Meet Your Calendar Crew: Yumiko Aoyagi
This year's featured volunteer is Yumiko Aoyagi. Yumiko has been the BOW Calendar coordinator in Japan since 1998 where she has advertised, collected photos and sold calendars. Her efforts brought the BOW Calendar to Japan in 1999.
Yumiko's childhood dream was to have a dog of her own. As an adult, Yumiko met her first rehome Beardie (or Neardie) named Daisy 20 years ago while working as a translator in California. In 1996 after years of living without a pet, Yumiko and her husband Takashi decided it was time to get a Beardie. They found Jimmy Otake who had mated his O.J. Boy to Patty of the Daikai family in Tokyo. One of the puppies becme Yumiko's first Beardie, Daisy. Daisy later was bred to CH Ha'Penny Harriman. Today three Beardies occupy the Aoyagi home: Daisy, Ariel and Mia.
Yumiko joined the Beardie List (BDL) in the fall of 1997. In 1998 her husband started the BDN email list in Japan (now with 589 members). The 1999 BOW Calendar provided the seed money for future Beardie rescue operations in Japan and the BRN (Beardie Rescue Network) was started by Takashi. In 1999 a stray Beardie boy named Falcon, adopted by Hotel Aspros, became BDN's first rescue. Yumiko helps BRN by contacting shelters, transporting dogs, and contacting prospective families.
Yumiko and Takashi went to their first BCCA National Specialty in Olympia in 1999. Daisy's puppy Ariel started showing in Japan in 2001, handled by Masako Abe, and became an International Champion in 2004. This picture shows Yumiko with Daisy (at age 20 days), her first dream come true.