TESTIMONIALS

Hi Darce. I can't tell you how happy I am to have Emmie in my life! She had such a sweet curious personality from the first day I picked her up. You were so great in matching our personalities and really eased my fears about having Emmie flown up to my home in Massachusetts. She loves bouncing around the woods near my home and makes friends wherever she goes! Here are a coupe of recent photos of her taken last weekend.

Thanks so much Darce!

Kate A. Skowyra - Southbridge, MA

My husband and I lost our beloved 9 year old Chinese Shar pei named Suede on Christmas morning, 2005. She was a fawn colored girl and was absolutely the sweetest dog that we had ever owned and we loved her without condition. I knew that I was hooked on the shar pei after we brought her home as a tiny little puppy and would never want any other breed other than the shar pei. However, when she was diagnosed with lympho sarcoma in the fall of last year, it was the hardest thing to watch her health deteriorate. She was my little couch potato girlfriend and life would never be the same without her. I knew that, but as each day grew closer and more grim, so did my outlook on ever owning another pet due to how much I loved her and didn't want to ever go through that type of loss again. When Suede couldn't go anymore, we took her to the emergency animal clinic on Christmas morning and held her until she took her last breath. I had no idea how painful that was truly going to be for me and the rest of the family when that day came.

About 2 weeks after Suede crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, I just couldn't resist doing a search for pei puppies on the internet. I missed her so badly and just to see a pei would lift my spirits. I came to a website called shar-pei-orlando.com. It was Darce's website and there were brand new puppies!! And they were BLUE!!! OH MY GOSH...how cute would a blue pei puppy at our house be??? We could name her Blue Suede!!! Oh goodness, how my heart flipped. I called Darce the next day and she told me that she had two litters. The litter that was born to Liza had two females only...one black and one blue. But her other female, Mariah, also had a litter of six puppies....five blue females and a little black boy. I knew after talking to Darce that she was a good breeder. Since Suede had tremendous skin issues, I wanted to know if Darce had ever had any puppies with any health problems. Other than having to have their eyes tacked which is pretty normal for the pei, there were no issues that she ever experienced or dealt with. So at that time, I asked Darce to let me send her a deposit to hold one of the girls for me. Since they were just born, it would be weeks before we would be able to pick our girl. Darce informed me that it would be breeder's first choice and then I could choose my girl. Well, as time went on, Darce would send us pictures of all the puppies. Not knowing which one the breeder was going to choose, I had a hard time letting myself fall in love with any of them in particular for fear that I would get attached and that would be the one that the breeder would want. However, there was this little fat girl with bunny rabbit hair that Darce kept telling me about and she sounded adorable. Darce felt sure that the breeder would probably chose her. I could usually pick her out of the group when Darce would send pictures. I tried so hard not to wish for her to be mine, but I did. When the puppies were about five weeks old, Darce called and asked me which one I wanted. Then I asked her which one the breeder chose. Well...great news!! The breeder was going to bypass a puppy and go for the fee instead. So she says, "If you want the fuzzy one, she's your's!!!" For the first time since Suede had died, I felt true joy. I was so excited.

David and I drove to Orlando in February to pick up our little girl. Darce told me she wouldn't tell me which one she was and to try to see if I could pick her out of the eight puppies that came bouncing out of the shed in her backyard. As they did, each one of them squatted and pee-pee'd all at the same time. I was in Shar pei heaven! I had never seen so many puppies that I wanted to scoop up and bring home all at once. But I quickly started looking for Blue Suede and I spotted her right off the bat. She really was the prettiest little thing I had ever seen. I couldn't get my hands on her fast enough. When I finally did...it was ecstacy. She was so soft and pudgy. She was by far the fattest one of the whole group and I just couldn't get over the feel of her soft coat. It draws attention wherever we go. It is still just as soft and beautiful as the day we got her and she is almost 9 months old. Since we had such skin problems with Suede and all the shedding she did, we really thought that there was just a certain amount of that that comes with the shar pei. Not with Blue. She is unique in that respect because she hasn't had any problems with her skin and hasn't gone into that full blown shedding thing at all this summer. We live in South Louisiana where temps have gotten as high as 100% these past few months and heat can usually set it off shedding. Blue has a little doggy door that she is able to run in and out as she pleases here at our house and she is definitely more of a princess than she is an outside dog. So she limits her outside time to potty breaks and barking at the neighbors if she sees them out in the yard. Sassy girl!

We have spoiled her rotten and even so, she is very well behaved and loves her two crate kennels that we have in the house for her. They are for napping and bedtime only. And of course, if we leave the house she goes into her kennel. I highly recommend crate training your shar pei because they are much better behaved and they are more secure having their own little place. We did not do this with Suede and she suffered greatly with separation anxiety. It's hard at first, but in no time, they fall in love with their little place and want to be in it. Alot of times, Blue just goes into and naps on her own. We found two really cute wicker ones that we use as end tables in each room.

Here's a funny tidbit about Blue:

Blue Suede was born three days before her predecessor, Suede, died on December 25, 2005. Suede meant so much to me and the name was so perfect for her since her muzzle felt like running your hand over a fine swatch of suede cloth. I wanted to keep her name but I had my heart set on having a pei puppy from the blue line. So we named her Blue Suede. After talking to Darce and discussing her pedigree, it was revealed that her grandfather's name is Elvis! Now that's a coincidence, right? One more link to this whole fateful connection is that my name is "Priscilla". I am really convinced that Blue was meant to be our's. She is perfect in everyway.

Prissy Wilson - Lafayette, Louisiana