I am a proud "Member by Blood" of the Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama. I serve on my tribe’s powwow committee, am a Ladies Traditional “Buckskin” dancer, and design powwow regalia and other Native American leather products and jewelry. I am also a genealogy researcher, website designer, and a support group leader for multiple sclerosis patients and their families. If you are interested in Cherokee culture and or genealogy, or would like more information on MS, please visit my link or email me.
After retiring from a career in nursing, psychology, and medical office administration, I decided to pursue my dream of 15 years-breeding and raising dachshunds for show and therapy work. Retirement came much earlier than I hoped for, but has been a blessing in disguise. Forced to retire 5 years ago due to MS fatigue, relapses and other health problems, I am unable to participate in all of my beloved activities as often as I once could. However, in spite of my health issues, I have kept a positive attitude, continued to help others, served as an officer for numerous civic and non-profit organizations, and maintained the commitment to love, laugh, and live life to the fullest each day. Every morning I wake up with the attitude, “I get to live (love my family, learn, teach, play, serve, etc.) today”, rather than “I have to …” or “I hurt too much to…” etc. This attitude has brought me true happiness. Being told 15 years ago that I would be in a wheelchair in less than 5 years simply inspired me to prove the doctor wrong (nurses are notorious for this, lol). Attitude so very often determines our altitude in life. Being married to the most wonderfully supportive man in the world is also a major factor in my attitude. Today, still able to walk, I am on a new mission: handling my own doxies in the show ring when able and, at others times, being a spectator while a handler exhibits my dogs.
I have a longstanding love for hounds beginning with my first childhood dachshund, Princess, a short hair, red, standard girl. Being a hound lover, I showed Afghan Hounds in the 80’s and rescued Afghans and Greyhounds before purchasing my first long-haired dachshund, Suzy, in 1992. Since then, I have been head over heels in love with this breed. Doxies are close in temperament to the Afghans, but come in a much smaller package and require much less maintenance. There may still be an Afghan in my future, but you certainly can’t hold as many of them in your lap at one time!
My beloved Suzy crossed the rainbow bridge in 2006, the same year that I had to give up working. It was now time for a new direction in my life, my dream of living my life with a house full wonderful dachshunds that lived as pets, but had careers in the ring. Having a dog that looked exactly like Suzy on the front page of the website, I chose Sugarland Miniature Dachshunds, owned by Sherry Pledger in Conway, AR, as my favorite site. This decision has ended up being a true blessing many times over in my life. Sherry now a very dear friend, has been a great mentor. Another blessing occurred when Janean Rawls allowed me to adopt her well-known breeding stock. My foundation has a stable history of producing sound and correct to the standard dogs with great health and temperaments.
While I showed Afghan Hounds for 12 years and owned Suzy for 13 years, I opted not to breed during this time. I felt that I could not devote enough time to a litter with my job and volunteer involvements. Before purchasing my foundation stock, I studied breed conformation, genetics, and breeding practices extensively in order to create my program. I have met many other fanciers and made new friends from whom I have gained tremendous knowledge. Utilizing this knowledge, my husband and I believe that breeding for temperament and structural soundness as a foundation for success will lead to lifelong gratification for our dogs, ourselves, and our future adoptive homes. This is our commitment to the breed.
We only raise AKC long-hair miniature dachshunds and are inspired to produce generations of show and therapy puppies. All of our dogs live in our home and we let them think that they control our activities of daily living. They are all couch potatoes in the evening, and sometimes, even allow us to watch TV with them, lol. They have a huge backyard to play in and come and go as they please with a doggie door during the day. At night, they retire to their own dens/crates in the kitchen and/or the nursery.
Our females are only bred once a year, or less frequently, as deemed acceptable based on continued health. The decision to breed always is based on producing the next "Bright Star" for our Doxie Clan. All puppies are born and raised inside our home with immediate socialization. They are handled daily from birth and recieve neuro-stimulation exercises beginning at 3 days old (please email if you have questions on this technique). They are exposed to other people, pets, and children at appropriate ages during their 9-12 weeks with us. By the time of their adoption, they have wonderful temperaments, are housebroken, or well on the way to being, are current on all wormings and shots by our vet, and have been examined by our vet 3 times. They are guaranteed against life-threatening genetic defects. Our adopted babies will always be welcomed back to our home if necessary for any reason. None will ever knowingly be sold to pet stores, puppy mills, or brokers. All will only be released to approved homes based on our application for adoption.
We encourage people to visit and pick up their new puppy in person. This is for two reasons. One is for them to have the opportunity to meet us, the parents of the puppy, our other dogs, and to see how all live. The other is for us to be able to get acquainted with the adoptive parents. We do, however, ship if neccessary.
Degadageyusesdi (“Let us be good to one another”)
Debbie "Bright Star" Stuckey
OUR STORY
Our journey in the dachshund world is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Lewis Edley “White Cloud” Mullins, who named me “Bright Star”, and to my father, Thurman Delano "Star Gazer" Mullins. They, like us, believed that all living things are connected and accepted dogs as true family members. The name of our program is derived in honor of my name & related Cherokee heritage.
My husband, Tim, & me at our Fall 2007 Powwow
Bright Star and White Cloud
Fall 1999
Send us a smoke signal!
E-mail: BrightStarRN@hotmail.com Phone: 901-389-8800
BrightStar Cherokee DoxieTribe
"Village of the Dreamcatching Doxie Clan"
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Star Gazer & Bright Star
Spring 2005
Most have heard the statement "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass....
It's about learning to dance in the rain."
On this day, that is exactly what we did at our powwow. It was my father's way of daily living, believing life should be a celebration. In addition to being proud of his family, his heritage, and his Korean War service, he loved all of our dogs like they were his own. He looked forward to seeing our program grow. Sadly, Daddy passed away on Jan. 31, 2011.
