We finally bought our first Whippet in 1998. We already owned a small terrier called Mollie but we had wanted a Whippet for many years. We knew that we wanted a bitch and she had to be a brindle. After about 50 phone calls and many offers of fawn bitches and brindle dogs, we finally located an 8 week brindle bitch in South Yorkshire. We wanted her to be from show lines as having just moved to Norfolk, we thought it would be fun to go to a few local Exemption shows on a fine sunny summers day. Little did we know then what we were getting into!

Chelsea - Elleonia Lady Luck at Stormburst, came into our lives and settled in straight away, she was a very good puppy, easy to housetrain, very good about coming back to us but also determined to "train" us on a Whippet's right to the best chair/sunniest sleeping spot etc. We did indeed take her to a local show, she was just over a year old. She behaved dreadfully in the ring as she wanted the cake Mark was eating and said so loudly! We were invited along to our local ringcraft which was really enjoyable. Before we knew it, Chelsea had qualified for Crufts and we were so proud when she was placed 3rd in a massive mid-limit class of 33 under breed specialist Espen Engh. This made us decide that we needed our own kennel name or affix and so Stormburst came into being.

Poppy - Shimmeree Pick Of The Pops for Stormburst, followed Chelsea but she never enjoyed showing and so we contacted Patsy Gilmour, who owned Chelsea's sire and asked if we could book a bitch puppy. After a 15 month wait, we collected Daisy - Dumbriton Moon Flower over Stormburst. We had some lovely wins with her including BPB at Crufts in the same year that Dee Dee (Whippet) went BIS. We were particularly pleased with Daisy's pedigree as she carried all the lines we had most admired and when the time came for Daisy to have a litter, were lucky to be allowed to use Jason - Ch/It/Int Ch Rivarco Classic Jazz who was living with Patsy having been bred in Italy.

Daisy's first litter contained only one bitch - Lily - Stormburst Water Lily, who we kept. One of the dogs went to be shown and has 1 CC and 3 RCC, (including the RCC at Crufts 2010) . We were so impressed with the quality of the litter and the ease with which Daisy whelped her pups that we repeated the mating, producing 2 bitches and 4 dogs. Both bitches have exceeded our expectations and done extremely well in the show ring as well as having the wonderful temperaments that we breed for. We are very conscious that our puppies are, first and foremost, very much loved family pets.

We kept Berry - Stormburst Winter Berry JW, from this litter, she has her own page on the site which lists her achievements in more detail. She is everything we wanted. She has done exceptionally well for us, gaining her JW at 13 months of age, going BPIB at Windsor Ch show, as well as twice going BPIS and once BIS at Open shows. She has twice qualified for the East Anglian Super Match, a prestigious local event. She has also had many BOB and Group placements. Berry is an absolutely lovely natured bitch and has produced a wonderful litter for us. We have kept two bitches and will be campaigning them from Spring 2011.

Lily gave us a wonderful litter in 2008, we kept one of the bitches, Jazz - Stormburst Summer Jasmine , who has done very well in the ring so far. She has inherited her mum's lovely temperament, is a joy to own and is a real character, known as Naughty Jazzy at home. ( She particularly likes to steal my hat and gloves!). Her brother has gone to a lovely home where he has been lightly shown and has had some lovely wins in the ring, including 2nd GD at Crufts 2010.

Most of all, our dogs are our much loved ( and spoilt) family pets. All of them live indoors with us, on our sofas and in our hearts. We simply cannot imagine life without Whippets.

Mark and Juley Bennett.