From the start, we knew that Rita would be a character. When she finished her Championship with Shelley, it took a while for the word to get to Vicki and Melissa because...Rita had eaten the cell phone. Soon after finishing her championship, she moved to Florida and started her specials career with Linda Pincheck and Jan Brungard, who conditioned her well and took several group placements. Linda handled her for the 2005 ABTCC National Specialty Best in Specialty Show win in Raleigh and she finished 2005 rated #1 in Best of Breed Coonhounds defeated.

Following the Westminster KC show in 2006, Rita went for a couple weeks with Tim Gains and took mutiple group placements. Ultimately, she stayed with Tim for about 2 1/2 years, picking up several group wins and many group placements. In both 2006 and 2007, she finished in the top 3 among coonhounds for Total Dogs defeated and Best of Breed Coonhounds defeated.

Rita was retired from showing in the summer of 2008 and we are looking forward to breeding her first litter.