Showsight - March 2022

LINDA SOUZA LIMERICK IRISH WOLFHOUNDS

BREEDER INTERVIEW BY ALLAN REZNIK

Where did you grow up? I was born on the peninsula south of San Francisco in San Mateo, California, in 1948 and grew up in the suburban city of San Bruno, between San Mateo and San Francisco. I was the middle child of five. My father was from Richmond, Virginia, and my mother was from San Diego, California. Did you come from a doggie family? If not, how did the interest in breeding and showing purebred dogs begin? I met my future husband in high school in 1962 at the age of 14. He was 16. We mar- ried after high school graduation in 1967. He was then 20 and I was 18. We will celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary this coming April 23rd. He is my soulmate and a man of integrity and also quite a character, but in a good way. He is also a dog lover but is not interested in attending dog shows. He is my live-in dog sitter when I attend dog shows. We grew together, always sharing the same goals in life. We started out in an apartment in San Bruno and then moved to a duplex in Millbrae, the next town south. The duplex was owned by my husband’s parents and this is where my friendship blossomed with my mother-in-law, Janet Souza. The duplex had a fenced yard and I immediately wanted to get an Old English Sheepdog. I was smitten with the breed from pictures I had seen. Cliff and his mom surprised me with a puppy on my 20th birthday. Janet was a dog lover all her life, but was never allowed to have a dog until she left home. She was raised by her grand- mother in a small house in San Francisco. When she married at 18, one of their wedding gifts was $25 cash and Janet immediately started a family by running out and purchasing a Springer Spaniel puppy. We always got a kick out of that story, but it was actually a sign of things to come. Janet also had a Chihuahua, Poms, and a Miniature Poodle while she was raising her three children. Janet fell in love with AmStaffs in 1968 and purchased a dog and a bitch. This was the same year the Old English came into my life and we were

60 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, MARCH 2022

Powered by