Beerta, the Netherlands, Saturday, 01-04-2000. A special day to me. This morning I got a letter from my mother. She knows that we are working on a Laekenois kennel for our hobby and she told me her brother used to have a Laekenois in former days. Because she knows we are very interested in the history and old pictures related to this dogs, we agreed she should ask her brother if he had any remarkable facts or pictures out of that time. In the letter was a seventy-year-old photo of two boys ( two of my uncles, both still a live and over 80 ) with in the middle of them a Laeken Shepherd. Two facts strucced me like a hammer. First: I never saw a boy looking so much like myself at that age (10 years) as the boy in the right of the picture. Second: when I called my mother to thank her for the picture, she told me that the dog was a bitch and her name was Frieda. Now seventy years later, we've got two Laeken bitches. Our oldest and as I may say so, very promising bitch, is called Jente. Her mother is called Frieda. I was very amazed and right away I became very, very suspicious. You must know that on the first of April, in Holland, it is usual to make a fool of anyone when you can. That wouldn't happen to me ! So at first I looked at the picture and than at the letter. Without any doubt an old photo, of two boys and a Laekenois. The resemblance between myself at that age and the boy in the right explained with no doubt family relation. It was certain, he was the brother of my mother. The handwriting in the letter was my mothers. I called my uncle whom I haven't seen for ages and he confirmed the story. So it's true! I am proud to have roots in Laekenois history. Maybe this Frieda was the granddaughter of Mouche or Vos II . I dreamed away to shepherd Janssen in the park of Laeken. When I came back to reality I remembered a few words my uncle said: "no the dog on the photo wasn't a Laekenois". "No", he said, the dog was a Belgian Shepherd. Well, when we look at the picture, we all know better don't we ? Ton v.d.Walle