Don & Anne Liscum, and Daughter, Becky

My sister, Gerry, and her husband, Ken, gave my parents a smooth coat Chihuahua in 1956, when I was 3 years old; we named her Chiquita del Pepito.  "Cheka," as she was called, because I could not say "Chiquita," changed our lives forever.  Though the female was not show quality, she had a wonderful temperament, and the family fell in love with the Chihuahua breed.   With a couple of years passing and the purchase of some other nice Chihuahuas, my parents became interested in conformation showing.  

Our first show quality Chihuahua, "Chi Chi," was a cobby, beautifully moving chocolate tri-color bitch with a fabulous headpiece.  Chi Chi was claimed by me, and the first trip into the showring in junior showmanship and conformation was a memorable one.  We were "hooked".  Future Chihuahuas, bred and owned by my parents, and later my mother, after my father passed away, earned their championships; you can read about those special ones in the section subtitled "Champions of the Past."  

I qualified as a jr., in the olden days, when clubs only had one show per year, and in West Texas, they were few and far between.  Professional handlers were asked to judge "Jr. Showmanship" on the day of the show based on whether or not they had a breed they had to take into group that next half hour.  There was no scheduled time for jrs. or an announced judge.  My parents were all breed club officers and I spent DAYS at shows as a young child.  Shows were simple, non-political, and in our area, an entry of 600 was great, although there were always at least 20-25 in "Jr. Showmanship".  About once a year, we'd make our way to a "big" show, usually being Houston.  I qualified, as a jr., for Westminster in 1968 and 1969, and there were only about 40-50 from the US that used to qualify each year in those days.  Becky Bloomer, the only other Texan, showing Westies, qualified in the same year that I went to New York.  To my knowledge, I'm the only jr. that's ever shown a smoothcoat Chihuahua in Jr. Showmanship at Westminster; it is and always was very hard to win with a small, sleek-coated, "non-groomed" dog in jrs.