Jessica

Jessica was our firstborn and has been surprising and challenging us from day one. She was taking Spanish classes at 2 and a half years old and she asked for a violin at the age of four. She was also reading at a fourth grade level at the age of four and skipped kindergarten completely to start 1st grade at the age of 5. She is one of only 125 students accepted this year into the Utica Acadamy of International Studies working toward an International Baccalaureate Diploma. She is maintaining a 3.6 GPA while attending events and working with our dogs.

Jess has played solos with her violin at Oakland University functions and has played with her school orchestra along with Barrage. She enjoys fiddle music and playing selections from Charlie Daniels Band, Mo-Rockin and Barrage in addition to classical violin music.

She became involved with a 4H canine group, K9 & Kompany, when she was ten and asked for a show puppy to begin showing in AKC conformation. It took us a year to find her a nice puppy and that was the beginning of our involvement with AKC dog shows. She shows our Siberians and also handles for others. She has handled Mastiffs, Samoyeds, a Boxer, a German Shephard, Klee Kai and more.

Jess sold candy bars for nearly a year to raise money to pay for a 9 week trip to Europe to show her puppy Kablooey as well as Alenka in FCI shows in 2007. She flew there with our good friend, Alena, and handled our dogs in Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. While she was there she was also able to visit Italy, Germany and Austria, tour ruins, castles, gardens and the salt mines. She had a wonderful time.

She recently auditioned for and earned a partial scholarship to attend the Blue Lake Fine Arts Summer Camp. She will be working hard to raise the rest of her tuition for the camp on her own.

Jess is the kind of girl to find or make a path to her goals no matter what (or who) stands in her way.
We're very proud of her.