[pyrnet] Suddenly - Maremma!!

[Michael Bishop <agarthan@uq.net.au>]

OK.

I've wanted a Pyr for years but my [short] wife was put off by the size
[compared to her] and drool [as she has seen on the few Pyrs we've met
in Queensland]. I've followed this mailing list for years and years and
found out as much as I could about Pyrs in the hope of being prepared
for owning one - eventually...

For ages the breed has been a longing for me, unthinkable for her, and -
as a result - quite a divisive issue for us as a couple.

Well, Thursday night I was walking through the local shopping centre,
and I spied two fluffballs in the petshop window. AHA! I thought... but
they weren't Pyrs - they were Maremmas!!

I didn't even know the breed *existed* until that night! 

Once I found out they were shorter and lighter than - but otherwise very
similar to - what I know about Pyreneans, I communicated all this to
Sandra,

To cut a long story short, we bought one!!! Today - Saturday - *two
days* after I discovered that they exist!! (and a good deal of internet
breed-research later).

She's very calm, gets on well with our Silky Terrier, big black moggy
and petite siamese girl, and seems [for us] the pyrfect (!!) acquisition
- given that I was never realistically going to have a Pyr (well, while
my wife and I shared the same roof - or bed)...

So! All this leads me to two vital questions:

1) Does anyone here know anything I should know about Maremmas?
2) Is there an equivalent mailing list to the Pyr-ML that focusses on
the Maremma breed?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer on this - and many thanks for all
the insights into (in general) big white European herding breeds that
this list and its contributors have imparted to me over the years!
 
P.S. We've called her Scully - because we expect her to be the strong
female character in the household!!!

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Michael Bishop                      .
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