I got Solei in July 2007, as an almost three year old. He's a Phalene, which is a drop-eared Papillon - the moth instead of the butterfly. He's my first dog (as opposed to a family dog) and also my first show dog! He's my soul mate and I don't know what I did without him! He sleeps on my bed, goes almost everywhere with me and we have a lot of fun in the show ring as well!

In the UK Phalenes are shown as a variety of Papillon, but they're still a very rare breed and a lot of judges either don't like them or sometimes don't even know what they are! It's slowly getting better but it's still very hard to do well with a Phalene, against the Papillons. Even so Solei has qualified for Crufts every year since he was old enough, except 2007 when he wasn't shown at all to qualify, and has got some placements in very large classes! The only time we get Phalene classes are at the Papillon Clubs shows and at those he's got numerous Best Phalene Dogs as well as 3 Best Phalene in Shows.