A true story · 25 years

With Eyes
Like Velvet

25 Years of Breeding Chow Chows

Two people. Twenty-five years. The dogs who changed their lives — and the love that made every moment matter.

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With Eyes Like Velvet book cover
What awaits you inside

This is more than a book about dogs. It is a journey through life.

Within these pages, you will discover true stories told with love, honesty, and emotion.

You may smile. You may laugh out loud. And somewhere along the way, you may find yourself wiping away a tear.

You will discover Chow Chows beyond their magnificent appearance. You will come to know their unique personalities, their pride, their tenderness, and the extraordinary ways in which they show their love.

And as you turn the pages, you won’t simply be reading about the life Charis and Katerina shared with them.

You will feel as though you have lived a part of that life yourself.

And who knows? Perhaps when you reach the final page, you’ll find yourself turning back to the first. Not because you’ve forgotten the story, but because you’ll want to live it all over again.

Behind the pages

Not just a book about dogs.

For 25 years, Charis and Katerina shared their lives with Chow Chows. This is a story of beginnings, difficult choices, unforgettable companionship, and farewells that never truly leave us.

From the arrival of Deko to the generations that followed, every chapter holds a piece of a life lived together.

Portrait of Deko without his lead
Deko — the dog who changed our plans
A thought from the book
“Breeding begins long before puppies are born — and continues long after they leave your home.”
From the pages

A Glimpse Inside the Book

Four true moments from a journey of love, laughter, difficult choices and loss.

The Storm

There are periods in life that you remember as a series of events.

And there are others you remember as a single moment, even though they lasted for days.

For us, it was fifteen days.

Fifteen days.

Until then, the kennel had been growing.

We had begun to look ahead. Tigee had become a mother. Expee and Dekay were getting ready to follow her.

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There was Fame.

Only fifteen months old.

A young dog who hadn’t yet had the chance to grow into herself, and whom we were already looking at as a small piece of the future.

And suddenly, she fell ill.

A few days earlier, we had taken Fame with us to a show.

She hadn’t gone to compete. She was still young. We simply wanted her to start getting used to the show environment.

The people.

The noise.

All the dogs.

The crowds.

She had become very stressed.

So when, a little later, she showed the first symptoms, we turned to our vet.

His first assessment was that what we were seeing might be related to the intense stress she had been through at the show.

He gave us vitamins.

At that point, we had no reason to question his assessment.

We trusted him.

So we waited to see Fame recover.

Continue the story in the book.

The Dog Who Changed Our Plans

Deko came into our lives after Li Jin.

That alone could have been dangerous.

When you have lost a dog you loved so much, there is always the temptation to search the next one for something of the one who left.

A look.

A movement.

A character.

Something to remind you.

Deko very quickly made sure to free us from that temptation.

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He didn’t resemble anyone.

And, above all, he had no intention whatsoever of becoming the second Li Jin.

Deko had come to become the first Deko.

When he arrived, he was about two months old.

Small.

Very small.

One of those puppies you look at and find it hard to imagine will one day become the imposing dog you see in the photographs of adults.

There was just one problem.

Deko didn’t seem to know he was small.

His body may have been tiny.

His personality was not.

From very early on, there was a strange dignity about him. A way of standing, of looking, of observing the space around him as if he had already arrived fully grown and was simply waiting for his body to catch up.

It was as if no one had told him he was a puppy.

And the more he grew, the more obvious this became.

Slowly, his body began to catch up with the personality that was already inside him.

Little Deko began to become the dog Yolanda had seen long before we did.

Deko.

Strong.

Imposing.

Aristocratic.

With that kind of presence that doesn’t need to make any noise to be felt.

And at the same time, a dog deeply bonded to us.

Affectionate when he wanted to be affectionate.

But always Deko.

There are dogs you can describe with adjectives.

And there are dogs it’s better to let introduce themselves.

Deko belonged to the second kind.

We understood that very well one day at a conformation show.

Continue the story in the book.

Bibi Came Home

Bibi was the son of Zuck and Creamy.

He left us at two months old and went to a couple who loved him and took great care of him.

Later, they also took Naomi, Naki’s sister.

For a while, everything was just as we would have wanted it to be.

Except that human lives change. And sometimes, when people’s lives change, the lives of their dogs change along with them.

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The couple split up.

The dogs stayed with the man.

Naomi died after eating poison bait.

And somewhere along the way, Bibi’s life began to change too.

“Bring Him to Us”

At some point, we found out that the man who had Bibi was looking to give him away.

I called.

At first, I didn’t know exactly what the situation was.

But as we talked, I began to understand.

Bibi was no longer the dog we had handed over four years earlier.

He had been left in the yard without the care he needed. Without the necessary parasite protection, and without the care any dog should have.

There was nothing to discuss.

The answer came out almost on its own:

“Bring him to us.”

Before he came back, we asked for tests to be done.

We had other dogs at home, and we needed to know there was nothing contagious that could put them at risk.

Because responsibility toward Bibi couldn’t mean irresponsibility toward the others.

And then he came.

The sight of him was hard to take.

He had almost no front mane left.

Fleas had tormented him terribly.

His tail, which on a Chow Chow is part of its whole picture, had been reduced almost to a bare stick.

He had sores on his hind legs.

We looked at Bibi and tried to find, somewhere in that sight, the puppy who had left us four years before.

Continue the story in the book.

What Does It Really Mean to Be a Breeder?

A litter doesn’t make you a breeder.

Nor does a pedigree.

Nor does a trophy.

Nor does a champion.

These can be part of breeding. They are not breeding.

Breeding is choosing today for a dog that has not yet been born.

Looking at the dog in front of you and thinking about the one that may come after.

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Knowing what you want to keep.

Recognizing what you need to improve.

And having the courage to stop something that shouldn’t go on.

A breeder is not someone who always knows what to do.

It is someone who knows that every decision they make will have consequences long after the moment they made it.

Over the years, you learn to observe more and rush less.

You learn that “I don’t know” is nothing to be ashamed of.

That “no” can be just as important as “yes.”

And that sometimes the best decision for your breeding program is not to breed at all.

Not every good dog needs to become a breeding dog.

But every breeding dog needs to have a reason for becoming part of the next generation.

A breeder doesn’t create perfect dogs.

They don’t exist.

A breeder tries to make the next generation a little better, without losing what was worth keeping in the last.

And even that isn’t a promise.

It’s an effort.

Because however much you plan, however much you study, however much you learn, in the end you are working with life.

And life doesn’t sign contracts.

Perhaps that is why experience doesn’t make you more certain.

It makes you more careful.

At first, you look for answers.

After many years, you learn to be a little more wary of easy answers.

Knowledge gives you options.

Experience teaches you which of them not to take.

But there is something more.

The dog that never became part of your breeding program is worth no less.

Continue the story in the book.

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The book

With Eyes Like Velvet

25 Years of Breeding Chow Chows. A personal story of love, responsibility, and life shared with extraordinary dogs.

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