My name is Laura. I am a registered nurse in Lincoln, Nebraska and work on a Labor and Delivery floor. My husband Rob and I have four children. Our two girls are teenagers and our boys are in Grade school and Preschool. I have been an animal lover all my life. I was always encouraged by my parents in that love and had many pets throughout all my years growing up on our little acreage. I have had animals ranging from dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, even fish. I bred my Basset Hound when I was a teenager, but mainly just kept my animals for pets. I have always tried to encourage the love of animals in my children as well. Our animals are part of our family. My children are taught to be gentle, to respect, and to value the lives of living things from the very beginning.
My experience with the Mi-Ki breed started with my girls telling me they wanted another dog. At first I was resistant. We had only just managed to get our youngest dog, a Schnauzer-Bichon, healthy. She has had health problems since she was very young, partially, I believe, due to irresponsible breeding practices. I began to look on the Internet breed information sites for every breed that I was unfamiliar with and found several breeds completely unsuited to a family with other animals and/or children. My girls knew I was teasing them, however, and were not discouraged. Eventually I found a breed site for the Mi-Ki. Stumbling on it completely by chance, this site read like a commercial, not a breed information site. I was intrigued by the notion of a small dog that was low energy, non-shedding, good with children and other animals, healthy and was even used often as a therapy animal.
I didn't believe it. I was sure there were hidden problems with this breed and I would find out what they were. I searched often over the next year. I searched registering sites, DNA sites, patellar, eye, and heart health sites. I searched breeder sites also, and soon had to admit I was falling in love with this breed. They were adorable, had nearly the perfect temperament, I couldn't forget about them. At this point I was doing research for me, not so much to prove to my daughters that there was no such thing as the perfect breed. I was hooked.
We welcomed our breeding pair of Mi-Ki into our family with great anticipation and are proud of them in every way. I feel honored to have adopted such wonderful examples of both the smooth and rough coat Mi-Ki and that I can now help to develop this breed carefully and lovingly.
