From childhood to the grown "kid" that I am today, I have always been interested in animal husbandry! After my college years at Indiana University, I began married life with a secondary teaching career in American History. My wife and I acquired our first bird, a cockatiel we called "Cocky". I had first heard of cockatiels in the years right after World War II. In the 1960's, cockatiels were still relatively unknown and hard to find which is much different from today, where they are plentiful and commonly known to everyone.

I became fascinated with their physical beauty, their antics, and their possible ability to talk. I began a correspondence with Mrs. E. L. Moon, who developed the first white cockatiels. In those days, there was not much available information on caged birds. Ms. Moon was in her 80's then and in failing health, but her enthusiasm and excitement about these birds was still alive and well. From her, I learned a lot about the cockatiel species.

Well, from that one bird eventually grew a huge aviary housed in a building that my father and I built off of my garage. It housed not only 25 breeding pairs of cockatiels of all the known colors at the time, but also included eventually rosellas, lovebirds, red rump and scarlet chested parakeets, American and English bugerigars, finches, and my pet Orange Cheeked Amazon parrot.

In the early 1970's, I began to compete with my best cockatiels and found I enjoyed the shows and the people who share this hobby. Finally, after experiencing a disease epidemic brought in by some cockatiels imported from Belgium, I made the decision for a number of other reasons to leave birds and try my hand at show dogs.

We had acquired our first Shetland Sheepdog in 1971, as I loved the resemblance in appearance that they have to the full sized Scotch Rough Collies that I was used to on my grandfather's farm. His dogs were trained to whistles and hand signals to work the herds of Hampshire sheep he prized on his farm. But since I felt collies were too large for a town dweller, we went to the Sheltie breed. I acquired a few dogs from show persons and began learning all that was involved in raising and keeping Shelties. Firsthand experience is, of course, a good teacher, but eventually I joined an all-Sheltie Club and two mentors helped me further in acquiring better animals still and in how to show, groom, train, etc. When I retired from teaching in 1998, after thirty years in the field, I thought I was finally ready to go "big time" into the world of dog showing. But my health took a turn for the worse, first one and then the other of my knees had to be replaced with artificial ones. When I realized I could no longer run the show ring and move the animals the correct way to show them properly, I realized I had started this project too late in life and made the decision to give up on my hopes of being an owner-handler.

About this time, I had acquired a couple of "kitchen" canaries, mixed breed or "Hartz" as they are now called in the U.S. I had always liked the song of canaries. I was quite happy with those until one day one of my daughters asked me where she could buy a canary for herself. Instead of going back to where I had gotten mine, I called the President of the local all-cage bird club that I had helped to start back in the early 1980's, and I was given the name of Carol Shepard, who lived nearby. When I called, she told us to come right over! Carol brought four or five males in their individual cages upstairs to her living room for us to hear. The minute they began to sing, I was so taken with the superior sound and singing of these American Singers that I told my daughter that she could have both of my "kitchen" canaries! I bought two pairs from Carol; little did I know at the time that her canaries were of the highest quality in singing ability. Thus began my canary adventure and resulting canary hobby.

Carol and I stayed in touch as she helped steer me through the "bumps" in my first breeding season. In the years that followed, we became good friends. Carol helped me to understand all that is involved in trying to produce high quality singing individuals and I owe her a great deal for all she did for me and for ultimately providing me with the retirement hobby that is just the right fit for my present aging speed.

I might further add to my list, just so you realize how fixated I have been with keeping and raising animals, I once had an array of living things outdoors on our five acre property. Those included seven kinds of ornamental pheasants, three kinds of peacocks, guinea hens, a small flock of wild turkeys, a small barn full of meat-producing rabbits, and a small flock of brown egg laying chickens. It makes me now very tired to think of the work that was involved then in keeping and maintaining eall of those living things in good health, as well as raising three children of my own and teaching anywhere from 150-200 8th grade school children. But, maintaining all of the different species of living things over the years has given me a lot of firsthand knowledge and an understanding of what's involved in keeping different living things.

Now it is just my wife and I, a smaller home and, of course, the canaries. My life is a lot simpler now, but very full with three grandchildren and another soon to arrive, a retired wife at home, a large vegetable garden in the summer, and a wonderful canary hobby that keeps me very busy, challenged, on my feet, and happy twelve months of each year.

Presently, I belong to the Northern Ohio American Singer Canary Club (Chapter 32) where I have served in the past as the club's treasurer and secretary and this 2008 year I am serving as its president. I am also a member of each of the following local American Singer Canary Clubs: DRAGON (Chapter 22) of Livonia, Michigan; Chapter 6 of Chicago, Illinois; and the newly founded Midwestern American Singer Canary Club. By belonging to these clubs I can mingle with other people who also enjoy what I like so much. Of course, I as well belong to the American Singer Club of the United States; this is the national parent club.