In Memory of Ch. Kerrageen's Hotspur

by Edith Izant
This article first appeared in Kerry Klips, June 1995

Ch. Kerrageen's Hotspur, born October 10, 1986 and died on March 10, 1995, at only eigth years of age, of intestinal tumors. Bred by Sharon Crenshaw, he was sold to Brian and Victoria Percy under a show agreement. Later Judy Hartwell joined the group. A dog of this quality, the pinnacle in physical and personality appeal, comes only every ten or twenty years to a breed. Sharon says that they do have frozen semen. Hotspur broke Ch. Melbee's Chances Are's record as the all-time top-winning Kerry with a total of 36 Best in Shows, 81 Group Firsts, and 7 Specialty Bests in just eighteen months of showing. This is all the more remarkable when you know that Hotspur spent one week of every month and the whole month of December at home with his owners! He was the top Terrier and the number four all-breed show dog in the nation in 1990, and then won the Terrier Group at Westminister in 1991! Only three Kerries have ever done this. Many of his get have earned Championships, and a 1993 litter he produced with Ch. Maygate's Wild Thing made her one of the top-producing dams of 1994, with three members of that litter earning Championships last year!

We should thank all his owners and handler Bill McFadden for giving this beautiful dog his chance--he and they are a credit to our breed. How nice to be reminded that a dog needs some time relaxing at home. This has always been Sharon's plan--she keeps only a few bitches, and all males are sold, a few of them with show and breeding agreements. Ch. Kerrageen's Irish Royalty, a multiple group and Canadian BIS winner and an ancestor of Hotspur's, lived happily at home between shows with his owner, Doris Nordstrom, and earned his Utility Dog degree!

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