Sunny proved to be very trainable. The members of Mid-Florida Golden Retriever Club were supportive of this new golden family and suggested that we register him with AKC, so that he could earn obedience titles. Through them, we learned that with an ILP number, a dog of unknown lineage but with identifiable breed type, could indeed participate in AKC obedience. We gave him a more masculine name, "Sonny Crockett", for one of the characters on the "Miami Vice" TV series. Sonny earned a CD and CDX with Rob as trainer-handler, and a WC with Joanna as trainer-handler. It became clear that if Sonny Crockett was someone's "throw-away", this was a great breed.
About eighteen months after Sonny came into our household, Rob was offered another dog to train - one that had been returned to his breeder as lacking the confidence to be trained. This turned out to be Sandpiper's Fortune Cookie, CDX JH WCX VC. Chance also gave Rob his first experience in the breed ring and juniors ring- and we were all hooked. Because of Chance, we decided that we ought to select a kennel name. Our first choice was "Fortune" and we were going to use the slogan "It's the upkeep." But someone else had previously registered that name with the Golden Retriever Club of America. At the time, Rob was studying piano, and was learning the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata. He suggested the kennel name "Moonlight" because, like the piano, dogs were not easy, but they were very satisfying.
In 1990 we obtained our first bitch, Gosling's Driving Miss Daisy. Two and a half years later, we bred Daisy to Ch Daystar's Tornado Warning WCX, producing our first litter. It turned out to be extraordinarily successful, producing three conformation champions, Ellie, Einstein and Lincoln.
Only a month later, our second litter (Chance x Sunfire's Heavenly Hash JH WC) was born, which included Pepper, our first Utility Dog.
Since then, we have produced no more than one or two litters a year, only when we believe that we can improve the stock we have. We have (so far) had two GRCA Outstanding Dams based upon titles earned by their offspring, including efforts in the breed ring, obedience, field and agility.
In 1998 we relocated to upstate South Carolina (it being necessary to have a job to support these dog-related activities.) Here we bought 22 acres of land and built a house. We have taken advantage of the space we have, including putting in a small field-training pond, which appears in a few of the photographs on this website.
