We went to our first Deerhound Breed Show in the early 1990’s at East Grinstead and had asked Dr Phyllis Poyner-Wall if we could sell our postcards there. We were pleased to find that the cards sold well with the money raised going to support our St Hubert’s Hound Sanctuary. The most memorable aspect of the show was the mud and rain and Miss Noble organising races for the hounds. Bran won us a bottle of wine and a strong reprimand from Miss Noble about using a Gaelic affix which no one in England would understand! Ardkinglas, Miss Noble’s own affix, was not Gaelic but of course comes from Gaelic – we didn’t mention that. However, Cusidh it was and still is and hence the Cusidh Cards.

The early cards featured Ardkinglas Pattie, our foundation bitch from Miss Noble, called Beulah. We did have a Deerhound before Beulah called Binnorie, who sadly died of cancer at a young age and I never wanted another or so I thought. When we got Beulah we never showed her but had a litter so that I would never go through the loss of a single Deerhound again. Beulah had a large litter of 15 but as we were inexperienced we unfortunately lost some and 10 survived.We kept a boy Bran and a girl Bracken who was Cusidh Colly Moon (the dark moon of our pedigree).

The first card was titled ‘Beulah’s Brood’*. Beulah is on the card in classical pose, with her litter all wearing collars, a practice later discontinued I may add.

Another early card affectionately known as ‘Gorillas in the Mist’* featured Bran and Beulah at Tentsmuir Forest, Fife.

The card with the two Deerhounds at the water* was taken near Burntisland around Mossmorran in a peat area that still had the original railtracks for peat transportation present. There was a large valley there with steep sides which we called the ‘OK Corral’ which provided great fun. The Deerhounds shown are Bran and Cruit mo Chridhe who was a litter sister of Bran and Bracken who also stayed with us for a time.

Here are the three sisters at Mossmorran in the heather* which was growing on a large scale on the peaty soil, making a wonderful display for another scottish setting for the deerhounds.

Maggie was also the subject of our most popular card ‘Paws for Thought’.

This is a later card of Maggie* which caught the reflection of the trees in the water and this was always one of my favorites.

We went Scottish mad with our card of Bracken as ‘Alba’ who was posing in a wonderful wooden dog bed made by Peter Nicholson of Auchtertool, Fife who had also taken a pup from this litter called Lindsay.

Lindsay features in her own bed in the card ‘Leezie Lindsay or Elizabeth Lindsay, the title of a Scottish song – as indeed is the name Maggie Lauder.

Another popular card with Bracken, Bran and Maggie was the ‘Great Outdoors’ * with the Deerhounds on our own red sofa which had to be dragged outside for the scene!

The hounds didn’t just sit around on sofas and another card wasof the same group along with Beulah taken at Tenstmuir after the hounds had been for a swim and a run on the beach.

We went to the beech a lot with this litter of puppies so here are a few monre postcards taken at Tenstmuir. This is Bran* splashing around and a card that was a lucky shot when the hounds seemed to be lining up for a country dancing display. So it had to be called the 'Foursome Reel'.

Finally, a further pup from this first litter was'Jock o' Hazeldean' (another Scottish song)who was photographed in a studio for his owners Brigette and Robert who live near us in Fife and now have a Deerhound ‘Jeanie’ from a subsequent Cusidh litter.

Subsequent generations continued to be photographed by James Lowe and others and these cards will feature in another article later.

SPECIAL OFFER - Mixed packs of 10 cards, featured in the postcard articles, are available for £4.50 (inc. UK post and packing) or £5.50 (inc. Europe post and packing).

Please note that cards marked with * are no longer available.