Westpoint Astro’s A. Ashby “Ashby”
Fast Facts:
- Born: Sacramento, CA, December 11, 1997
- Favorite Cookie: Peanut Butter in his Kong
- Favorite Song: “Home” by Michael Buble
- Favorite Quote:
- Hobbies: Chewing a Water Kong, Swimming, Agility
Things you might not know about Ashby: He¹s ridden in a BMW Z3 as a puppy.
He barked the entire way to the airport on his ride home for the first time
as a puppy. He bounces like Tigger. He was named after baseball player,
Alan Ashby of the Houston Astros. He¹s a home body.
Ashby was a dog that didn¹t understand why you didn¹t treat him like all the
other humans. He was my first dog model and he loved doing it. He was so
patient and well behaved. He had a head for modeling, or at least a
tolerance. He was also the one who perfected the protest pose and taught to
all of our successive models. When he was done, he was done and he would
just lay there until he was released.
Born, Westpoint Astro¹s A. Ashby, after Alan Ashby of the Houston Astros, he
was faithful to one toy most of his life. The water Kong was always in his
mouth. He was not the typical Golden who would retrieve balls or anything
thrown, he would only go for the water Kong with the string.
Ashby LOVED to swim. We couldn¹t keep him out of the pool. One day Gary
saw a Dock Dogs competition on television. So, he decided to test Ashby and
went out into the back yard to throw his KONG in the pool and measure his
distance. He went all the way across the pool. We really wanted to try him
in this officially but there were no events in our area until November of
2006. When we finally got him up onto a dock he had such a fun time, he
jumped 11 feet! Then Gary decided to rest him just a little bit between
heats for his last jump and then he jumped 15ft 9in!!!! He was spectacular
and 9 years old! And he had sooooo much fun doing that!
Ashby was our second dog that we lost to Cancer. He was only 9 years old.
He had a brain tumor the size of a small red potato. He didn¹t show any
signs until it was too late.
Even in his last days he demanded to be my model. Gary says the picture
below is a very sad picture to him because he was so sick in it. However, to
me, it’s a good memory of who my Ashby was. When I set up the background to
do a test on my new lights, I chose Duncan as my model because Ash was
sleeping and sick. When he realized what was going on he demanded to be let
into the studio area and he stumbled over onto the background and plopped
down and fell asleep. So, I put the other kids in the same pose as him and
took the picture. My model to the last.