News

Colleen Ellis has done a portrait of Steppin’wolf’s Tawny Emperor, “Connor” owned by Stanley and Margaret Graham in Jackson, MS. This very special limited edition print is being sold  to raise funds for the US Irish Wolfhound Foundation and the money will be donated through Colleen in memory of our beloved Jonette Jones. If you’d like to donate some money and get a nice piece of Irish Wolfhound art at the same time please give it a thought.

You can order your print online through the Shop Window on Colleen’s site, Fine Art Pastels by Colleen.

A Photo slide show of Jonette’s life created for her memorial celebration:

A Life Well Lived… from Dearil Jackson on Vimeo.

A Celebration of the life of Jonette Jones will be held this Saturday December 4th at the Church On the Rock Texarkana, TX. Jonette expressed wishes not to have funneral, but rather a celebration in her honor. We want to honor those wishes and celebrate the joy and laughter she has brought into our lives over the years. This celebration will an open house from 11:00 a.m. through 3:00 p.m. so those able to come may come at a time of their convience.

Some snacks and a pink cake will be provided. If you would like to bring something, please feel free to do so. A slide show showcasing photos of Jonette’s life will run during the celebration.

We realize many of you are far away an will not be able to make it, but wished to share with you our intents to celebrate the wonderful person she was.

Directions:

Take I-30 into Texarkana, Texas.

From Texarkana, AR, Westbound:
Take the Summerhill exit. Turn left onto Summerhill Road and go over the interstate. Turn left onto Mall Drive and the Church will be ahead on right.

From Dallas, Eastbound:
Take the Summerhill exit. Continue straight onto Mall Drive, crossing over Summerhill Road. The Church will be just ahead on right

Jonette Jones, dearly beloved sister, aunt, breeder, mentor, and friend has passed on. She left this life surrounded by some of the people she loved and who loved her the most and we believe she was greeted on the other side by the hounds, people and cats who have gone on before her. We can not even begin to explain the hole this has left in our hearts.

Jonette has always expressed her wish for when she passed was that no service be held or flowers sent. We do think, however,  she would approve of making a donation to The Irish Wolfhound Foundation in her honor. The knowledge gained from breed specific studies is indispensable in the health of our hounds and what a better way to honor her memory than to help the people striving to improve and extend the life of the dogs that she so loved.

When Jonette became critically ill, Dearil set up a Caring Bridge page to help keep everyone updated. This page can be found at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jonettejones.  Donna and Dearil posted updates about her condition those last few days. Many, many people have posted on the guestbook with support, positive thoughts, prayers, and loving words to which we are extremely thankful. I’d like to share part of one post from Donna here:

“I want to spend my time here writing about Jonette, her life, her friends and the love she (and I both) have received from our world of dog friends.

Some of the people reading this journal are my personal friends, co-workers, and supporters.  Some are Jonette’s, but I need to let all of you know what a blessing you have been to me and to Jonette.  I have told Jonette of your prayers and words of kindness.  Destiny and I have read your entries in the guestbook to her and to ourselves.  Thank you all for this support and for your wonderful, loving words.  They mean so much to our family.

I know that many of you are Jonette’s friends through the virtual world of computers.  Some we have met in person over the years, some we have not.  I know I will struggle to maintain Jonette’s level of communication with you all in the future, but please know that I appreciate each and everyone of you.  For the joy you brought Jonette, for the lively discussions, and even the heated debates, I thank you.

Please know that Steppin’wolf Irish Wolfhounds will go on.  Our whole family shares a love for these dogs. Even though Jonette may be the face of Steppin’wolf in the virtual world the rest of us will continue the Steppin’wolf legacy in the day to day world for a long time to come.

I believe God places each and everyone of us on this earth to live a life of purpose.  Jonette has lived her life with passion and purpose.  Passion for her dogs, cats, and birds.  For food, friends, family, and hospitality.  She loved to share the good things in life with everyone.  Her motto was, “All are welcome here!”.  The ones of you who have visited our home, Jonette’s job, or joined us over a meal some other place, you know she possessed the gift of hospitality.  Sadly, I do not possess this gift in the same abundance as my sister, but I will do my best to continue to make the world around us to feel welcome and important.  Just as Jonette would hope.  She has taught me many lessons over the years, but this was the most important one.  Her gift to the world.

We love you all, near or far, in person or over a computer, you have toughed our lives.  For this I thank you,

Donna Yeldell
Jonette’s sister, friend, co-breeder, co-owner, and fellow dreamer.”

When writing posts on here and creating this site, I have not generally put my face or name out there. However, Jonette has enriched my life in so many ways and brought much joy to me personally that I would like to say a little from my heart. I have had the pleasure of her friendship for just over six years now when my husband Jesse and I met her and the rest of the gang at a dog show while trying to narrow our search for the best breed for us. She invited us to Hope to visit her and her hounds and we fell in love, not just with the hounds but the people who loved them. Weekend visits became more and more frequent and even turned into moving in a few times. Quickly Hope became one of our homes, and Steppin’wolf truly became our family. Jonette was the heart of the Steppin’wolf family. She had a gift with people and one of the best lessons she taught me was that sometimes you can choose your family. We chose her and have been all the richer for it.

I feel so blessed to have been able to be here with her in the end. She was a wonderful friend and mentor, and while I don’t have a family label for her such as mom, aunt, or sister, she was indeed family. I know we all wish for more time with her and to hear her laugh just one more time, but I am incredible thankful for the time I was able to have with her.

Amber D. Holmes

***UPDATE 10/27/2010: Connor was found. We are sad to report he has passed on to Rainbow Bridge. Keep Teresa and her family in your thoughts/prayers, ring bells, light candles, raise your singing voices, or however you pay honor to his name and the love he brought to his family. Thank you everyone for passing the word and doing all you could do.**

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Teresa Kerney, new to the Steppin’wolf family, sent us some sad news. Her wolfhound Connor has been missing since
yesterday morning in the Cleveland, MO area. Someone opened her gate and he escaped. They are looking everywhere. We are asking everyone to please pass the word and post wherever appropriate so the word can get out. Notices have already been posted on: Craig’s list, the K-9 Amber alert list, the IWCA lost page, the IWCA fb group, the IWCA Yahoo! group, and a few other facebook Irish Wolfhound groups and many people are posting his information as their status. Local t.v. stations and radio stations are being contacted as well as local authorities, shelters, vet clinics, and postal workers. Flyers have been made and are being posted. A small search party is out trying to locate him. If you know any friends in the area, please pass this along wolfhound people or not. Thank you for any and all help!

Connor’s Information:

Connor is a 10 months old intact male Irish Wolfhound. He is cream w/ dark ears, about 32-33″ and 125 lbs. He is
friendly but leary of strangers and will not likely come to one. He was wearing a black collar with a white design on it. Unfortunately, it’s a brand new collar and his tags were not yet put on it!

A sighting was reported 267th and State Line Road on the evening of 10-25.

Puppy number 9 just arrived. She’s struggling a bit, but we’re cautiously optimistic. Cross your fingers, ring your bells, light your candles. Hoping for the best!

We’re not sure if we’re done, but we’re at 8 healthy pups right now, and Mom is doing extremely well. More photos have been added to the puppies new photo album!

We’re now up to 5 puppies! Rosie whelped another wheaten male and a dark female. All doing well. We’re very excited.

Rosie’s puppies, sired by Brogan (CH Steppin’wolf’s Quantum Leap x Ch. Rosaleen Dhu, RN), have started arriving today. So far we have three thriving puppies, a brindle girl, a wheaten male, and a dark brindle male. Look for more updates soon!

Check the photo section to see some pictures of these cuties.

Fun Match:

Four of the puppies from the French litter were entered in their first fun match on Friday June 23. Steppin’wolf puppies in attendance were Rhythm handled by co-owner Amber Holmes, Twister handled by Ashley Emory, VeVe handled by co-owner Destiny Burge, and Harriet handled by co-owner Janie Blackburn. The puppies are now nearing 5 months old and were entered in the 3 – 6 month old classes. All of the puppies moved beautifully and it was a joy to finally see them in a show ring. Rhythm won WD over one male, while VeVe won WB over two females and then BOB over Rhythm. Rhythm and VeVe were also entered in Brace at the last minute for fun where they were handled by Amber Holmes. Everyone was astounded at how wonderfully they gaited around the ring together for which they were rewarded with Best Brace in Match! The overall results, a fun evening was shared by all and we at Steppin’wolf could not be prouder of our puppies.

Conformation Shows:

Steppin’wolf’s Rosaleen Dhu, “Rosie”, now one week away from her first birthday was entered in the Puppy Bitches 6 – 12 months old for the last time. She was awarded 1st in her class both days with no further placement in the regular classes. She did, however, win Best Irish Wolfhound Puppy going on to win a group 3 in the puppy hound group on Saturday when they were also selecting a Best Puppy in Show. Rosie was handled by Donna Yeldell on Saturday and by Destiny Burge on Sunday.