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Tumbledown Kennel's foundation nanny. One of the top producing
White German Shepherd hens in the world. She was the kennel alpha
and rarely disputed mistress of the Tumbledown shepherds. She
leaves an indelible stamp on the canine social order of Tumbledown.
She leaves numerous champions and champion pointed progeny. She
also leaves many memories and some delightful stories. Some of
these will appear here. Below, the Candid Crystal.

She started out as a puppy. It is
difficult to remember this because she
always seems to have been 'The Old
Blank'. She made that transition at an
early age and went onward and upward
from there. The great founding spirit
of Tumbledown Kennel, J. P. Spinzer
died on March 3, 1987, during heroic
cancer surgery. No more of that silly
notion "I'll never get another one". So
here is The Old Jenny on March 6,
1987. That is the anniversary of the
fall of the Alamo. Appropriate some
how, because she kept us under siege
ever afterward.

She was quick to put herself in the
driver's seat. Old Max (seen here
at age 3, he was never young
either, and more commonly known
as 'The Old (synonym for
flatulence)') was adopted a couple
of weeks after Her Majesty
arrived. His notion that HE ought
to be the alpha notwithstanding,
she pushed him into the
background right off.

At first she thought of Max as an
object of entertainment and spent a
fair amount of her waking time
tormenting him into near or actual
psychosis. Later on she discovered
new and different applications for
him. About two months after that she
hit upon her true calling in life, to be
the ultimate brood blank. With this
she was content. She is seen here
with son Cane (Tumbledown's Canis
of Hytyme) and daughter La Chisa
(Tumbledown's Kima La Chisa).

When the kids got big enough to leave the
nest by themselves her days got busier. No
more lying down on the job. But puppies were
her destiny. Raising and teaching them were
in her view the ultimate station in life. She
earned the nickname "Old Iron (synonym for
breasts)" by persisting in nursing them until
they were twelve or fourteen weeks old, long
after she was no longer making milk. She
never weaned them. They simply gave up for
lack of success.

"Who? Me?" She loved vacationing at the
in-laws' place in Vermont. There were
mountains to climb, brooks to swim,
barbecues with lots of the unwary to steal
food from (her record, two cheeseburgers
and half a heap of potato chips at one
chomp), wildlife to terrorize, people to
annoy. Here wife, Mary, has just sicced the
Old Blank on a late sleeping (probably hung-
over) brother while she stands by with
loaded camera. He expresses his heartfelt
appreciation for the wake-up call. They
were a willing pair. Mary was willing to put
Crystal up to raising cain (not Cane, although
she also raised him) and Crystal was willing
to do it. They are reunited now and heaven
help Heaven.

The Patented Crystal Show Pose:
Guaranteed to take third place in a
one dog show. Compare the attitude
here to the previous photos. She
considered conformation shows a
bore and an indignity (if she was in
the ring, outside the ring there were
people to annoy and food to steal and
that was OK). In spite of her
excellent conformation and her
attendance at many shows she ended
her career absolutely pointless, in
itself a major accomplishment, from
her point of view. She won every
brood sow competition she ever
entered. Of course, it was her kids
who did the real work for her in those
events.

The above photo reveals her method of losing when handled by those she was
familiar with. With those she was unfamiliar with (therefore those unfamiliar with
her) she employed differen tactics. Suddenly she regained her normally spirited
attitude to put the victim off guard. Stacked along with the other bitches she would
suddenly decide to turn and face the opposite way. What better way to get the
judge's attention? Or she would decide to sit down. She would cheerfully allow
herself to be restacked and then do it again. When the judge came to inspect her
she would display her affection with a big schlurping kiss. Then, when it was time to
move out and run around the ring she might suddenly elect to run around the handler
instead winding the lead around the handler's ankles. With the victim anchored in
place or having done her own freestyle version of the 'Down' command, Old Woman
would stand by doing her unique Crystal Dance to show how eager she was to get
about winning that trophy, something which never EVER happened. She drove
handlers to tears (at least one literally) with her patented style of sabotage. And
that style was by no means confined to the show ring either. Nobody, NOBODY, who
saw much ot that took it to be accidental.