“Russ and Thelma Moffett”
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CH Janice of Gera
When I got started in Dachshunds, I had several great friends who were successful in the Breed and had great breeding programs going already, but, from my adventures in horses and chickens, I knew these same people had information that I really needed to know about Dachshunds and I knew that I didn’t know it yet, but, if we were friends and I helped them and made their life easier, these breeders could help me if we did become friendly. First on my list to befriend were my new acquaintances, Russ and Thelma Moffett of Flint, Michigan who were long time Standard Smooth breeders who got their first bitch (CH Janice of Gera) from Ray and Gene Shultis (who were from California) of Gera Dachshunds back in the 50s and were two of the great Dachshund breeders from that Golden age of Dachshunds. From that first bitch, the Moffett’s always used the dogs from Marcia Wheeler, who all carried the Gera line as Stud dogs, and later they used Robert and Gladys Cook’s two dogs, CH Felsheim’s Friendly Jester ROMO and CH Cook’s Home Brew ROMX. Their bitch, CH Moffett’s Rosanne ROMO, had become, by this time; the Top Producing Smooth Bitch and had produced, I believe, seventeen AKC Champions and among these was the recently deceased Smooth, CH Moffett’s Harvest ROMO, who, IMO, was the best Smooth that I had ever seen.
CH Felsheim’s Friendly Jester ROMO
CH Moffett’s Rosanne ROMO
The Moffett dogs became big winners and, with these seventeen Rosanne Champions, took their place at DCA and other big Specialties that were coming along with the largest entry. Their big winner back then was a dog, CH Moffett’s Harvest ROMX, that John Wade bought, started out and then sold to Ed Jenner of Knolland Farms where the infamous Lorraine Heichel showed him. As I said, Harvest was one of my favorites, but was soon lost after winning many BIS’s. I decided then to use his brother CH Moffett’s Georgi ROMX and so made the arrangements. One thing is that the Moffett’s dogs and bitches all had great forechests and were sired by and out of Dachshunds that were made as they were supposed to be. They looked like Dachshunds from near and far away and part of that was their prominent fronts which were always there. I basically knew that this was where I had to go to get the forechest put on ChooChoo’s babies. I had the rest of the body that I wanted and did not want to get any rounder so kept that on my list of what I did not want to land as we did the breeding.
Rosanne and her “H” litter
Even though the Moffetts were in their 70s, I soon became very close with them after spending time at Specialties and picking their brains for what they knew about breeding and about many things about Dachshunds that I didn’t know. Of course, I had already decided to breed my Special to their Georgi and we made arrangements for me to come to their house and stay with them when we did the breeding and I was going to be more than pleased to see their dogs and their offspring. The Moffett’s lived in a ranch home in Flint, MI and the community said that each house could have four dogs in it and, of course, that would not quite do for Thelma. They had only Smooths at the time and all were either reds or B&Ts so every time they let the dogs out, they would put two reds and two B&Ts out at once and then did that literally all day long since the Moffetts had over twenty Standard Smooths in their house and they all had to go out into the fenced yard about five or six times a day. It started at breakfast and Thelma would sit at the kitchen table and tell Russ whose turn it was to go out and he would put them outside and, after fifteen or twenty minutes, would let them in and each would get a quarter of a piece of toast from Thelma. This would go on all day and as Thelma liked to say: “It kept Russ busy!!”
CH Moffett’s Garnet
CH Moffett’s Georgi ROMX
Russ and Thelma were quite a couple and Thelma was a competitor who always wanted to win. When breeding, they kept two of each sex so that Russ and Thelma would compete with each other to make sure that Thelma could beat Russ then, too. She also kept a lot of the bitches after they finished and Thelma also competed with them even then. I was there for the Midwest Specialties and Thelma came out with Garnet for the Veteran class and she was one of their Specials bitches that never was bred and so Thelma ordered a big white lead for her and she was taken to the shows all in white since she still had her purity. Thelma was quite a character and always wanted to be the center of attention and actually really deserved it when she did.
CH Moffett’s Halo, dam of Midas and Miss Flint
CH Moffett’s Harvest ROMX-I wanted this dog
Thelma also had older ceramic dolls that she showed and, when I was staying there with them, she decided to let me see some of them. We went to a spare bedroom and Thelma went into the closet and brought out a couple of paper bags that had these ceramic dolls in them and got them out to show me. These dolls were just stuffed inside these bags and were all crammed together, so Thelma got one out and made the dress less wrinkly and showed me its own teeth and eyes. She loved them all and then. after awhile, she just stuffed them back into the bag and they went back into that closet again. I later found out watching PBS that those dolls were worth $1300 to $2000 apiece and they were all just mashed into that closet until she decided to show them again or showed them to her newer acquaintance. How they were not broken is beyond me as they were all over one hundred years old and made of ceramic. How they survived this long is beyond me.
CH Rose Farm’s Choo Choo ROMX
Anyway, I was down there to get a breeding of my bitch, CH Rose Farms Choo Choo, bred by Judy Anderson and Dee Hutchinson, who really had the look of those early Gera greats but without quite as much forechest that they all had back in the day. However, after admiring Harvest and Georgi and all the Moffett offspring, who always had that look I wanted when they showed them, I decided to take the chance and give it a try. While I was staying with them, it was time to do the breedings and, since it was my first time, we took them down to the basement and turned Georgi and Choo Choo together. With Russ, who weighed about 150 pounds, and Thelma (who was quite a bit bigger!) and me, who was about 30 years old and completely inexperienced in this, we started working on getting this breeding done. We watched them play and play and play, but they never even came close to being tied. We never even tried to hold the bitch and let the dog mate her, but just let them play and play until with some sort of miracle the dog mounted her and that tie was made! We did that again later in a couple of days and only then did I realize that they didn’t do that much more breeding than I did and were just about as clueless as I was about doing these matings. After my stay with them, I left to go home and really appreciated how much information that I got from them and some things I still was wondering about.
CH Moffet’s Hallmark
After that, we waited for the litter to arrive and finally got those puppies and it looked pretty good indeed and consisted of a Top Producer (Chuckie), another Specialty BB winner (Country Pride) and Specialty Winner (Davie). After the birth, we looked at the pictures and they chose to take the B&T male, Davie, and Russ and Thelma came down to the Louisville Specialty to pick him up when he was about three months old. Now, in my thoughts, the Moffetts were in their 70s and were pretty independent in life, but, when they left the show site, I handed Thelma her new puppy and she looked over at Russ and said to him” Now, don’t tell my Mom I got a new dog as she thinks we have too many as it is!! She will never get over it,” I just was amazed that I just found out this and discovered that Thelma, who I thought was independent and over 70, had someone who was HER boss. I actually sort of chuckled about it all the way home, thinking there was someone who bossed Thelma around and she must have been over 90 years old to do it.
CH Moffet’s Janna, dam of Locket and Laser
After that breeding and the way they all took off as Specials, the Moffetts and I could not have been happier with the way they developed and soon decided to breed Choo Choo to CH Moffet’s Midas ROMX and so we did it again and got several nice bitches that were successful Specials and won all over the area. At one point, Thelma decided to go to the St Louis Specialty which was always held on Mother’s Day weekend. I would like to say that Thelma’s mother had passed, but she hadn’t, and that was Thelma’s first problem with coming down in that she was supposed to go to a party at her mothers. She did leave though and we met on the Interstate and drifted on down to St Louis. When we got there, we decided to all go out to dinner at an Ice Cream place that had delicious desserts. We all ate our meals and then we ordered desserts and all of us ordered the largest things on the menu. I remember that Thelma and Nancy Weber of the Risa Smooths got the huge Banana Splits and both started chowing down instantly and that ice cream was just like we remembered it and was so very tasty. After a few moments, Thelma started slowing down and Nancy Weber said she had finished hers and Thelma turned to me and said ” How could she eat any more of that ice cream. I couldn’t eat another bite.” Then I looked over and saw Thelma had left maybe a half bite on her plate, but it still pleased her to eat so much “less” than her dear friend, Nancy. Thelma always had to win.
CH Rose Farms Dolly v Boondox
That next year, Russ was judging a Sweeps at the Badger Dachshund Club and was very happy to be doing it. Thelma had me on the phone and was wondering what I was going to have there. She asked me if I was going to have my Longhair bitch, Dolly, entered in the Sweeps. I said I wasn’t sure so Thelma told me that she had already told Russ that he was going to put her up since she was named after Dolly Parton and had that big front sticking out!! I am telling you it was hard staying ahead of her. Her mind worked so fast. She was like your grandma if she was a little spunky, too.
CH Sonrise’s Martha, down from Moffet dogs and granddam of CH Boondox Ipsy Pipsy ROMX
At this same time, I got a bitch from them, CH Moffet’s Miss Flint ROMX, who produced several winners for me and Thelma, including her daughter, CH Moffett’s Oona v Boondox, a Group and Specialty BB winner, and granddaughter CH Sonrise’s Martha, another big Group and Specialty winner as well. They all looked great and kept me in the Winners Circle for a long time and, trust me, that was my goal in breeding these Dachshunds that I loved so much. I liked to lead the way and show how you can change things for the better when you really pay attention to your mentors.
CH Moffet’s Jeffrey
Unfortunately, I enjoyed my time with Russ and Thelma Moffett and we spent lots of time on the phone and at their house, but, as in many places in the Smooth Variety, there were problems with the temperament and, as always, I was interested in doing something about it. Uffe and Carol Braae had a new male that had an excellent temperament and he passed it along to all his offspring that I had seen and that included breeding him to many offspring of Big Buoy (who did NOT have a good temperament at all). I was talking with the Braaes and making arrangements to use Mr T and mentioned it to Thelma who sort of treated it like a big surprise that I was pulling on her and that I was not being honorable in giving Mr T a chance to prove himself. She then sort of cut me off and stopped calling me and it did sort of hurt my feelings. I went on from there and Uffe and Carol sort of became my mentors and we were great friends until I used Kaye Ladd’s dog and then the Braae’s stopped being friendly and cut me off, too. I have to say that it was the strangest behavior I had ever seen, but I guess they both felt that they would be my only Smooth mentors and I hope I was appreciative enough for them to know that I was satisfied as well.
Dan Harrison
Dec 2021