ABRAHAM’S QUEEN OF HEARTS

Joe Abraham with the Queen.

Pepper’s owners were riding high on that win, and Mr. Abraham’s passion for competing against the best dogs in the world had him calling up his friend Mr. Boyles and asking him if he had known of any good bitches at 38-39 lbs. Mr. Boyles told Abraham about a bitch they called Queen of Hearts, and he said she was a bad, rough, hard mouthed bitch. Abraham got on the phone and called EZ to see if he was interested in selling his Queen bitch, but at that time she was not for sale. EZ had talked to Ricky Jones, and Ricky really wanted to go into the Queen with his Lou bitch. EZ was a bit nervous, as he knew Queen would be facing a bitch that the whole south had been talking about, but Abraham told him that if he defeated CH Lou he would give him X amount of dollars for her. The table was now set for the two baddest bitches in the south to fight for the crown, and those two bitches were Queen of Hearts and Ch Lou. The time had come and both bitches were prepared for war, they were fighting to get out of their corners, and upon release they met in the middle like two freight trains with Lou in the chest, which is exactly where she wanted to be. The gut and stifle killer Queen of Hearts is on the muzzle biting hard, and you can see Queen’s teeth punching holes clean through the muzzle of Lou. Queen then picks Lou out of her chest and at that point you can see clean down Lou’s muzzle to her tongue from all the holes being busted through it. Queen of Hearts begins to work Lou from front to back, by :28 there is no more CH Lou, and no one can believe what they had just witnessed. After the match Queen was taken to be washed off, and immediately after she was cleaned up she ran over and tore open a big bag of Eukanuba dog food and started to eat. After this match Queen of Hearts was purchased by Mr. Abraham of City Slick Kennels.

Joe Abraham takes over…
I remember how excited I was about being able to purchase Queen after she had won over the highly regarded Rebel Kennels CH Lou, and I remember telling EZ not to say anything to anyone about me buying her. Although Lou was a great test for Queen I personally seen her tested much harder while on my yard, and as much as I love a hard biting dog I love gameness just as much, and in the fastlane of bulldogs you better be game. Even though Queen was a champion you better believe she still had to show me what she was made of, but before I even thought about doing anything with her I made sure she had enough time to get to know me as well as me getting to know her. I had called a friend of mine who had some pretty rough females that were bigger than Queen and I told him that I had one that I wanted to look at. He knew what dog I had and what she was all about, so it was not like I was trying to sneak him or anything. I really wanted to take some of the punch out of Queen, so I placed her on the treadmill for 25 minutes at a good solid pace. I pulled her off the treadmill and got her into the box with a 46 lb female, and if I recall correctly Queen was sitting around 42 lbs. As we released them Queen went straight to the throat and began to throw the bigger bitch around like she was nothing, I just could not believe how powerful she was. It was only a matter of seconds before Queen was in the back end and it was easy to see that I didn’t let enough of the punch out of her, so at that point we stopped it and put a fresh female on her which was about the same size as the first one, and we ended up with the same results. Queen had seen 25 minutes of treadmill followed by two larger females for 20 minutes, and this was only one of the times I had checked her gameness and power against larger dogs. Queen of Hearts was very fast, powerful, and could bite harder than any dog that I had ever seen. This bitch loved what she was doing to you, and 20 minutes with her was a very long time. After Queen had passed all my tests with flying colors it was time to give Knapp a call to see if he would be willing to do his CH Pepper bitch, who was now a 4xw. Knapp was having a very hard time getting CH Pepper hooked, for the simple fact that the bitch had absolutely devastating mouth and power. I remember Roadblock saying that CH Pepper was one of the hardest biting dogs that he had ever seen, and in one showing she had bit the chest of a bitch and punctured her lung, killing her in no time at all. I made contact with CH Pepper’s owner and he was very excited about getting his bitch hooked, and he even told me that we could set it up to be on a show that he was having. After we worked out the details I gave EZ a call and told him that CH Queen of Hearts would be going for her grand championship against CH Pepper whom would be trying to accomplish the same feat.

Dogmen from all over came to see this one, the hype was unreal. EZ got into town a few days early, and when he saw Queen he said “that is the best I have ever seen her look”. As we arrived at the match site I had barely got one foot out of my van before I had people running up to me trying to get a bet. Believe it or not Queen was the underdog, and the only people betting with her were myself and the few gentlemen that I had brought with me. I remember Roadblock Kennels walking up to me and saying “you had better be ready, or this bitch is going to kill your Queen dog”, as she had killed one of Roadblock’s bitches in very short order as well. When Knapp and I met to go over the rules he handed me a big bag and said “this is to stuff your Queen of Hearts in”. I am not a big talker, and I knew it was only Knapp’s way of being funny so I didn’t make a big deal out of it. As I was walking to the box with Queen I was whispering to her “pit time”, and once Queen saw all the people she started screaming to go. It took all I had to hold her, I knew she was ready, this is what I had waited on from the beginning. I never thought twice about all that money that was placed on this match, it never crossed my mind not once. In my heart and soul I truly wanted to know who had the best bitch, it could have been for $5.00 or $500,000 money was not as important as glory. It was so quiet in there you could hear a pin drop, yet this was a big show filled with people, and at one point I even had to look around the room to make sure everything was still okay. I held onto Queen tightly in our corner as we got set for battle, it was now time for war and my Queen dog was ready Both bitches were fighting like hell to get loose, and upon release they met directly in the middle like a wrecking ball smacking against a solid steel wall, with Pepper in the chest and Queen to the face. It began to look like this would be a repeat of the match with Ch Lou, but just then Queen of Hearts began violently shaking Pepper up by her face while slinging blood all over the onlookers that sat pitside. It wasn’t long at all before Ch Pepper is coming out of that chest and Queen is driving her back into her corner. Queen shoots to the back stifle of Pepper and shakes the hell out of it, and it was easy to see that the stifle was no longer any good. From the stifle Queen goes right to the guts where she is biting very hard and working the hell out of it. Blood is being flung all over the people in the front row, and a couple of them actually said that pieces of meat landed on their laps. I could see that Queen had opened Pepper up really good in the gut area, and by :29 the referee has declared Ch Pepper a dead dog, making Queen of Hearts a grand champion. After the show was over Queen was awarded two trophies, one for “Best Female in Show” and the other for “Best in Show”, which were well deserved. After this many people began to believe that a good “head dog” would be able to win over the Queen, but I knew in my heart no matter what they came at her with she was going to give me 100%, and that’s all I cared about. I remember Roadblock having a slick “head dog” named Tater that I tried to hook Queen up with, but it never happened. I asked for Tater and I even had my friend Big Daddy ask Roadblock as well, so when I heard that Roadblock was telling others that he had offered Tater to us it kind of made me laugh a bit, but I didn’t make a big deal out of it because the real dogmen knew the truth. Tater was only 20 minutes away from Ch Pepper yet they never got together, and Roadblock did say that Ch Pepper was one of the hardest biting dogs he had ever seen, so it kind of makes you wonder why he never went at Pepper. Queen of Hearts superior biting power and aggressive fighting style was laid into the ears and mouths of dogmen world wide, so it was no wonder why challengers were looking for slick, game, and defensively smart dogs when contemplating a possible encounter with the Queen

Her next opponent was all three of those things mentioned.The next match came by way of Goodyear’s Lady, which was a 2xw that was known for her hard mouth and ability to stay out of trouble while still doing damage. Lady was really good on the head, and she was just a very strong bitch that was huge for her weight class. Before the match started a gentlemen had approached me and said “I’ll bet you that your Queen of Hearts dog will have to go over the hour mark to get past this one”. Well I will start off by saying that I had never made this kind of bet before, everyone including myself knows that you can’t count a good dog out, but I knew that if Queen got a hold of her that every bite would count, so we went ahead and wagered five thousand dollars that Queen of Hearts would never see the hour mark. After all the details were worked out the dogs were weighed, washed, and it was time to go. Both of these bitches came in screaming for war, and upon release Lady goes right to the head with Queen driving her back against the wall and shooting to the stifle. Lady is not willing to come off the head and Queen is still working that back stifle, but as she pushes for a better bite you can see the dark blood begin to leak from Lady, and from that point you can tell that it won’t be long. Lady tries to go for a better hold, and when she does Queen goes straight to the gut and is working it hard and fast. At :27 it is over, and Lady dies minutes later. The gentlemen that made the side bet with me on the time limit came up to me and said “One of the Havana Boys had told me that Queen of Hearts was the hardest biting bitch that he had ever seen, and if I didn’t just see it for myself I would have never believed it”. Seeing is believing, and once you got the chance to see the Queen you knew that all the hype was real. It wasn’t long before a new challenger had emerged, and when she came knocking it was in the form of Mr. Howard’s four time winning bitch CH Lady Beast. I had talked to Mr. Howard and he told me that he had spoke to Ricky Jones about my Queen dog and that he felt that he had the one that could stop her. I had never seen Beast before but I was always up for a challenge, and when I heard Rebel Kennels felt that Beast would be the one to bring the Queen to a halt I just knew this was going to be a great challenge for myself as well as Queen, so Mr. Howard and I set the date. I remember being at the match site and setting eyes on CH Lady Beast for the first time, it was no wonder why they called her “Beast”. She was just a beautiful dog, you could just look at her and see power in every glance, man…..that was a good looking bitch. Once we got into that box the lighting seemed a bit different, and it was at that point that everyone around the box could get a good look at these two colossal bitches that were preparing to do battle. They looked like they were chiseled right out of stone, and when we released them they met hard in the middle with Beast on the head and Queen in the throat. These bitches were working hard and fast and it wasn’t long at all before Queen was driving Mr. Howard’s champion into the wall by her throat. Queen was deep into the throat, and I knew she was biting really well when I saw CH Lady Beast come off of the head with her mouth open. At this point Queen is working the throat very hard and shaking the 4xw clean off her feet, and it’s easy to see that CH Lady Beast is fading away. As Beast begins to fade off, Queen shoots to the guts and has blood flying with every shake, and at :27 there is no more Beast. After the match Mr. Howard came up to me and said “That is more than just a good dog that you have there, that’s an ace!”

Queen had been very busy with her career, and with seven wins already under her belt I decided to go ahead and try for double grand champion. By this time it was very hard to get Queen a match, and you better believe that any challenger willing to call her out was going to be coming with a top notch animal. I didn’t match Queen this many times just because I enjoy gambling, I did it because I had a goal to achieve, and that goal was for 10 wins. A friend of mine eventually found me a match with a 2xw named J.Allen’s Miss Redboy, whom at the time I knew nothing about. I knew that the gentlemen who were bringing Miss Redboy had heard all about Gr Ch Queen of Hearts, so I knew that they really believed in their bitch and that she was going to be a really good dog. I was only about two weeks into the keep when a friend of mine called and said “I hear you are going into a really good one” and I told him that I didn’t really know anything about her at all. He explained to me that she was a Redboy/Eli cross that had shown to be very game and super slick on the head in her previous shows. Many people thought it was Ricky looking for some “get back” after finding the right antidote for the Queen, but I didn’t really care who it was or what they were bringing because I knew win, lose, or draw they were going to have a fight on their hands.

The time had finally arrived for us to do battle once again, and I remember pulling up to the spot and seeing a very muscular red dog being walked across the yard. I was not the only one that seen that red dog being walked out that evening, the Queen had seen her too. I remember her looking out one of the side windows of my van and spotting her, she began whining with a very high pitch, as she most always did when she really wanted something. After we went over all the details it was time to weigh, wash, and go to war. The time had come, and as I was going over the wall with Queen I remember Allen’s bitch having a look on her face that could stop a train dead in its tracks, if looks could kill then that would have been the one to do it. I am not too sure if Queen felt the same way about Miss Redboy’s facial expressions as I did, because once she laid eyes on her she began screaming and fighting like hell to get loose. Upon release both bitches meet in the middle with Queen to the throat and Miss Redboy trying to hold her out. Miss Redboy has just enough of Queen to prevent her from getting in too deep. Both dogs are working hard for a better position and from the throat Queen zeros in on the back end and is driving Miss Redboy backwards faster than she can go. As Queen slams her into the wall she gets right in on a stifle and within a matter of seconds she is shaking the hell out of it and springing leaks. At :19 you could see and hear Queen break the back stifle of Miss Redboy, and at :22 Miss Redboy is picked up and saved, making Gr Ch Queen of Hearts an 8xw.

The Queen’s Production & Family Out of eight opponents only three of them lived, but no dog has ever scratched back into the Queen of Hearts. She was just an incredible bitch from a great litter. Although she was the most devastating of her littermates, they too were very powerful and aggressive as well. Queen was a littermate to WCC’s Spanky (POR),WCC’sMavis 2xw, and Walker’s TBoy 2xw.

What I loved most about the Queen was her work ethic, she was just a very hard worker, and I just loved that about her. Not only did Queen have an extremely hard bite, but she was incredibly fast and powerful as well, making her a force to be reckoned with. Queen was only bred once before I got her, and that breeding was to Henry B’s Ch Mr. Rogers. I pretty much allowed Queen to do what she was bred to do, and it’s because of that why she was not bred all that much. I bred Queen to a 1xw that I had named Abraham’s Headache, he was a litter mate to J.Rod’s Gr Ch Midnight and was registered as Indian’s Clancy. I only sold one dog from this breeding named Hotshot 1xw, and that was to Big Daddy which was a close friend of mine. I had his litter mate brother that I called Blackout 2xw that I had won twice with over two very good dogs. What I didn’t keep from this breeding I put with family members and friends that were not into fighting dogs and were more or less just animal lovers. I only did this because I knew that they would be taken care of and I would always have breeding access to them. We use to actually joke with one of my friends because she had those suckers so inbred that it would actually make you laugh. They got a male and female from this litter and before you know it they were stuck together. Every time a litter was born one of the kids would always fall in love with one or two of the pups, and next thing you know they got 5-6 dogs all bred exactly the same and then they are breeding those pups together. I remember getting a letter from a guy that I knew and he was telling me “Ace, they are over their breeding them damn dogs so tight that I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw one with three eyeballs”. I wrote to them and explained that they would need to out-cross if they planned on having some solid dogs, but they didn’t care what I had to say, those dogs were just pets to them. I made sure I had another one of my friends go over there and give them some of the stuff that I had bred down from Queen X Big Daddy’s Ch Stranger and my son of Stp’sGr Ch Buck named Bull, which still was not much of an out-cross, but it was better nothing. Big Daddy’s Ch Stranger was a very good dog that I had bred Queen of Hearts to, she was also bred to a Redboy dog I had named Jim Daddy 1xw, as well as STP’s Gr Ch Buck 7xw.

Probably the most well known dog that I had off Queen of Hearts was from the breeding to STP’s Gr Ch Buck, and his name was Abraham’s Bull 1xw. I won with Bull over a 2xw that many thought he had no chance of beating. Now Bull didn’t have the mouth that Queen had, but he did have the gameness of his father buck, along with Queen’s power. The dogs off of Bull could bite like hell, they were relentless in the throat but would not hesitate to tear into your face, and they were game as can be. Because of this Bull was not bred off my yard very much at all until 1998. Last I heard Bull was bred up until he died at the age of 13, and he produced well no matter what he was bred to. A friend of mine went and bred to Bull on WCC’s yard, and when he got there he thought Bull was a young dog by the way he was running around all wild and crazy, jumping on and off of his dog house, and if I am not mistaken that breeding was the one that produced Ch Saddam and Ch Ms Jackson, making Bull ROM. Every time I ever bred Gr Ch Queen of Hearts it was to a very game dog. The blood still carries on strong but is much harder to come by unless you know the right people. Many who have ever saw the Queen in person will say that she was the hardest biting dog that they have ever seen. The Queen will always be a part of my heart, and the blood will continue to live on through her offspring as well as my own. Long live one of the best match dogs to ever grace the sport, Abraham’s Gr Ch Queen of Hearts.