Nancy passed away August 6, 2023
On August 6, 2023, Nancy went to be with her Lord Jesus Christ, whom she served for over 45 years. During our 42 years of marriage, I was constantly amazed at her love and devotion to Jesus. Her relationship with Him was real and encouraged me to love Him and know Him better. I am a better person for having known her, and been encouraged by her. She is surely missed. She was, and always will be, the love of my life.
Nancy's obituary can be seen here. Her Memorial Video can be seen here.
She started our journey with the Japanese Chin twenty-two years ago in 2001. She saw a story on Animal Planet about Japanese Chin and fell in love with them. Our Golden Retriever, Jericho of Wall, had recently passed away and Nancy was looking for a smaller breed for our next dog. After seeing the story on Animal Planet, she started looking for a Japanese Chin.
After getting our second Chin, Nancy wanted to start showing Chin, which we did. And then we decided to breed them. For more details, see the story below.
Lovers of Japanese Chin
We have been raising and showing Japanese Chin since 2001. We bought Chin-Chin, our first Chin, from what we thought was a private Japanese Chin breeder in Brooklyn, NY. After we brought Chin-Chin home, we found out that he was the product of a puppy mill in Wisconsin and that we were lied to about his age (we were told 11 weeks, but he was really 22 weeks) and about his health (our vet said he was very sickly, and we had to hand feed and use an eye dropper to give him water). We had already fallen in love with Chin-Chin, and did not want to send him back to Brooklyn where he probably would have died. So we kept him, and he has been a real joy and blessing.
We fell in love with the breed and decided to get another Chin, this time from a reputable breeder. We found Faith Milton who has been raising and showing dogs 30 years and she had an expecting bitch. Four months after getting our first Chin, we got another male Chin which was our first show dog, Mikado. Seven months later we bought Ebbi from Pat Suggs and Janice Say (Sasugi). Ebbi became our first Champion. In 2003 we bred Mikado and Ebbi and our first litter had 2 girls and 1 boy. We kept one of the girls and sold the other two.
We bought another bitch (Ki Shoubi) from Faith Milton (Huang Kong) and bred her with Sasugi Fly Me To The Mood - they had six puppies in that litter. We bought Myougi from Dale Martinson (Touche') .Later we bought Masashi from Bill & Peg Schnarrenberger (Randalets). Using the Chin we brought into our fold and our own boys and girls we have bred many wonderful Chin.
We love our Chin. They have brought us so much joy and happiness. We breed so that others may share in our happiness. We are careful about who we breed - we want to produce good, no, make that great Chin. Whether they become Show Dogs or wonderful Pets, we strive for Chin to be as close as possible to the Breed Standard and to have that active, playful attitude that makes them the greatest breed!
Jim & Nancy Bensing
502-863-2509
chin@bensing.com