My name is Kelly de Meijer, Dutch and born in 1972. In 1980 when I was 7 years of age, the first Afghan hound female joined our family. As my mother became friends with the breeder who was active in showing and racing her Afghan Hounds I soon found myself visiting many dog shows and racing trainings as a really young girl. The dog shows I found awesome and fascinating and I loved to sit at the ring side and watch the Afghans, something I ‘ve been doing for many years. Looking back I feel it has been very educational and I am grateful today for having had that opportunity.

In 1989 mother and I started breeding under the Serra Parecis prefix, with our foundation female El Minja’s Midnight Sun, who was out of Ch. Boxadan Composition and El Khyrias Do Nothing. Last mentioned lines have always played a very big role in our breeding with here and there a step aside when we considered that wishful and/or necessary. We never had a large breeding program at Serra Parecis ( 11 litters in 23 years) but our combinations were and still are chosen carefully and have brought us what we hoped for. In 2003 I decided to have my own prefix, named Thuja. Thuja has produced three litters so far with Afghans that did me proud.

For a living I am working as a secretary at an engineer company. I am married to Gerard Toorenaar and mother to our 11 year old daughter Meeke. Our household counts 4 Afghans as well…

Since April 2012 I am involved in the Dutch Afghan Hound Club, a new club for Afghan breeders, owners and fanciers in the Netherlands. 

My job within the club is to keep an eye on the money being spent and next to that I am responsible for the e-magazine which is being edited every 2 months.

In 2003 I had the very same huge honor to judge your unofficial show… It was a wonderful experience and to me it is actually an even bigger honor to be asked again for this task 10 years later. I am tremendously looking forward to meeting the Scandinavian Afghans again.

Kind regards, Kelly de Meijer