists. Six shows, 4 majors…Sprite’s persistence paid off!
Sprite completed her GCH in equally compelling fashion, entirely with majors under Terrier specialist judges. She’s retired from the ring and helped raise her little half-brother Wilson. Her own puppies entered the world in February 2024….take a look at them!
In August 2024, Sprite was her normal, active, happy self…keeping Wilson, Keeley and me in line. Late in the month, she came down with what seemed to be a UTI. Within 10 days she was gone…she had been infected with leptospirosis and went into acute kidney failure. I learned then that “lepto” had only recently been included in the “core vaccines” due to its spread throughout the country. It was shattering and I will miss her forever.
