I decided to name our kennel "AngelHeart" because I felt the name described the absolute nature of this breed.  I have since found that the name truly fits the description of this unique and amazing canine, not only in the fact that they are beautiful to look at, but that their heart song is to totally bond with their human and to be constantly at their side.

We named our very first girl, "Mercedes" which means "Mercy" in Spanish.  When we call her name it constantly reminds us of how merciful the Lord has been to our family.  Of course you can't have Mercy without the Spirit in your life so along came Spirit.  Spirit was our second Eskie arriving at the wee age of eight weeks.  Mercy had just had her first litter, the one that Ruby came from, on July 26, 1998.  Mercy had five female puppies so we decided to name them after precious jewels.  They were named Topaz, Ruby, Opal, Onyx and Pearl.  While we placed four out of the five puppies, my husband had become tremendously attached to little Ruby.  He pleaded with me to be able to keep her as his birthday was in July, the month she was born, and her name was Ruby which was his birthstone.  She really didn't fit into my theme of names but since he was so smitten with her, she stayed and so did the name "Ruby".  In keeping with our theme, however, her registered name became AngelHeart's Crown Jewel Of A-Joy's.  A-Joy's is the kennel name of her sire, the Crown Jewel is to remind us of the many precious jewels that we earn in our service to Him while on earth that is placed in our crown of glory that we are creating in Heaven; the crown that we will be happy to lay back at His feet when we are finally able to meet Him face to face.

So Ruby stayed but the thought remained.... If one needs Mercy in their life they would also need to have the Spirit within to enable them to perceive that need, what causes that to happen?  "Faith"!!!  With the Spirit comes Faith...and did she ever! Faith was born on May 19, 2000 only seven weeks before my late husband, Cees, was called home to be with the Lord.  I have a precious picture of him holding her at about five weeks old and right after the picture was taken he looked at me and said, "Whatever happens, you hold on to your Faith!"  What other name could she have been named?  A few weeks later Cees passed away and Faith came to live with us at the tender age of eight weeks.  She has been my constant reminder of that single sentence from him...."Hang on to your Faith"

Then what comes after Faith????  Hope does of course!  On April 12, 2005 little Ms. Ruby had a litter of gorgeous puppies, three boys and two girls.  Out of those two girls there was one that just grabbed my heart and her name was already on her before I knew it.  "Hope" is an ecstatically happy little girl with boundless energy!  In naming her that name there is no better way to describe the Hope in Him that we live for.  It should be visual, prominent and in abundance!  This little girl represents that in a wonderfully visual way!

With Hope comes a promise....I believe that with all my heart.  I have an on line journal dedicated to a wonderful man that shared his love for this breed with me in many ways.  He would be so proud of the girls and what they've accomplished....not as much as some, but more than others...but what they do have in common with all American Eskimo Dog is their love for their people, their ability to learn so very quickly especially when taught with love and their dedication to their pack both two footer and four footer.  Cees' journal is located at Rainbow's Promise.  It's kept there as a beacon of encouragement for all that might come against the rocky shore of a tremendous loss in their lives.  It's also kept there to honor a wonderful gentle man who was loved by many.  

So, the name of our newest little one?   Kiva-AH's A Moment In Time?  Her call name is "Journey" and represents the years from 2000 to 2007, years that have been just that for me, "A Moment In Time".   A time of healing, a time of learning and a time of growing and becoming used to the path that I've been placed on.  It's been a journey and continues to be a journey, one that has been painful yet magical all at the same time.   So, hopefully our new little girl will be a constant reminder of this for me and help keep my focus on the path I'm to be on.

And as our journey continued... we added another to our pack... but this time... NOT a girl... can you imagine that????  Me either but Journey had her very first litter on February 8, 2011 and this one little boy just caught my heart.  I couldn't take my eyes off of him... and as he grew I knew that he would not be leaving.  A name?? Hmmmmm, it was easy for me to name the girls... but what would fit in to my theme??  I've always loved the name "Gabriel" so I named him AH's Gabriel's Song Of The Trump, after that wonderful Arch Angel of Heaven... Gabriel was the seventh Arch Angel of Heaven and seven is the perfect number of Heaven along with my favorite number. AND......he was actually the seventh American Eskimo Dog I've owned personally... His call name would be "Seven".  And the journey continues....

The interesting thing is I don't believe in coincidence but that things happen for a reason and a purpose...albeit sometimes we don't know why at the time nor will we always be given an answer for it in our lifetime.  Like our little girl Ruby???  Why did she come along when she did???  She actually turned out to be our little therapy girl that visited not only nursing homes but Alzheimer's patients and the very hospital that Cees spent many hours in...  She is the most gentlest of all my girls and seems to just have that sixth sense of the environment she is in... Whether she's visiting with a person that just wants to reach out and touch her at the Alzheimer's home because it brings back a flicker of remembrance of a dear pet of theirs or sitting on the edge of a bed with a patient that hasn't spoken in years in a nursing home but is carrying on a conversation with this little white dog all of a sudden, her gentle spirit seems to reach out to those folks and the little smile in the crook of her mouth tells them she's happy to just be with them.  I also did a search on the root of the word of Ruby and interestingly enough it is from a word that means "From The Heart" A great description of a little girl that gives from the heart.... but also the fact that all those other names, Mercy, Spirit, Faith, and Hope....are all words that come "From The Heart" and all are wrapped up in the "Journey" we all walk within our "Moment In Time".