The first time I saw her, she was 10 weeks old. We were picking a puppy from a litter of four. Suddenly, one puppy walked over to examine the low-lying branch of a giant blue spruce. When it poked her in the nose, she furiously backed up two steps, threw her head back to get a better look at the tree, and barked furiously. I picked her up and said to Buffy, "I've got my Montgomery puppy. Who are you and Linda going to show?" I was not disappointed. At just over 6 months, and in the middle of a raging thunderstorm, she was Best in Sweeps at Montgomery County.

The Open Bitch class was held right after the lunch break, so it was starting to get warm. I had once jokingly said to Buffy, "I want to be good enough at this sport so that one day Bergit will open a catalog and say, 'Oh, no, Cindy Cooke is here.'" As I walked Tempest into the Open class, I passed Bergit who had already gone Winners Dog and won several bitch classes. I saw a brief look on her face that told me in an instant that she knew Tempest was real competition. 

I have a video tape from that day so I can prove it when I say that Tempest was perfect on the day that she needed to be perfect. I never felt such a complete bond when showing a dog. She seemed to know what I wanted her to do before I did. When she won Winners Bitch, I was thrilled and happy. I was SO delighted that I never dreamed what would come next.

As I look at the video of that day, I look totally relaxed in the BOB competition. After all, I was done for the day. People who were watching tell me that they guessed the judge was going to give her BOB but it never occurred to me. When he pointed to her, I was completely surprised. She gave me thirteen wonderful years and one perfect day!

She slept beside me every almost night of her life and continued to go to every show we attended until the last. She was my first great dog in every sense of the word and I will never stop missing her beside me.