This is my journal, my life with my dogs from the beginning...My hopes, my dreams, my fears and my faith...my achievements, my failures, my losses and myself open and exposed ...so read on and know me a little better
Also as a special note, my maiden name is Ann Simpson and my married name was Ann Huffmaster... as I believe it appears both ways on this site :) but I had been breeding Danes for several years before meeting my husband so many records and older web pages will still have my maiden name :)
In the beginning...
My whole life I have admired the regal Danes, there size coupled
with there temperament made a lasting impression on me. I had always hoped to own one, but I was young and my family
all ready had eight other dogs. I longed for a new puppy, as my long time companion, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier,
was 13 and starting to have problems. I wanted a Great Dane, but it was not to be, as we simply did not have the
room, and we had just adopted another puppy for my brother. So I bought my first puppy, a beautiful cream Pomeranian,
I named Fizzy.
The start of a dream...
Still, I secretly yearned for a Great Dane. In the spring of 2004 I met a man who shared my passion for Danes, and supported my dreams of becoming a great Dane breeder, which allowed me to fully immerse myself in finding my first 3 perfect Great Danes. After much research and time had passed, we picked up our first Great Dane from the airport and Jake was the perfect puppy, he learned quick, and he tried so hard to never do anything wrong that he made it easy to want another puppy. So a few months later we began looking for our first female. Jayda Rain, came to us out of luck. She had already had a deposit put down on her, and was going to a show home in Texas, but as luck would have it, the lady backed out, and I brought Jayda home from the airport the next morning. The kids had my complete attention as I stayed at home during the day, and I wanted nothing more than to have a house hold full of romping Danes. Thus, Gypsy joined our family six months later. She is my pride and joy, all the way from Medium Danes in Poland, with all championship lines, she is the foundation of my vision.
In the Winter of 2007 I split with my, now, ex-fiance and while that relationship was riddled with heart ache and ended with heart ache, my dogs and I only grew stronger together. We all moved to the country on a 50 Acre farm, with horses, cats, ferrets, fish, and we are hoping to add chickens and cows soon. The dogs loved it and now we all could stretch our legs a Little. Their new favorite farm activity is to run along side the 4-wheeler and go swimming in the pond! In the spring of 2008 my newest little girl Night Magic's Music of the Nile (Niah) joined my family, it was love at first sight. My first little girl that was from my very own breeding's, I was needless to say a very proud mother indeed.
An expanding family... July 2009:
As Niah grew she far exceeded all of my expectations, reaching 36" by one year and 150lb. She was tall, and regal, with a chiseled wide head and perfect lines, and she was super affectionate and looked like the most beautiful female Dane I had ever seen...so now I had to find a male to match, a tall order considering she was just about as perfect as they came. My hunt for my next male had been ongoing for the past 3 years, and took into consideration the lines I already had and what I wanted to accomplish in the future through my breeding program and finally I found Hamms Danes out of Canada. I imported Xander who with Niah will have a distant line breeding through High Resolution, the highest pointed Dane in Europe, which I needed because Niah is an out-cross of American and European lines so to keep the type of my pups I needed a strong influence through my next male. Xander is outstanding and worth every penny paid if not more! His temperament is by far the mellowest I have ever encountered he is sure of himself but not dominate. He is low-key but playful and like the rest he is very loyal and is always by my side. Together I can only imagine what outstanding pups they will produce. Along with my newest 4 legged addition in the spring of 09, I also got married! Shortly after I found out that we would be welcoming our first 2 legged baby into our family, we were ecstatic, and as I grew bigger I came to respect my girls sooo much more. Although they did already receive daily massages and plenty of x-tra kisses and snuggles during their pregnancy time to help their added emotional and physical state. I quickly found out that I needed all this as well! And my happiness for my growing family could not have been any greater.
A Dark Night 2011-2012
2011 started it off all wrong....We had our first no take with Niah followed by an all girl litter when we had tons of male deposits... then true disaster struck with gestational Parvo in Queenie's litter, brought to us by a loving puppy owner just coming to pick up their new puppy.... The night had begun, We lost 3 puppies at 10 days old, our first ever puppies to die after birth.... and when we discovered it was Parvo and I had a litter of new born babies as well as Queenie's litter, I could not have been more devastated or more careful, through diligence we did not lose anymore puppies, we irradicated it from our puppy room and yard (the only places they were allowed) with excessive amounts of diluted bleach solutions. We treated, waited, treated again, waited and treated a third time, spraying all walls, and soaking the yards and praying for our next litter which was with Niah in the spring of 2012... while she took, she miscarried one which caused the death of all but 4 puppies... but they were healthy and no signs of Parvo at any time during the litter. We thought the night had ended, but it is always darkest just before dawn.... and then the true challenges begun... Leo was late maturing and we missed a breeding between him and Prada, and then Queenie had a false pregnancy, put on 60lb of nothing but empty water sacks... by now I am more devastated than disappointed.... all of my wonderful families who are patiently awaiting the arrival of their new baby and I lack the puppies.... although that is also beginning to take its toll as this is our business and what puts food on our table as well as my passion and hobby and we were out of money, with nothing but time before our next litter... time and prayers... which were not answered.... the week after discovering Queenie's false pregnancy, we lost Sheba to a head injury suffered to her when she fell against the wall after being knocked over by another dog... she died at our feet in seconds.... I could not cope with this for some-time.... I missed her dearly every time I noticed how quiet it was without her.... My faith began to be challenged. How could all of this keep happening to me? I try my hardest to be my best, to do my best, to be someone who is worthy of being looked up to.... but all I was getting back was pain and disappointment... I stumbled on.... locking onto Zelda and her pregnancy putting all of my faith into her... She got bigger, I was so excited... then the time came and disaster strikes again, but I feel that I am prepared and I rush her to the vet for an emergency C-section... all seems to go well and I have a beautiful litter of 8 healthy puppies... I can relax and enjoy them, the night is over.... day two is when I relies that it was not over, the morning sun had not broken through the night and all but one of my precious babies had fallen ill, nothing could be done and nothing was found but ecoli in the lungs.... how it got there is up for debate despite every one of them being autopsied, but as 7 of the 8 puppies had fluid in their lungs and 7 of the 8 puppies were tubed and it just so happened that 7 of the 8 puppies became sick and they are born in a sterile environment, we suspect that the tubing equipment was contaminated.... We lost all but two and one would have permanent damage. The night was at its darkest hour.... What I went through, caring for and losing them took away something from me that I will never get back again, I lost hope several times, and had it not been for my wonderful puppy people giving me encouragement I do not think I could have gotten through this, so to the lots of you reading this now.... from the bottom of my heart- thank you!!! You will never have any idea how much you have help me and may your prayers be answered in your time of need... I felt each loss as a loss of part of me, each gasp, each breath, each death took a toll too high... and my faith was shaken to its core. I went days just crying and devoting myself to the baby still alive.... But then I remembered something, something that gave me reason to go on... that all of the people closest to Jesus were challenged in ways they did not deserve, to prove their love of God was unconditional and unshakable even in the most horrendous of situations... you MUST have faith, even in the night, or especially in the night or we fail... and I would not fail, not right before dawn, not anytime... because God is with me even though he is challenging me and I see his miracles despite the night... What I did not say before is that in acquiring Queenie, our first ever blue harlequin, I was fulfilling a long time dream of establishing a nice blue harl line here in the states and Queenie was Perfect for the job...Great size, Great health, Great temperament and she gave us a Great puppy in Harley, our first ever Night Magic Danes Blue Harlequin and that in Niah's litter a boy was born alive almost 2 days after her labor had stopped and we did save one precious girl from Zelda, all are miracles were worth their weight in gold and all are telling me to hold on because the night WILL end and the morning sun will shine ever so much more brightly for having survived the blackness.....
The cause of the deaths ....
by the winter of 2012 after much re-search, with many vets, and many leads and many more dead ends.... we had finally discovered the true reason for the puppies deaths in Zelda's litter.... it was that the puppies died from the Ecoli bacteria because they were not protected by the mothers anti-bodies provided to them by the mothers colostrum and because she had not produced any of the life-saving colostrum, which would have protected them from the commonly ingested ecoli bacteria, they all passeg, it is still a miracle that the one girl survived ....though she was almost entirely blinded from the sickness, she is otherwise now a vibrant health big adult living life to its fullest with her special needs home ... The cause of this, we found, is most common after C-section litters when the female has produced large amounts of milk early on in her cycle and then loses most of it to leakage before the birth of the litter, also most common in first time mom's..... Which is exactly what happened with Zelda... her milk had dried up and the C-section tricked her body into not producing any more colostrum and just went strait to after birth milk.... This can be prevented with average bovine (cow) colostrum which can be bought off the internet in powder form and should be fed to the puppies several times a day for the first 3 days... We now keep it on hand..... and will feed it to any litter where the mother does or does not have full bags of milk at the time of birth... We also decided to dis-continue Zelda's line and I am focusing on keeping puppies from mothers that have easy, un-complicated natural births....
A New Day
The spring of 2013 sprang forth with new life and vibrant colors full of hope and promise ....literally haha :) Sterling had her first litter with Leo and to my great surprise ....and delight, I had my very first blue fawn puppies! at first I thought that something was wrong with it and it had lost its color but it did not take till I got it out of the sack to know.... it was a blue fawn :) both parents were 10 gen color pure... but it did not matter, and I was not sad... they were beautiful like little panda bears with blue tips and a fawn body.... I also called them my 'blonds' :) and as they grew one of the girls was the nicest pup of the litter, as tall as the tallest boys, with the best head and conformation, and even the best most laid back, sweet personality.... it was clear... she was the pick puppy ... and she was a blue fawn... even her color was perfectly clear with no bleed through or shading just a true golden, like a lioness..... and Nala became my first blue fawn girl ..... at first I though just to breed her to a genetic color pure male.... like Xander, and she would have all blue puppies... but her color was amazing and within six months Ranger was born, right at a time that a stud puppy fell through for me... He was perfect and he was a fawn Harl, half Euro from World Ch. lines and carrying for blue!!!! I felt like the universe was with me haha and that he was meant to be :)....
over the next year not only did we add Nala but also her full sister from sterling's next and last litter... "Lila" is a pointed sable blue fawn!!! her coat is mixed blue and fawn hairs giving her a lavender look and she is pointed with both blue and fawn!! WOW! talk about the universe giving me color! haha I also came across Rosie and Ruby two 100% European blue harlequin girls out of the Int. Champion Hannibal Lector.... and they are still exceeding all of my expectations... It is funny how things work.... I bred blues for many, many years and nothing more... but I was always looking for my next step.... and then it all happened so fast it was like a roller coaster...or jumping off a ledge and hoping the water was deep enough...praying you made the right choice.... and then the water overcomes you and you are flung to the bottom.....but you never hit, instead you come bursting up from the deep to explode into the air and suck in a deep gratifying breath of air and you are so full of exhilaration and life...that nothing could be better.... as, not only did I make it through some very challenging and frightening obstacles, but I came out with more knowledge, more confidence and I now, I not only had my dream color, but also a new color that blew my socks off!.... and I was not expecting it at all! and then, of course, the feeling that I get from my truly amazing puppy owners..... it amazes me everyday how truly luckily I am in that area, so many have become true life long friends, some are as close as true family and so many, many more are very good friends and to continue to keep me up-dated through out my puppies lives.... and to see my puppies grow and to see how they change lives and how loved they are, how much joy they bring.... well for me, that is what it is all about .... and for all of this, I feel so very blessed, and humbled ....
Entry: Jan 8th 2018...
Full Steam Ahead!!!
Wow what a few years, since my last entry .... Where to begin...
The birth of 2016 was like many births, cresting with pain and anticipation and worry.... My marriage had long ago crumbled beneath my feet... and like with all fading memories, this too was clutched tightly to me, for the fear of the un-known often is and this was no different... but eventually with nothing but dust and memories I had to let it go before the toxicity of it polluted the young hearts and minds of my children ....
Danes, and Divorce...it was a staunch new reality, and I quivered at the prospect but still charged ahead... with pressing questions like HOW could I possibly manage 2 kids and school schedules and homework and dinner on top of all that the Night Magic Danes require of me... I was terrified... but much to my surprise ... other that a few early hiccups ... I excelled, not only did I pull ahead with my own personal growth and advance my program I also started back in collage for Biology... and we took care of each other the pack and the people... all the doggy problem makers... STOPPED MAKING PROBLEMS!!! they all calmed down and were better behaved than ever before... they also stopped missing for the most part and we had beautiful healthy litter after litter ... somehow THEY saved me again... and I pored myself into them.... as I do time and time again... they are my constants through a turbulent life ... With all of the new babies on the horizon and the Night Magic Program thriving, the house had to grow again... we added on 6 new bedrooms, each 8x12 with beds and each with its own potty yard for when they can't be out and about :) Throwing myself into this massive project was just what I needed to take my mind off of the other happenings of my life... and 2016 slipped by at a rapid pace... and brought in 2017 with all of the glory and amazement of a blind man seeing for the first time. I was free... My dogs and my kids and me... We were all I needed in life and I was happier that I could say... and that spring I did fall in love again... and you know what ... It is even more amazing when you have a lifetime of confidence behind you. By the fall of 2017 I had my very first Tan Point Harlequins and to top it off they carried chocolate, and both mom and dad was from my breeding program!!! I have always kept a female line but this was a first for my own male line!! EEKKK so excited!!! And India *Night Magics Indian Ink joined our pack...