Ch. Bengal Sabu was the first Airedale I ever saw. It was in July of 1960. I was twenty and had answered an ad for kennel help in Dog World magazine. Hired on the phone, I was in Wilton, CT the next day to work for Mr. Thomas M. Gately, one of the top terrier handlers at that time. My pay was $55 a month and room and board.

Sabu’s “stall” was the first one on the right in the kennel room. I really had no idea how privileged I was to be tending this dog (I called him Sah-be-doo-be!).  Every morning about five he woke the whole place up with his howling. Out on the road he was often winning Best in Show. I didn’t even know what a dog show was.

Also residing there at the time was retired top-winning bitch Ch. Westhay Fiona of Harham, who was waiting to be bred to Sabu before going home. Trixie, as she was called at the kennel, loved to eat but was always on a diet (according to her). To help satisfy her appetite, she was giving her dinner in the big washtub in which the food (Ajax kibble and cooked tripe) was mixed. It was a delight to watch her eat... not much food, but lots of licking!
    
The Airedale who made me fall in love forever with the breed, though, was Sabu’s son, Bengal Bladud of Harham who came over (from England) the following year. He could be a bit of a grump and Mrs. Gately, I remember, didn’t like him at all. He and I, though, were best friends. When he finished his championship and went home to Harold Florsheim’s kennel in Illinois, I could hardly bear it.

In 1962 I bought my first Airedale from Adele Abe at Birchrun Kennels. I had met Adele [and Barbara Strebeigh] while working for the Gatelys. Our friendship has endured over the years and because of it I was able to glean much from her and the boundless knowledge of Barbara as well as many other Airedale breeders and handlers in Adele’s world. Two things I learned from Barbara still stand out in my mind: Airedale should always be capitalized because the breed was named after a place... and when an Airedale is properly groomed you can’t tell he’s been groomed at all...  he just looks like he looks like that naturally.
    
In 1964 I got “Lena” (Ch. Bengal Leprechaun X Ch. Benjamin’s Little Devil) from Edna Dobbins, for whom I later went to work helping manage a miniature schnauzer “home kennel” and learning to clip (a no-no in Mr. Gately’s world!) terrier pets so they looked like “show dogs.” I married  Bill in ‘65 and in February of 1967, we whelped our first litter—by Ch. Bengal Sabu!
    
Over the next twenty-eight years, sixteen champions came from our fifteen litters under the kennel name “Schaire.”  In 1995 we decided to stop breeding and devote all of our “dog” energies to Airedale Rescue.

In 1975 a friend who did all-breed rescue got us involved with an eight-week old Airedale puppy who had already had four homes. We placed “Winston” with one of my grooming customers who owned a miniature schnauzer. Since then, hundreds of rescue Airedales have passed through our home. We do stipulate that our foster dogs must like cats, since we have five of them. Every foster experience is a little different. Some dogs melt our hearts and a few we have had a little trouble getting to know how to reach. We continue to learn from each one.
    
In 1990, spurred by a notation in the minutes of  an ATCA meeting  which said that there was no need for the club to become involved with Rescue, I conferred with known Airedale rescuers and penned a letter to then-president Trevor Evans. The club agreed to set up an Adoption Committee if I would chair it, which I did for the next five years. In these last fourteen years this committee has come a long way , but the world has changed a lot faster than some of us old fogies can keep up with.
    
My beloved Bill died suddenly of a heart attack in April of 2005. Since then, the immediate needs of my own dogs (not to mention cats, geese and swans) - and the rescue dogs that have never ceased to knock on my door - have kept me sane and made life well worth living. The last of “Schaire Airedales” died early this year, so the Lonely Cottage is now officially filled with only Rescued Airedales (along with one crippled hound mix and an Airedale/Bullmastiff mix who happens to be black)... and me.