A little bit more about us.........
Lou was born and raised in Philadelphia. He spent his summers growing up with his relatives in Nebraska
having fun bailing hay, etc....and enjoying long hot summers. Lou went on to graduated from Franklin &
Marshall College in Lancaster, PA and then enlisted in the Marines in the RECON Division. After serving
his country Lou started working for Scott Paper Company in Philadelphia. He spent almost 30 years total
with Scott Paper Company before taking early retirement in 1996, after helping with the companies
transition to the new owners, Kimberly Clark, of Neenah, WI. Lou took off 10 years from Scott and spent
that time working with his Father who owned an Armstrong & Bruce Hardwood Flooring Distributorship in
Lancaster, PA. Lou was President of the Company and Dad was the Owner and Chairman of the Board.
Landis & Company was sold in 1979 upon Dad's retirement and Lou returned to Scott Paper Company in
Philadelphia. In 1996 when Scott Paper was sold Lou was the Worldwide Vice President of Logistics.
After retiring on a Friday he became the President and CEO of Tufco Technologies here in the Green
Bay area, the following Monday. So much for retirement. Someday he will start to think about retiring......
I was raised in Strasburg, Lancaster County, PA and grew up with a collie. I met Lou at Landis and
Company in 1977 where I was hired to take care of the Bruce Hardwood Flooring Division. After 6
months of Lou asking me out to lunch, he finally wore me down. And although our age difference is 16
years, we have been married since August of 1979 and we share many common interests of which one is
our dogs.......
We started out buying our first Doberman Pinscher in 1983 while living in Wisconsin the first time after we
got married. When being transferred back to Philly by Scott Paper we bought our first Doberman Show
Dog of the Drakenberg's line, bred by Lavina Peticca, known as Inky. Over the years Inky was not only
my mentor but more like my second Mom. We had 7 of her Doberman's over the years of which 1
became a Champion who was named Rhett, Ch Drakenberg's Symphony In Red, WAC, CGC, TDI. I bred
him to my Scarlett, Drakenberg's Quite a Dish, WAC, CGC, TDI and had 2 puppies of which I kept both.
Beau only needed a 3 point Major to become a Champion when I quite showing him. Beside having a
bout of torsion of which I nearly lost him, he had a chronic prostate problem. I got very tired of the politics
of showing in Doberman's and I decided to retire Beau. So he ended up neutered like his sister Bonnie.
Lou's favorite Aunt & Uncle had Bostons Terriers. So Lou spent Friday nights in Philadelphia watching
the Friday Night Fights on TV with his Uncle Walt. Puggy as their Boston was called would sit with Lou
and that started Lou's love affair with Bostons. After I had a Laminectomy of L5/S1 in 1993, it became
more difficult for me to exercise our Doberman's. So in 1999 we started our search for our first Boston
Terrier. We found Jolie in the Fall of 2000 and that is when we made our official switch to Bostons. We
have one Doberman left named Syrah who was sired by the #3 Doberman in the country named BISS Ch
Ravenswood Southern Cross. She was diagnosed with Chronic Active Hepatitis in 2004 so she had to
retire from showing when spayed because of this disease. Doberman's were my first love but now these
little Bostons have wiggled their way into our hearts and our home. As I say on my web sites home page,
"Bostons are like potato chips.....you just can't stop with one".
I was paying a local handler to show Jolie for me until I met Sarah Kennedy for the first time along with her
parents at the BTCA Nationals held in Louisville, KY back in 2002. Sarah said she would like to show
Jolie so that is what we did. Jolie finished her Championship on my birthday, August 2, 2003 at the
Tri-Angle Boston Terrier Breeders Specialty Show held in Cherry Hill, NJ. She won her 3rd major, this
one was 5 points going WB/BW to become my first Boston Champion. I was handling her daughter
Sophia, who was Reserve that day. Best birthday present I ever received! I had learned to handle my
own dogs when Jolie's first litter arrived, going into the ring for the first time under Judge Mary Rogers
Clark at the 2003 BTCA Nationals. I put all of TJ's points on him except his last Major that was won by
Sarah Kennedy under Mary Tory from England. I put the first 3 points on Sophia (who was very high
spirited) and then sent her to Sarah for her to also finish. The rest of the story is told in the following
pages within my web site. You will even see some photos of Lou handling the kids as he now tries to
beat me at a show, which he has done several times.
I just can not imagine my life without these wonderful little companions. Boston Terrier's are just the best.
I have become very involved in Health Testing and serve on the Health Committee for the Boston Terrier
Club of America. We health test all our Bostons for the BAER Hearing Test, The Cerf Eye Exam, The
Patella Exam and all results are registered with OFA for public review. The Animal Health Trust in
England is now doing a DNA test looking for the marker to see if a Boston carries the gene that produces
Juvenile Hereditary Cataracts. I have started to test my dogs for this and so far the 5 I have tested are
Clear of this gene. The test is approximately $130 per dog so it will take a little time to have everyone
tested for this. Please see that information posted on separate pages.
I designed our home and Guest House that we built in 1996 on 12+ acres overlooking the city of Green
Bay, WI. We call our home "Northern Exposure".
We came up with our Kennel name Achates back in 1984. Achates was a character in Greek
Mythology. You can read about him in Virgil's epic, "Aeneid". Achates was a loyal friend and
companion to Aeneas. I could not think of a more suiting name for my dogs as they are my most
trusted, loyal friends and companions. So we started using this name, Achates, as our Kennel
Name.
I hope you enjoy my web site as I try to keep adding information that will be useful to everyone.
Sue LeCalsey
Achates Bostons, LLC