Stonerivers Hunter

Hunter — The Heart & Soul of Kimbrie’s Dream Cream Doxies

Some dogs become part of your breeding program. Some become part of your family. And then, every once in a lifetime, there is a dog who becomes so woven into the fabric of your life that it is impossible to separate his story from your own.

For me, that dog is Hunter.

Hunter came to us from Stonerivers Dachshunds, and I can never thank the late Vicki Stone enough for allowing this incredibly special boy to become part of my life. I knew I was getting a beautiful dog. What I could never have known was how profoundly he would change my life and ultimately shape the future of Kimbrie’s Dream Cream Doxies.

I will never forget picking him up from the airport, looking into those beautiful little eyes and thinking, I cannot believe he is mine. As I took him out to potty, I remember fighting back tears, trying not to cry in front of my husband. I simply couldn’t believe how perfect he was. Hunter was everything I had dreamed of and so much more. I thought I knew what my dream dog looked like. What I didn’t know yet was that Hunter would become so much more than the dog of my dreams. He would become the dog I never knew how much I needed.

Hunter was originally meant for the show ring. Vicki Stone, who bred and showed some of the top dachshunds in the country, believed deeply in him and told me that had he remained with her, he would have earned his championship. Looking at the beautiful conformation he has carried throughout his life, I understand exactly why she believed that.

But there was one problem Vicki probably couldn’t have accounted for: I fell completely in love with him.

The kind of showing Hunter deserved would have meant sending him away with a handler and being separated from him for months at a time. I simply couldn’t do it. Somewhere along the way, the championship stopped mattering. I would rather have Hunter beside me than have any title before his name, and his happiness meant more to me than any ribbon ever could. So I chose a different path for him.

And what a path it became.

Hunter has a way of loving that is quiet, steady, and incredibly intuitive. He seems to know when I need him before I ever say a word. When I am sick, he will stay right beside me, sometimes refusing even to leave me long enough to eat. He has slept above my head on my pillow or pressed his back against me, as though he needs to be certain I am okay and I need to be certain he is there. He doesn’t go to bed until I do, and through the years he has appointed himself not only my constant companion, but my protector.

He never goes looking for trouble and has never needed to. There is a quiet confidence about Hunter that every dog in our home seems to understand. He watches over his people, and when he believes one of us needs him, he is there.

There have been seasons of my life when Hunter was there for me in ways no one else could be. He has walked beside me through sickness, loss, depression, and some of the hardest chapters of my life. And I can say without hesitation that this little dog has saved me. Through good times and bad, his love has remained the same: constant, unconditional, and completely his own.

For all of that seriousness and devotion, Hunter also has one great weakness: a ball! I am convinced this dog could find one at the bottom of the ocean. He carries a ball everywhere, has to have one nearby even when he eats, and if no human is available to play, that presents absolutely no problem for Hunter. He will bury his own ball in his blanket dig it back up, cover it again, and happily invent an entire game for himself. If he decides he wants you to play he will put his ball where he knows you must get it and then continue to bark until you do! All along giving you the slight nudge or (kiss) from his nose to show his love. Even as he has gotten older, he remains remarkably athletic, and much to my amusement, he has passed that crazy ball obsession on to some of his children.

Yet one of the things I love most about Hunter is simply what a gentleman he is. In all his years, he has never tried to steal food from my plate or stood begging for a bite. He is remarkably intelligent, independent, polite and loving, with a confidence that never needs to announce itself.

Hunter doesn’t simply live beside me. He pays attention to me. He watches me, knows me, protects me, and has loved me with a faithfulness that is difficult to put into words.

Over the years, Hunter became one of the foundations upon which Kimbrie’s Dream Cream Doxies was built and helped establish the standard I still strive for today: beauty, proper conformation, health, temperament, intelligence, and intuition. His legacy lives on in the generations that have followed him.

But of all the things Hunter has given me, nothing compares to the privilege of simply being his person. I am so incredibly honored and blessed that God chose to let our paths cross and that I have been given the gift of spending his lifetime with him.

Simply put Hunter is my once-in-a-lifetime dog.

Now, when I look at his children, grandchildren, and the generations that have followed, I still see pieces of him. Sometimes it is in their beauty or athleticism, sometimes in their intelligence, temperament, or that unmistakable obsession with a ball. And when a family tells me there is just something extraordinarily special about their Hunter baby, I smile because I know exactly what they mean.

My greatest wish for every family who comes to Kimbrie’s is not simply that they receive a beautiful, healthy dachshund. It is that somewhere along the way, they are blessed with that one dog who becomes more than they ever knew a dog could be. The dog who walks beside them through life’s happiest days and its hardest ones. The dog who knows their heart. The dog whose love changes them forever.

My wish is that everyone gets to have a Hunter once in their lifetime. ❤️