I SAW HER FROM AFAR at a Flyball tournament and my first thought was “there is no way she’s a Catahoula”.  She was the smallest, skinniest, sickliest puppy I had ever seen.  She has just been rescued at 2 months of age.  She was the runt of the litter and had been too small to push her way forward through the other puppies to get food or water.  She was saved from imminent death by a Fellow Flyballer.  When I was first offered her, I refused.  The second time I saw her, at another Flyball tournament, she was in a little better shape but still weighed only 5 lbs.  She had been with her Rescue Mom for 1 month and under constant vet care.  I carefully introduced Boris to her and decided to adopt her.  Her Rescue Mom kept her another week to complete her vet care--then a friend and I drove to pick her up during the final buildup stages of a Hurricane. 

Bull”Twinkle” or “Twinkle” for short, was immediately enrolled in a Puppy class to work on socialization skills.  She was the second smallest puppy in the class weighing in at just 6 lbs at the age of 3 months.  Within 2 weeks of welcoming Twinkle into our family, my husband had told me “how well she fit into our family”.  She and Boris quickly bonded and played Catahoula games together including tug-of-war with anything they could find.   Boris became much more active with the addition of Twinkle and Twinkle became fit and strong.  We quickly saw that she was incredibly fast as she ran through the yard after Boris, then finally caught him as she grew, then passed him.  She has grown into a very intense, strong, sleek, athletic, fit Catahoula with cracked glass eyes in the palest blue and caramel colors.

As a young puppy, Twinkle attended all of Boris’ Flyball tournaments  to absorb the atmosphere and to learn how to cope with there being so many dogs in the tournament crating area.  I started slowly training her at home with short jumps placed in several doorways in our house.  She quickly understood that she always had to jump over every jump that was in her way.  Within 6 months of coming to her forever home, she was invited to begin official Flyball classes with the team. 

In September 2005, she entered her first North American Flyball Association (NAFA) and did well earning her Flyball Dog (FD) title.  In November 2005, she entered her first United Flyball League International (UFLI) Tournament as a single racer and as part of the Dependable Paws Team.  She was amazingly focused on her job to “get the ball and bring it back to Momma” and completely ignored the 3 other new dogs who crossed over into her lane to “look at her pretty eyes”.  She took home her first two UFLI titles Top Flight (TF) and Top Flight I (TF-1).  She has also been named by UFLI as the “2005 TOP DOG IN BREED” for Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dogs. 

TITLES AND AWARDS:

Bull "Twinkle", NAFA Titles—FD, FDX, FDCh, FDCh-S, FDCh-G, FM, FMX

Bull "Twinkle", NAFA #5 Louisiana Catahoula (Lifetime Points Earned)

Bull “Twinkle”, U-FLI Titles—Top Flight, TF-I, TF-II, TF-III, Top Flight Executive

Bull "Twinkle", U-FLI 2005 Top Dog in Breed La Catahoula Leopard Dog

Bull "Twinkle", U-FLI 2006 Top Dog in Breed La Catahoula Leopard Dog

Bull "Twinkle", U-FLI #2 La Catahoula Leopard Dog (Lifetime Points Earned)