About Apsara

Apsara is a small Edmonton, Alberta, Canada kennel with never more than 8 dogs in the house at one time. Originally, I had teenagers in the house and wanted a dog for their comfort and my peace of mind. It happened that I was blessed with a much better dog than a pet owner should ever expect to own and (later) found she was better than many dogs produced by veteran breeders of long standing. It also happened that a singleton dog in the house is often a follow-and-flop type of dog. I hadn't planned on that but thought "that's pretty boring" and subsequently reviewed 169 websites for the best stud I could find and the rest is history and on this site. Neither I nor the dog are anywhere close to bored now. So far, breeding, raising and showing papillons has been a real source of satisfaction.

I am particularly happy with the relationships I have formed in this fraternity. I talk to everyone from rascals and scallywags to lifers with impecable credentials . . . and everyone in between that has a reasoned opinion on the matter at hand - then make up my own mind. Some call it networking - It works for me. You have to know that unknown novice breeders don't get access to nice dogs without the help, assistance and guidance from those vastly more experienced than I. Have a look at the pictures I took at the Papillon Club of America Portland show - there are more friends in these pictures than acquaintances - and the show had many of the best paps the US has to offer. With Apsara's Cossack Dancer, we took Best of Match, second in the Sweeps class to the Japanese BOS winner and fourth in class at the Regional show. Pretty good brag for a first time visitor I think. Having said that, the ribbons are nice but the friends are much more fun to be around.

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The name Apsara - app/sair/RA

My first knowledge of the Apsara came from a Sunday morning radio program that spoke of a tourist's visit to Angkor Wat - the huge stone temple complex built in Cambodia's glory days. What impressed her, and caught my attention, were the Apsaras. There are thousands of them here - some large and carved heavily into the wall-works and other more smaller ones - pixie-like - appearing where you least expect to see them.

In a more formal sense, Apsaras are south Asian nature spirits - beautiful goddesses of water, clouds and forest, heavenly dancers and divine symbols born from the foam/milk of the sea and ascended to heaven to entertain and give glory to God. They were always accompanied by the celestial musicians - the Gandharvas - who would play their instruments so the Apsaras would dance.

The Apsaras image I had in mind is a little more down to earth and closer to the sensual go-go dancers of the heavenly band - the light, graceful and divine goddesses of elegance and joy.

Considering I name all my paps as "something Dancer" or "Dancing in something", it struck me that an Apsara is an absolutely perfect metaphor for the light, elegant, graceful, quiet, loving companion we call papillon. I couldn't believe my incredibly good fortune in being the first to find and register it as my kennel name. If that is good karma, I can live with it.



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