Japanese Chin Club of the Carolinas
 April 9, 2010

Several years ago friends had a dream that they would retire together in North Carolina. Then the weekend that Hurricane Katrina came in, the Ryans moved to Snow Camp to our new home. Soon following came the Spencers and then the Bittners. It seemed to be the rumor of the "chin world" that we all lived in a commune of some sort.

As we got to know our area, we showed our Chin. We had talked about starting a club off and on years before, and as we came to know the other Japanese Chin owners and breeders in our area there seemed to be interest in doing just that. In the Spring of 2008 we had our first "meeting" and organized our first Fun Match with an entry of 22. We did our fundraisers, Matches, went to Meet the Breed events with the AKC and got approved and licensed to hold our first point Specialty April 9, 2010.

We have a great group of people and we had a wonderful entry of 44 including Sweeps, a Junior Showmanship entry and the breed entry. We wanted our first Specialty to be "special" so we set out to do just that. Our ring was embellished with hand made cherry blossom trees in each corner of the ring, and a flowered arch was a beautiful site to enter the ring through. Each Japanese Chin was presented on a covered table which displayed an antique obi with lemon and white Japanese Chin playing with a ball on the silk fabric.

The trophy table held our Japanese Chin topiary in the center and scattered on the table was our hand made trophies of beautiful stained glass Japanese Chins in perfect colors of red and white, black and white and lemon and white, each were held up with nicely stained hardwood stands.

Each exhibitor was presented with a hand made beaded show lead and a breed motif magnet as they left the ring, but the highlight of everyone’s delight was the oriental silk purses that were stuffed with donated small dog items as our hospitality bags.

After Winner’s Bitch was awarded we had a break for lunch where we served our friends and exhibitors with a light lunch before beginning the Best of Breed class.

Our illustrious Judge Mrs. Charlotte Patterson and Sweepstakes Judge Ms. Cherie Boice did a wonderful job with their winners. We all had a great time and feel that what we set out to do in making our first show "special" set the bar and brought back feelings of what a Specialty means and we have already got great ideas for our future shows.

Carla Jo Ryan, President JCCoC