Julie Timbers Kaylee Timbers Debby Rothman
Debby’s Gompa dogs Apso Aficionados
“The journey home is never a direct route.
It is, in fact, always circuitous.
Somewhere along the way we discover
the journey is more significant than the destination.
And that the people we meet along the way
will be the traveling companions of our memories forever.”
From “Up Country” by Nelson De Mille
FFT – past, present and future – is based on, and continues to evolve and revolve around friendships. In 1979 Mary Schroeder and I founded Fleetfire Lhasa Apsos. The name came from an apricot poodle owned by Mary. Andiallen’s Fleetfire. I liked the name; it seemed to fit the pretty red gold Apsos acquired from Jeri Berman Schwartz, via Max Kerfoot. Mary bowed out of the Lhasa Apso breeding program a number of years ago, but continues to be active in the dog world. She breeds French Bulldogs under the Fleetfire banner and is an AKC approved judge of the three varieties of Poodles, Chow Chows, French Bulldogs and, of course, Lhasa Apsos. Additionally, she judges – on a provisional status – Bichon Frises, Bulldogs, Tibetan Spaniels, Tibetan Terriers and Junior Showmanship.
Julie and I met in 1984. A year later our friendship was sealed with a shared bottle of wine in Sioux City, Iowa. The sharing continues, friendship strengthened with each passing year…belief in upcoming puppies, exciting wins, fun times, trails, tribulations and more bottles of wine. Friendship inspires us to persevere, each offering encouragement when the other needs it, each being able to share with the other.
While we’ve bred dogs for years under both our original kennel names – Fleetfire and Timbers’ – and later the combined Fleetfire Timbers’, we got tired of not using really cool names due to the length of our kennel names. In 1999 we started using FFT, representing the fusion of our lineage that was present from the beginning.
Kaylee has been active with the dogs from the time she was three years old. That’s right! Three years old. In 2007 she, too, met the American Lhasa Apso Club’s requirements becoming the youngest Register of Merit Breeder in ALAC’s history.
Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is Silver and the other Gold.
The present and the future encompasses continual growing relationships with people dubbed Apso Aficionadosby Vickie, a fellow Apso Aficionado herself. You will meet some of those people, along with getting to know Debby (and her Gompa dogs), Julie and Kaylee within About Us, as well as through our blog.
