NS abCH Windsong Sheshesharona of Zion
December 5, 1992 - November 27, 2005

Sire: GV Ch Bionic Black Smoke of Zion ROM | Dam: Mountain Sheba of Zion ROM

“Mom, we want to call her Blossom after the TV show.” Blossom? I thought to myself? I don’t think so I quickly concluded, also to myself. But I had told my daughters Jessica and Sarah that they could name our new puppy, so I had to think quickly. My mother wit kicked in, and on the stereo the old song by the Knack was playing… and we all know what a catchy tune that was. “MY MY MY Sharona, wooooo!” and I said, hey, how about Sharona??? We all danced and sang along, and Sharona it was!

Sharona was our third Shiloh Shepherd, she was promoted to be “something special” to us as she was one of the first second generation litters born from Shiloh’s Secret Samson Woo. We were told only special families could have these pups and they would be what made the Shiloh Shepherd special. Sharona was the “happy” puppy of the litter. In fact, her breeder wanted me to call her “Happy Happy Happy.” After a case of parvo went through her breeder’s kennel, we were asked to bring her home at six weeks old to hopefully avoid her getting it. It was on Super Bowl Sunday that I drove up to western New York and picked her up during a blizzard. She was a beautiful and very happy puppy. The day after we got home she did come down with parvo, but through my wonderful vet and some good TLC, she got through it. Since then she has never been sick a day in her life.

As the months went by, Sharona grew into a beautiful bitch. She was different than Cheyanne and Trinka, our other two Shilohs. Sharona was built like a tank; she had incredible heft to her and an attitude like none I had met so far. Every thing she encountered was her playground. She loved people, places and things. Her instincts were sharp as a tack and the few times I saw her instincts in action, I was in awe. One time at home, Sharona spotted a rabbit about 80 feet away on the edge of our yard and in a flash she took off after it. The rabbit almost immediately took off and they both disappeared into the woods. I thought to myself, yeah right. About two minutes later Sharona returned with the rabbit in her mouth. Of course I screamed, she dropped it and the rabbit took off. Wow.

Over the years Sharona was always upstaged by her alpha Trinka. Trinka and she were inseparable and they made a great team. Trinka wowed them with her beauty, and Sharona won their hearts. Many of the early owners were hooked on Shilohs because of Sharona’s personality. Happy happy happy. She is a good talker even to this day. It took me forever to finish Sharona’s championship. She hardly ever won. She looked like a little furry Sherman tank going around the ring. And as always, she was pulling me faster than I could ever run. I remember at one of the Cherry Blossom shows, Northstar had beaten her every show. At the last show we had a great judge who I will never forget. We went around the ring for winners and I thought to myself, okay, here we go again, and he pointed to us and said “This will be my winners today.” I was ecstatic! He came up to me when we were walking out of the ring, pulled me aside, and said “I know that young bitch has been taking everything this weekend, but I really think this (as he pointed to Sharona) is what your breed standard is calling for.”

In her day Sharona hung out with the shows’ best: Lobo, Rebel, Pax, Star, Fang, London, Warrior, Asher and, of course, Trinka. I remember at the Tobi Matches one year, Shoney (one of her pet names) showed up all the boys. The BF was trying to get a picture of a Shiloh jumping up on a cement stage that was about 4 feet off the ground. Of course one of the big beautiful boys was the prime target model, but none of them would do it. So here comes Sharona, whooop, and up she goes like it was nothing! What a girl!

Sharona was the middle girl of the Terrific Trio that made up Windsong/Raid the Wind foundation stock. She went on to have two litters. Most don’t know, but she was the famous CJ Lobo’s first piece of furbutt. Sharona and Lobo had a beautiful litter of nine puppies in March of ’95. She whelped the first three babies on my bed. I always tell the story about this whelping when people ask me about their bitch going off food before she whelps. I say well Sharona ate her breakfast, I was told that bitches didn’t eat 24 hours before they whelp, so I went to the post office, came home, she had thrown up on my bed, and proceeded to whelp three puppies. So don’t always go by your bitches eating habits pre-whelp. Her second litter she was bred to JNK’s Smokin Black Bear of Zion. None but one had ears up, and none could pass their hips. As fate would have it, Little Bear from this litter went on to produce Susan’s famous Teddy! This was Sharona’s last litter. We took one girl forward from the Sharona/Lobo breeding, DeVita’s Moriah of Windsong. From her we kept Windsong Ever-Wild of Moriah, (sister to Colleens Spirit and Louise’s Eva), and from “Ever” we have Riley (bred to Ruger), Cody (bred to Willow), Thunder, Makeeda, and we bred Taylor to Chili to produce Sequoia and Diesel. So Sharona’s blood is moving forward. And through all her pups and their progeny we are still getting wonderful temperaments, heavy bone, and great heads, all the attributes that Sharona was always known for.

At one time, because I had too many dogs, I rehomed Sharona. I was devastated, and I regretted it so much. But as God would have it, she was returned after 6 weeks because her new owner said she snapped at a child. Never would she leave again.

Of course, over the years Sharona touched many lives. We all know the emotional support our dogs give us, the moments that make people laugh, and the special stories we could tell forever. So many people that are here today are a part of her life in some way or another, and they are all special when I tell her story.

Some little known facts about Sharona:

She is from the first litter born out of Bionic Black-Smoke of Zion “Shep”
She is the half sister to Sierra’s Shadow Walker
She is Siskiyou Shepherd's Chaos' and Riot’s full Aunt, sister to their dam, Pitannalee
She knows how to roll over, “search”, hold a biscuit on her nose, flip it in the air and catch it, crawl, speak, and various other tricks
She once ate herself into lameness at Patti’s kennel, and I know she would eat herself to death if allowed
She hated being groomed and having her nails cut
Every year since Becky did it we would summer cut her because she had a coat from hell, and
She looked like an Old English Sheep Dog puppy when she was cut
She once posed as a Doctor and was successful
She loves car rides and it took her almost a year to get over being carsick
She has a latex fetish and will chew and squeak one for hours and will never put a hole in it
She is not a “snuggly” dog and she doesn’t like to give kisses
She knows how to stamp her feet and sass me when she doesn’t get her way
In spite of her craze for food she would not fall for the Peanut Butter on the roof of the mouth trick a second time
She would eat whipped cream right from the can and could hear me shaking it from across the house
The “Sheshe” in Sharona’s registered name is taken from “SHEp” and “SHEba,” her sire and dam

When we all (Trinka, Sharona, Gypsy, and I) moved to Virginia with Diane (my kennel partner and sister), Sharona took to Diane like her new best friend. Over the next years Diane would take her to work, and Sharona just naturally went on to be a therapy dog at the Village of ChildHELP working with abused and abandoned children. She was made honorary AOD (Administrator on Duty) by the staff at ChildHELP. She actually tracked a child who had run away and brought him back, and all the children would love playing with her because she had a way of gaining the children’s trust. She is credited with bringing children out from the silence mode of abuse and starting them to communicate with their therapists. Earlier this year, her rear end became too weak to climb the steps, and she could no longer go to the Village to be with the children. The children ask for her to this day.

We now stay on the mountain that Sharona and her family love so much. We live on a beautiful river that has a little gravel island named after Sharona. She loves to swim and will paddle around for hours silently like the Loch Ness monster. She will come out of the water and lay on her island taking in nature like the dog that she is. She still will grab a stick to play but I only throw it a few feet now.

On this November 27th I came home from work and I knew today was special. Sharona would be 13 years old in another week on December 5th and I have been striving for her to make this birthday. But a beautiful life as I knew it was looking at me and asking for her dignity back and she told me she was too tired. It was this day she chose. I know Sharona had been getting too weak to walk and each day that went by I knew was a gift. God, please let her go in her sleep I would pray. But it was my privilege, and she told me it was time. When I started her story for our newsletter we made a new category for Golden Oldies because she was not History yet. I am honored for her to be the first in this category and now she is both.

Diane and I took her for a car ride to Wendys Hamburger and she had two bacon cheeseburgers and french fries. As I spoon fed her a Frosty, she left this earth. I actually was a little more prepared for this after Trinka, and I listened and cherished Sharona’s last three breaths and watched the life leave her eyes while her head lay on my lap and I kissed her over and over.

We drove home and the sky amazingly was a beautiful dark grey sable like her, and I swear I could see Sharona in a full run across the clouds to meet all of the other Shilohs gone before her. And then it started to rain and I cried. I will forever miss her. Thank you for reading her story.

Wendy Fullerton & Diane McClure
Raid the Wind