Hounds of Laureate
12021 Sedate Street
Brooksville, FL 34614
Phone: 352-797-6047
We are a small hobby breeder in the Tampa, Florida area and have owned and loved Borzoi since 1987. Our dogs’ pedigrees contain many of the top winning and top producing Borzoi in breed history from the famous Loral, Kishniga, and Crescent bloodlines. We breed infrequently from health tested, show quality dogs with happy, stable, outgoing temperaments. We have bred many specialty winners over the past several years and are pleased to say that folks who have gotten dogs from us have returned to us to add another to their family. Our dogs are raised in our house, NOT a kennel, and potential homes are screened with this in mind. We guarantee by contract for health, quality, and temperament and are always available to answer any and all questions. References available from other ethical, respected breeders as well as the happy people who own dogs bred by us. We welcome visitors to come meet us and our dogs whether or not we have any dogs available and regardless of our guests’ intention to purchase dogs from us or not. Proud member of the Borzoi Club of America and President of the Heart of Florida Borzoi Club. Litters planned for 2009.
To Monica and everyone at the Hounds of Laureate of Tampa Florida.
Hi, my name is Susie Barceló and today I’m writing to you to thank you for such a wonderful, No, “Great, dog”, Igor Sikorsky one of the Fly litter pups born on May 18, 2005 he was the son of Am/Can Ch Adrienne Learning to Fly and Ch Laureate Gavril Gallant Fox. He wasn’t (your ordinary borzoi shy, timid, reserved, hard to train) like many other borzois, he was different, he had a style all his own, lets call it “unique”.
He came to me not by accident but by fate!. As you recall, I use to work at the SPCA of Orlando Florida where I was a medical receptionist. One early morning as I pasted the corridos of our facility to clock-in, by the corner of my eyes I noticed this white mass on the floor in a kennel, so I backed up to get a better look, and to my surprise I saw this huge slinky white dog, “a borzoi!”. “What the heck are you doing here!” I said to him, he sat up, looked at me and pawed at the kennel door, so without hesitating or thinking twice, I grabbed his kennel card and spoke to my supervisor David about how I wanted to adopt this dog. But I would like to take him home for a test drive first, just to see and make sure that he’d get along with my other 3 shelties that I had at home Jordan, Max and Sapphire. David said, “Susie if it was anybody else I would say no, but I know how responsible and knowledgeable you are so, ya, go ahead.” I then proceeded to call my husband to let him know that there was this puppy, and how I felt I needed to adopt him. My husband then started to ask me questions, like “do we need to adopt another dog? I told him, yes, this is not your average dog, “but I seem to have forgotten to mention to my husband a tiny detail, the size of this little fellow. it’s a borzoi!”, rare in everything, so my husband said ” if you really feel that you have too, so I said “I really do!.” Then he finished by saying, “Your going to do it anyways!, so go ahead”. And that was the beginning of our life with “Iggy”.
Being a medical receptionist has its advantages. I started to investigate of who dropped him off, where he came from, how long they had him, why was he surrendered to us. You know all the normal questions on the surrender forms.
Being a previous Sheltie breeder myself, I was almost certain there had to have been some sort of contract between buyer and seller of this dog, but what happened? Why did this person give this dog up to the SPCA instead of returning him back to the breeder? So I brought him home in my Honda Accord, it was hard to put him in the car and harder to take him out, but when I finally got him out, that’s when my husband opened the kitchen door and stepped out, seeing both of us he said, ” that’s not a puppy, that’s a pony!!”. I said “ya isn’t he beautiful!. White, with a few black markings and a distinctive black steak running down his forehead. He was nine months old, almost fully grown, with a few inches to grow. Then my husband proceeded to ask questions like, he’s not going to fit in the house. Where are you going to keep him?, where’s he going to sleep? How much food does he eat? I said don’t worry I’m just test driving him to see how he’ll get along with the other guys, bring them out one by one. They where each startled, They where all surprised to see a huge body of a dog on stilks. I was glad to see that they each greeted him just fine and the test drive was a match made in heaven. The following day I officially adopted him into our family not quite sure that I wanted to keep the name that he came with, Igor, l found it an ugly name for such a beautiful dog. That’s when I got in contact with you. We made arrangements to meet, then I understood the reason for his name Igor Sikorsky a helicopter pilot and how you named all the puppies of that litter according to famous airplane pilots. Well in Connecticut, that’s where I was born and raised, there exists a helicopter company, Sikorsky Helicopters. So I agreed to keep his name and that’s how I felt he was meant for us! It was fate! A few years ago we moved back to Conn to get surgery for a spinal cord stimulator dew to an auto accident I got in Florida and we brought our pets with us.
One by one they’ve all gone. A few years ago Igor developed a weird pimple like wound on his hips and he’s been licking at it, we took him to the vets they didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t cancerous so we tried to discourage him from licking at it, it finally went away after several months, then the following year it returned with vengeance but nothing worked, we tried to get it sewed up but it ripped opened, we put pants on him, we tried everything between the vets and us, and my husband was constantly on top of him to prevent of licking at it. But it started to get bigger, we took him again to the vets, the hole has grown double the size, this time to probably put him down, but the vets said that he looked good except for his hips and that she decided to try a laser treatment, being every other day with pain meds and antibiotics for infection daily at their expense. My husband took him every other day as scheduled. Today Igor didn’t want to get up, but my husband coaxed him up. I asked him to tell the vets about Igor’s reaction this morning. My husband called me about an hour later, not good news, the infection has spread and his body is shutting down. There’s really nothing more that can be done but to let him go. So my daughter and I arrived at the vets to say our goodbyes to the best dog ever! ” My little man”, that’s what I called him. Since I got him, he loved his toys, he greeted everyone at the door with a toy, he loved cats and other dogs, he was never ever aggressive, and he was very opinionated, he did this crazy thing with his mouth when he wanted to talk to you, something like Mr Ed the talking horse. He was very easy to train, he learned quickly, very respectful, obedient, above all gentile towards everyone and everything, once he showed his teeth and growled to supposedly a salesman, I’m sure he sensed something wrong and was protecting me from this guy insisting for me to open the door, but when the man saw Igor’s teeth, and heard his growl he ran off! That was about a week after I rescued him. He had a magnetism towards elderly people and young children, they automatically come up to him, take a hold of his head and kiss it, and say what a beautiful dog. He learned all the basic commands and then some, he was very in tuned with each of us. He had a bit of a sweet tooth, and he loved his snacks. He was an awesome dog! He loved long trips in the car, especially if you said, let’s go bye-bye, And I would get the common question from people,”Hay, what is that?”, I’d reply “my little pony!” He was the perfect package in the perfect body size. I thank God that lady dropped him off, “It was her lose, but our gain!”
Today we put our little man to sleep.
Rest In Peace my Iggy. We will never forget you!
You filled our hearts with your unconditional faithful love.
Susie and Jorge Barcelo’
sbarcelo374@gmail.com