Dated 15th July 2006

More than a year since putting up our website I have finally got down to write down our story…….

My love for dogs goes back to as far as I can remember. My parents always owned dogs. I started showing in my teens but not too seriously. I got back into serious showing a couple of years ago. Thanks to my dear friend Padman. Who I should say, alongwith my other dear friend Bill (William O Loughlin) of the world famous Bassbarr kennels, are the driving forces behind my passion of breeding and showing. It would have been very difficult to have reached where we are today without the patient advise, support and encouragement of these two dear friends of mine.

The two pillars of my kennel would have to be my good friends and business partners, Kanniraj and Venkatsai, without whose support and help it would be impossible for me to take off every weekend to a different part of the country to show our beautiful canine friends.

I would necessarily need to mention the three good friends and confidantes I have found in the two years since getting into the doggy game. The first one is Pada (Padmanabhan) who also happens to be the breeder of my American Boxer, Bounce (Ind Ch Lastell Vriksha’s Storm Runner. Then I met Kumar (Venkat Kumar) who happens to have the best Cairn Terriers in India. Lastly I met Sandeep Rao who like Pada is an avid fan of the European Boxer.

And most of all my dear wife, Trina and daughter Diya without whose immense support and hard work it would be impossible, to manage our kennel of 11+ dogs alongwith my BPO business. She always ensures that one of us is there during feeding and grooming time and all the canine members of our family get our personal attention and care.

Now to give you a brief history of our Bassets. We got our first Basset, Ivy who later on became Ind Ch Ivy of Lastell and was mother of our first two Basset litters. All the pups from these two litters (15 in all) went to good pet homes; of which three have become champions as of date.

Out of Ivy’s first litter we had retained a lovely tri-colour girl who we called Poppy. A lady from Mumbai who really wanted a Basset, managed to convince us to let her have Poppy. We finally parted with her, thinking that, since we were moving to Bangalore we would buy another puppy there.

But as fate would have it we were just unable to find one as beautiful as Poppy and then was advised by Padman to import one dog from Europe. Thus started the many hours on the internet and searching the various websites the world over, for our new Basset puppy. This search ended in getting our first import, Elvis (Ind Ch Lastell Swedesun’s Hubert) from Paula and Richard Sunnebring of Sweden. Alongwith him I got his sister Hedvig (Ind Ch Lastell Swedesun’s Hedvig) for a friend of Padman’s who later on moved out of the country and sold her to me. She was with him only for a few months and eversince has been part of our family.

My friend Bill helped me choose these two puppies from the litter and that was where it all began. As he did not have any show quality puppies, at that time, he found Freckles (Ind Ch Lastell Woferlow’s Lady Alice) for us on one of his visits to England. Her mother was bred by him and was owned by Mrs Debbie Newman. She had kept her back for herself but agreed to let us have her after a short chat over the phone.

Eventually, after a wait of more than a year, Bill finally had something to offer us and that was Jack (Ind Ch Lastell’s Bassbarr Jack the Lad) and he also finally agreed to let me have Bassbarr Bloody Mary who is still my dream Basset. But due to certain reasons she could not come to India and Bill let us have Liza (Ind Ch Bassbarr’s Cabaret of Lastell) instead. And in my opinion, (Trina would not agree with me as her Elvis is always the best) the two of them are to date the Best Bassets that I have seen and I am sure will leave their mark on this beautiful breed in India. That is the Basset story upto now ………

Now moving on to the Boxers; my first boxer was Oliver whom we adopted from a family who was leaving the country along with Spencer a Dalmatian, the two of them now live with my parents. My first show Boxer was the now famous Spin (Ind Ch Lastell Walgre’s Fiery Spark) whom I got from Prof. Grewal on Padman’s advice. She won our first Best Puppy in show and also was the first of our canine family to go on board the Best in show line up along with Hedvig, both of whom were placed on the Best in show line up on the same day. The next to come was Bounce (Ind Ch Lastell Vriksha’s Storm Runner) from my dear friend Pada.

It was around this time that Pada started showing me the pictures of the European Boxer!!!!! Followed by the research on the internet and along the way we picked up Sandeep through whom came Bismark V De Hoevensehof from Mrs Tonny Bastians of the Netherlands. In the meanwhile Pada had got in touch with Ms Carolina Nadal from Spain, from whom after waiting for a year we were able to get Xantia de los Morritos. At this point in time, I am eagerly waiting to start showing the two of them in the next show season along with Sandeep’s puppy Bebetoo who he got from the Contilia kennel of France. Wonder how they are going to fare against the strong presence of the American Boxer in India………..