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In real life my name is Kim.  This is not a nickname for Kimberly, or any form of that name.  I was named after a character in the old television series, Hawaiian Eye, which was popular at the time.  Kim was the taxi driver on the show, played by Hawaiian actor Poncie Ponce.  I was born in Woodland, California in 1963.  No brothers or sisters.  I was addicted to television from a VERY early age.  And to animals!  The Blue Boy in my story, A Mountain of Possibilities, was my first "pet" and I received him as a gift from my aunt Juanita shortly after my birth!!  He didn't get a name until I was about 5 years old though, when I named him after Blue Boy in the tv western series, The High Chaparral!

I'm an animal fanatic.  I have raised, trained, showed, groomed many species of animals.  My favorites being rabbits, cavies and dogs, specifically American Cocker Spaniels.  I studied veterinary technology, but never completed the degree, ending up with one in Early Childhood Education, instead.  That was a long time ago!!  Ended up running a family daycare home for 10 years, but eventually got out of that as I learned to groom and show the Cockers.  Groomed dogs for over 10 years.  Helped Quinn earn titles as an Agility Dog and Canine Good Citizen (both before the AKC took over those events,) and Gemini to a Companion Dog title in obedience.  I bred Quinn only once before it was discovered that their mother, Ebony (Ebony's Easter Pansy, CGC) had cataracts, although they never completely blinded her.  Ebony later died of throat cancer ... very rare in dogs.  She'd had one surgery, but the cancer returned.  Ebon was a smart old gal, learning hand signals after she became deaf.  Quinn eventually developed a cataract in one eye, hypothyroidism and later liver cancer.  Gemini was never bred.  She was my baby.  She had survived parvo-virus at 10 weeks old, but it had stunted her growth.  She was a very slim, petite young lady.  Almost dainty.  I always worried that her pelvis/hips were not wide enough for a normal birth.  She began to develop cataracts while we were working on her first obedience title.  She was an extremely intelligent dog and I know could have earned more titles, but after a while it was obvious how blind she was becoming.  She eventually developed mammary cancer, which was caught early and removed.  She also became hypothyroid.  Both she and Quinn did well on the medication for that, though.  She finally developed glaucoma in both eyes.  After Quinn died, she was never the same.  They had been inseparable, especially after their mother had died.  And without Quinn to guide her, she was always running into things, which made the pain from the glaucoma unbearable for her.  So on her tenth birthday, I let her go.

Why QuinGem?

Many people wonder about my online ID.  I began using it in 1988, when Quinn and Gemini were still babies.  It is a contraction of both of their names.  I first used it as my vanity license plate (which I still have!) and have continued to use it ever since.  My biggest pet peeve is when people assume that I will accept being called Quin or Gem or QG or some other shortening of the name.  I will not.  When I see someone address me as anything but the entire name, I cringe.  It is like a slap in the face of either Quinn's or Gemini's memory when part of the name is left out.  Some people think it is funny that I will get upset about something like this.  I don't think it is funny, I think it is offensive and hurtful.  Quinn and Gemini came into my life at a time when I really needed them and made my life worth living.  Using their names together keeps their memory alive for me and is my way of continuing to honor them for as long as I live.

I currently have 3 Chihuahuas and 2 cats.  The Chis are from my last breedings and the cats are all rescues.  

Precious Esperanza Eterna (Espe) was born in Fountain, Florida on September 17, 1999.  Her name means Eternal Hope.  She is sable in color and is marked like a German Shepherd Dog!  Her aunt (who is actually younger than her!) is Precious Jorgelina Nina (Jorgy Girl) and she was born February 22, 2000 (George Washington's birthday, hence her name!) in Chipley, Florida.  Jorgy is chocolate brindle in color.  And my very last litter resulted in the black and white creature known as Coni.  She had a brother, Pepe who was stillborn.  Coni is Precious Esperanza Constanza (meaning Constant Hope.)  She was my first and only Long-Coat Chihuahua and is marked like a Border Collie.  She looks like a miniature Border Collie, but is 100% Chihuahua!  Espe is her mother and Jorgy is her half-sister as well as her great-aunt!  She was conceived in Fountain, Florida, but was born in West Sacramento, California on August 12, 2000.

Coni was born with an hereditary defect known as demodectic mange.  This is a non-contagious form of mange and is controllable to a certain extent.  I discovered after breeding Espe that at least one of the stud's ancestors also had this defect, but could find none in the history of my lines.  But, Espe had to have been a carrier in her genes, also.  I made the decision not to breed again because, as with Cockers and so many other breeds, there are just too many defects that have become out of control in purebred dogs.  When I took the 3 Chihuahuas to be spayed, I also discovered that Espe had an ,until then, unknown heart defect that had not been discovered in the past.  They refused to operate, due to the anesthesia risk!  That was over 5 years ago and she is still going strong!  She had 1 stroke 3 years ago and took about 3 months to recover fully, but she has.  She occasionally has trouble breathing if she plays too hard with Coni, but she seems to know when she needs to rest, so I let her do as she wants.

Now, the cats I have are the last of my rescue cats.  I lived in Florida for 7 years and did a lot of dog and cat rescue.  At one point I had 17 cats and over 20 dogs (including the Rat Terriers and Chihuahuas that I was breeding ...)

Cougar, Too (Yes, that's his name ... he is named after a cat I had many years before named Cougar Kitten!) was rescued here in California 14 years ago.  He was born March 30, 1992.  He is a chocolate tabby and has a birth defect in his pelvis and tail, so it looks like his tail is a corkscrew.  It also caused nerve damage and when he was about 5 he was hospitalized because the nerves to his bladder stopped working.  Whatever the medication was that they gave him, it worked and he has not had a problem with that since.  He now has arthritis in his hips and if he plays too hard, he is really stiff for a few days afterward.

Candace was my only Florida rescue to stay with us and move to CA.  She is a black and white Persian cross.  I rescued her on my birthday one year.  She seemed to be fairly healthy at the time, but a short time later, she developed a severe inner ear infection and the resulting "wry neck" has debilitated her ever since.  She was confined to a cage for nearly a year and could barely walk or care for herself due to vertigo.  She was on constant medication.  She is now about 90% recovered after almost 9 years.  She just has a very slight twist to her neck and occasionally has trouble judging distance when she jumps on something. She's a fiesty gal.

My very last rescue was Cherokee.  She is blue and white, with medium/long hair.  She was born behind the apartments we live in.  Her mother was one of the local "dumpster kitties" that we started feeding that I had dubbed Priscilla.  She was a gorgeous tortoiseshell, but untouchable.  And constantly pregnant!  She had a litter in November, 2000, hidden in the bamboo of the empty lot next door.  At about 4 weeks old (just before Christmas) the kittens started to venture out into the cold.  Of course, they were not the healthiest little things since mama was overbred and starving herself.  There were about 30 adult cats roaming around at the time, so a lot of competition for food, even though there were several of us leaving food out.  One day when I went out to feed them, I found one of the black kittens dead.  And then I saw some movement in the leaves, reached out and grabbed an almost lifeless body.  That was one of the few times she has ever allowed me to touch her!  She was nearly dead and very cold.  She weighed about 7 ounces, if that.  She spent her first week with us in a cage on a heating pad and being fed with a dropper, but then decided to live.  She quickly became attached to old Cougar and he has been her doting big brother ever since.  She still thinks she lives in the wild and humans are evil, so she has never really become a tame cat.  She won't allow us to touch her; she runs and hides.  If Cougar is in another room, she cries and cries for him until he gets annoyed enough to go see what she wants and then she quiets down!  I do believe that she developed some brain damage as an infant, but she is a beautiful girl.  Hopefully some day she will decide that we aren't that bad to be around!

UPDATE!  Cherokee died on June 7, 2006.  It was sudden and unexpected.  She was 5.5 years old.

My Stargate obsession started about five years ago.  I had seen the original movie, of course.  But, not having Showtime, I missed out on the series until it came to SciFi and syndication.  I had enjoyed Richard Dean Anderson for many years, first on Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and then on MacGyver.  So I looked forward to his newest endeavor based on a movie I really enjoyed!  When I finally saw an episode, I was hooked!  And not because of Rick!  There was this gorgeous long-haired kid playing Daniel Jackson.  Michael Shanks ... who the heck was he!  I knew I had seem him somewhere before, but he looked different.  Then I found out he had been on Highlander (which I also love!) and remembered the doomed character he had played.  And I had also seen Escape from Mars and loved the character he played (he was the only redeeming thing about that movie, in my opinion, and that was before I knew he was on Stargate!)

Very early on, I realized there was "something" different about the characters of Colonel Jack O'Neill and young Doctor Daniel Jackson.  I noticed it in the movie, actually.  But, then I didn't watch the series from the very beginning.  Not exactly.  I somehow acquired a VHS tape of Children of the Gods not long after I heard that the show would be coming to some channels that I would be able to watch it on.  I watched the tape and thought, Oh, My god.  The boy is moving in with him!!  The scene in the hall and then at Jack's house were fantastic.  And the briefing room scene where he says he has to be on the team ... Jack gives the general this look that, to me, speaks volumes about how Jack feels about Daniel.  Then the show starts in SEASON FIVE.  I was so disappointed that they weren't starting from the beginning.  It took a while, but they finally started from episode one and I was again disappointed to find that the episodes were edited and the crucial bonding scenes were missing from Children of the Gods.  No wonder a lot of people don't get that Jack and Daniel are together ... they haven't had the privelege of viewing the love story from the beginning!  Anyway, right after I began watching the series, I started looking up information on the show to find out what had happened in the earlier seasons.  I clicked a link here and there and eventually ended up joining a few yahoogroups.  Then saw a link for some fanfiction.  Then read a story called The Art of Frottage by Joy Anne Baker!  Boy, I was hooked!  I then found the great JD-Divas site and fell in love with the wacky O'Neill family and how they totally accepted Daniel!  I have joined MANY Stargate groups since then and I think I am currently a member of the best ones there are for Jack/Daniel slash!  I can't recommend the genre enough.  Some of my favorite stories are the long-term ones that create a story arc or are established relationships, such as the ongoing epic by Orrymain, and those in the Cars and Box of Dreams series by Babs and Devra.  I also enjoy the ones incorporating the unusual, ongoing character of Tannie by SunRaven and also her other AU stories.  I discovered that I LOVE Little Danny stories and have recently begun my own ongoing epic, A Mountain of Possibilities, which also incorporates my love for alternate realities.

I was lucky enough to have the chance to meet Michael Shanks and Don S. Davis on August 29, 2004.  They headlined the Stargate/SciFi Convention hosted by Creation Entertainment in Sacramento, California.

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