Remembering Melodye Wagner

11/23/45 - 2/25/08

Melodye and Chuck Wagner started Vahhala basset Hounds in 1974 with a combination of Forrestbay Lyn Mar and Santana Lines. They were extremely successful in their endeavour to breed and show good quality basset hounds and bred about 75 champions and successfully specialled a number of top winning hounds.

Notable hounds for Vahhala at this time were Vahhala's Harriet ROM, Ch. Vahhala's Special Issue ROM,CD,CGC, Ch. Vahhala's Retsof Diana ROM and her son Ch. Deer Hill's Chance Connection ROM who Melodye co-bred and is the sire of the famous Ch. Deer Hill's Great Gatsby ROM the #1 Top Winning Basset for 1998, and the #2 Top Winning Dog for All breeds for 1998. and Vahhala's Miss Print, ROM.

After Melodye and Chuck divorced, Melodye continued on to breed and still had an impact on the breed producing further Champions including Canadian & Am Ch Vahhala’s Starchaser who went on to number #2 basset in Canada.

Vahhala bassets have had a strong impact on the breed with the Vahhala prefix showing up behind many of today’s pedigrees

In the earlier years Melodye exported Ch Vahhala Retsof Slugger to Margaret Webber, and this dog went on to certainly make his mark on the bassets in Australia.

Like all true breeders, Melodye still dreamed of breeding that “perfect basset” and she believed she had come as close as she was going to get when she bred Am Ch & Aust Grand Ch Vahhala’s Dreamchaser who was exported to Chris Lawrence in Australia and went on to become the top basset in Australia for 6 years, top hound in South Australia for 2 years and a top producer siring 27 champions to date including American, Canadian, Japanese, New Zealand and Australian Champions.

During recent times Melodye was fighting a debilitating and terminal illness but her love for her basset hounds kept her going. Her beloved Vahhala’s Miss Print ROM (Misty) Ch Vahhala’s Thumbprint (Thumper) Ch Vahhala’s Jazz Singer (Singer) each in their turn were her reason to get up in the morning and gave her the will to live.

Melodye lived the last few years of her life following and enjoying “Chasers” Australian dream show career, and loving and caring for his daughter Singer.

Melodye my heart is heavy. I will miss you

Your friend Chris

Goodbye sweet Melodye. You were always loving, caring and hopeful

to the max despite the many challenges you faced in this world.

I will miss your posts, your vast knowledge and willingness

to share it with others, your lovely way of putting a phrase

or a thought in writing, and most of all your truly deep love

for your dogs, your breed and your fellow humans. I feel

privileged to have "known" you through this list.

Rest in heaven, Dear One.

Linda Zimmerman

Mel, honey, we will miss you but we will never ever forget you.

Lenna O’Neil

Oh I am so sorry to hear this! She was always so chipper and had a good word and congratulations to everyone. When I was in trouble, she called me, even though we had never met. Wonderful, caring person! She will be missed. I'm sorry she didn't get to see her Singer one more time. May that woman who has her, get her due!

Rest in peace Melodye, we will all miss you!

Gail Ferguson

This is certainly sad, but Melodye passed as she would have wished, at

home, and not in the Hospital.

We all will remember her spirit and how we could always count on a

comment when it came to dog talk.

She has been missed over the last couple of months and it certainly

made the day brighter when we knew she was posting.

Catherine Cargo

Chris your accomplishments with Chaser gave her the most pleasure these last years. And Ginger, you making it possible for Singer to finish her championship was another happy time for her. I know belonging to this list was a very important link to her and the outside world.

I will miss her very much.

Vicki Sabo

Needless to say, I’m very sad at this moment.

I’ve felt a special bond with melodye ever since I first met her and I

will miss her horribly. I’m sure everyone else here feels just as sad

as I do. The dog world is missing a special person.

Ginger Corley

I remember being at some little show in Kentucky back sometime at the end

of the 70s, and Bobby Barlow taking me to look at a Basset he wanted me to

see. That dog was Melodye's "Pretty Boy." I never forgot him. When she

joined the list, I talked to her about him...of course, she didn't remember

me, but we talked about the dog and about Bobby..........

and when Singer's litter was born, and we all gave our opinions about

the litter, I thought she was doing so well to keep on keeping on in spite

of no money and poor health......and to have something as lovely as Singer

to go on with.........

now she won't be going on..........

Chris, you have quite a legacy to live up to...I'm so glad you have

that boy of yours, to keep Melodye's work from disappearing!!!!!

When Melodye gets to heaven, she will see a lot of her old time dog

friends there at what Bill Kendrick used to call "the big dog show in the

sky."

Peggy Mickelson

was saddened to read the news of Melodye's passing, So now I hope that it means she's happily in a better place, and that she's enjoying the great dog show up in the sky.

Be peaceful, Mel - we'll all miss you here.

Kathi Gangi

Somehow Melodye seemed to represent to me the link between the old breeders

and the new. Her legacy went back to the old days when breeders bred dogs

that anyone could recognize and did it year after year. Look what she bred

in the twilight of her years. Most of the newer breeders come and go and

leave nothing behind, no sense of history or struggle. Hopefully she died

in her sleep at home which is where she wanted to be. So many on this list worked hard to

help a fellow dog person they didn't even know except by phone and e-mail.

May she rest in peace at last

Mary Jane Frederickson

I only knew Melodye a short period of time but found her to be warm,

funny and witty. I would like to think that now she is no longer

trapped in a sickly body and she will now be with Singer in spirit.

And if the doors happen to go "thump" and other things fall off the

shelves at this other person's house it will be Melodye's way of

letting her know she's still around.

Patte Titus

This is just so very very sad and devastating - I have had this pheumonia twice and it was really bad and I am still not over it so for Melodye, in her stressed condition, her body had nothing left to fight with.

I am just so sad....

She was looking forwad to the Louisville shows in a couple of weeks and seeing friends.

I am just stunned with the news.

Janet Robinson

This is so sad to hear. As Christi said. truly the end of an era, but her legacy lives on with Chaser and Chase and Singer.

Sympathies to her family. I will miss her wise cracking, and her Mizz P,, et al. God Bless you, Melodye. Rest well in Vahalla.

Phyllis McNall

I'm so saddened. I know we all

knew it was only a matter of time but yet she seemed to rally time and

again for much longer than expected. Easy to expect it just one more

time. I'm just sick and sad. An era has truly passed with her. I know

I'm personally enriched by having known her as she was always encouraging,

though she had been done wrong so many times by others.

Christi Kirby

I will miss her wonderful view of life, her strength, her wisdom and her

knowledge which she so willingly shared.

Rest in Peace dear friend.

Sincerely

Adele M

She will be greatfully missed.

My heart goes out to her family at this time.

May she rest in peace and know we all loved her and respected her .

Shirley Newby-Tate

I to am sorry to hear about Melodye passing. She gave her all to be here.

Singer stories and Melodye will be missed.

Beth G.