Katherine May Bryce, dog trainer, groomer, breeder, handler, breed rescuer and great friend, died on May 2, 2009 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, after coming to terms with breast cancer.
Born Katherine Marceline Strong in Chicago Illinois on July 11, 1950 – as she often said, “I was born the week after Independence Day and look pretty darn good for my age,” she grew up in Santa Fe and always claimed it as her native land during her travels across the United States and Panama.
Though she often worked as a waitress, her first love was for animals. From a very young age, she felt a connection to our sister species and was never happier than when in the company of non-humans, whether sitting on a rock watching the sun rise over a suburban creek or hiking in her beloved northern New Mexico with friends and dogs on plains that resembled the African Serengeti. As a child, she trained horses and raised rabbits through 4-H and always had canine, feline and avian companions. She wanted to become a veterinarian, but math dyslexia and Life intervened; though she worked as a veterinary technician for many years, she never completed her veterinary studies.
She married in 1972 and had two daughters. In her late twenties, she studied under noted trainer and Greyhound fancier Kathleen Gilley and others, eventually learning to train dogs and people in her own right. She went on to own, breed, groom, train and show Standard Poodles.
Eventually, the thrill of dog show competition paled. She turned to other animal-related venues, addressing the challenges faced by the average pet owner around the same time she began doing Standard Poodle rescue. She also conducted classes for many years, teaching people how to “teach their dogs to learn.” Her business, The Family Dog, remained small but was a modest influence in the physical and internet community, where her sig file was “Katherine and the Poodles of the Serengeti.”
Katherine’s love of the physical world permeated everything she did, where she lived, and her choices of work and recreation. She administered a small hearing dog program; served on the boards of the local dog obedience club and poodle club, always trying to help create events that allowed pet participation, and wrote on a variety of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction. She flatly refused to choose her residence over her animal companions. She occasionally had non-animal related work, but never allowed a job to interfere with her true vocation.
Katherine leaves behind her daughters Kelda Lang and Marya Heiman; her sisters Jacqueline and Pat and nieces Sarah and Tanya; mother Bryce Strong; and numerous friends. Her ashes were scattered around the world she loved so much and she looks forward to her next cycle on this plane.
“Remember me in a flaring New Mexican sunset, in the track of a deer, when you hear coyotes singing, or see a blue feather flashing in the dawnlight. I am wheeling with the ravens and the hawks in the New Mexican sky, climbing over a grain of sand with a velvet ant, and enjoying the breeze with nodding side oats grama grass. I will be there. And I will be back.”
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Below is a picture which I know was Katherine's favourite - of her and her first standard poodle Barb, in Panama.
