I am from the southeastern corner of Virginia (the Tidewater area) and developed a passion for sailing on the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay early in life. By profession, I have been an engineer for the last 30 years, (has it really been that long!!). My profession has allowed me to live and travel extensively in the US, Mexico and Canada. In addition to sailing on the Atlantic, almost 2 decades of living in the San Diego area afforded me wide-ranging sailing adventures in the Pacific and off the Mexican Coastline.

My passion for Dalmatians began in 1991 with my first Dal named Fibber who is still "King of the Mountain". As with potato chips, you can't do just one. Fibber was followed by Molly, then Lotto and Sunny and finally by our two wonderful rescue Dals, Cassie Marie and Michael who were adopted by our family just before Christmas of 2003.

I refer to my Dalmatians as "Doos". This is a shortened version of "Pup-a-doo" which has been the baby nickname for the all the spots when they were small puppies. The name is passed on to the youngest and all others become "Doos". The Doos do not consider themselves people, rather that is somewhat an insult to them. They are convinced that Dalmatians are higher on the intellectual food chain than people. Rather, I am honored that they consider me an "Honorary" Dalmatian. Of course they overlook my lack of spots and fur and long ears etc. which is generous of them.