Finley River Chief
Breeding Today For Hounds Of Tomorrow!

LIMOGATE



Odyssey Kennel Company have been around the sport for many years.  Even though they dropped out of sight for a few years, after buying Insane Jane they have come back on the scene.  This page will detail some of the history of Odyssey Kennel Company.  There has been many things said about their dealings with numerous people and we will explore that along with the rest of the history of OKC.

The history of the breed is important and the players involved with the sport are important with how they deal with people and their integrity.  This is about history and reporting what the story bares out.






My experience with the people at Odyssey Kennel Company started near the time before they advertised the purchase of World Champion Insane Jane.  I remember it well because I put up on some of the coon hound forums a post asking for contact information for Steve Kinney.  If I had seen any of their ads yet I wouldn't have had to ask for contact info on the forums.  So the first contact would have been somewhere in that time frame.  It was a while after I got the contact info that I actually made the first call.  Some of the comments made in public and private wasn't very flattering to say the least.   Because of those comments I delayed in trying to call as soon as I got a contact number. I just really didn't know what to expect.

The reason I was wanting to contact Steve Kinney was because of the Spring Creek Rock semen I knew he had purchased from Duane Clark.  I was putting a new page up on the website called Frozen Hope and wanted to talk about the Rock semen.

A couple of people sent me his phone number through the posts I put up on the boards.I didn't know Steve Kinney, I had heard things about him but didn't know what to expect from the phone call. From that first phone call and many after that I spent many hours talking to Steve Kinney and Cindy Kinney.

After that first phone call I was able to talk to other people that didn't really know him but had talked to him over the phone.  These people had also heard unflattering things about the dealings of OKC.  But we all agreed that talking to him on the phone he really seemed like a nice guy.  Almost too nice, too polite, too concerned. But I had no personal experience with him but the phone call and calls.

For a while it was embarrassing to me and others that I talked to for it to get out we were talking with OKC.  Just because some people were so vocal on the dealings of OKC and the kind of people they are.  But after many hours of talking to the Kinneys I decided that they had been NOTHING but nice to me.  That you can hear all kind of things about people and like I told a friend they (Kinney) are going to have to prove to me they aren't nice people.

I defended them, I took up for them, I thought we were becoming good friends, and I had decided all of this bad stuff I had heard about their dealings must simply be a misunderstanding or someone who was jealous.  I told other friends in my talking to Steve he seemed almost too nice but that was all I had to go with and maybe that is just the way he is.

Steve and I talked a lot about the past, present and future of Odyssey Kennel Company and the Kinneys.  The future sounded exciting to say the least.  They were wanting to build up the Insane Jane Strain.  Which I thought was exciting.  We talked about the things they had hoped to achieve and accomplish with these hounds.  We talked about the mistakes from the past and Steve more then once made the comment he can't make any mistakes this time.

Steve talked with such a passion about what he was hoping to achieve that it should excite any lover of the treeing walker breed.  I had completely bought into the idea that the people at OKC were my friends and that they wanted to help improve the breed.  Steve thanked me so many times in my efforts to try and put the history of the Treeing Walker breed out on the internet so people who were interested in learning and knowing about it would have a chance and a place to go and research and learn and remember.  They even sent money a couple of times to help with the upkeep of the sites I work on.  Almost at the end of every call Steve Kinney would thank me for being the Treeing Walker Historian many times two or three times before we actually hung up the phone.  I don't know if I am the Treeing Walker Historian or not but I do have a passion for the history of our great Treeing Walker Breed.  It is important to have the history saved so that people can access it and learn from it.  If people just want to step back in time and remember some of their good times long past, they should have a place to do that.  Or if a person is just getting in the sport and wants to learn more about the history of the breed they should have a place to access that.  Without the history of the past to see where we have been how can a person track a successful path on where they want to go with the breed?  But with History it isn't all good.  To have a complete source of History the bad has to be known as well as the good.  All I am attempting to do on any of my sites is put the facts of History out so people will be able make their own decision as to the things that helped improve the breed and have a positive input and the things that didn't help the breed or have a positive input.  There are things in the History of the breed that should be presented.

The Limo Futurity and it not happening is a part of history that should be explored.  Steve Kinney buying Spring Creek Rock Semen and how it was or wasn't used is a part of history that should be explored.  Lipper being bred to Insane Jane was a part of history and what happened from the time the pups were two weeks old should be explored.

So their actions later on was even more hurtful because I thought we were friends.  Through this time of getting to know each other Steve Kinney generosity offered and I gratefully accepted a female pup out of Insane Jane and House's Lipper.  I told him that he didn't have to do this but he said they wanted to do it and that it was going to happen.  So I accepted and took him for his word.

There was a couple of times that it seemed the people at OKC vanished.  Most of the time it was easy enough to get a hold of them.  But when we finally did connect Steve was so sorry for not getting back in touch sooner.  People that have talked to him knows how he talks.  It seemed like everything was fine until the pups out of Lipper and Jane turned two weeks of age.  And then I wasn't able to get through to OKC.  Even though just a few weeks before Steve had apologized over and over again for disappearing for about three weeks.

We had talked about these pups when they were born how I was going to put up pictures of them on the web site on the page created just for them.  But all of a sudden for no reason that I know communication with OKC became impossible.  Even worse then that they stopped communicating with Tom Hopkins who they bought the House's Lipper semen from and who had the first choice pup out of this litter and second choice pup they Hopkins and Kinney was going to partnership in.  Plus he gets choice pup out of each remaining vial of Lipper semen.

They refused to let Tom Hopkins come and pick out and pick up his pup at the time was agreed that it was to happen.  Then they said the pups were deceased?  Who do you think they should have notified first?  Maybe the man getting the choice pup?  That seems like it would be the proper thing to do, but they didn't.  Of course letting him pick up his pup would have been the proper thing to do.

The questions I ask myself are these:
 
Are the pups really dead?  Who knows?  When they notified the registries why wouldn't they have told them THEN what happened?  Why did it take a week before anyone knew what had happened?  Did it take that long to make up a story people might believe?  Those are questions I ask myself.  Just common sense questions.  Why wouldn't they have notified Tom Hopkins BEFORE anyone else that the pups were deceased?  He was getting the choice pup, didn't he deserve to know it first?  Why are they NOT giving Tom Hopkins the information on the death of the pups that he has requested to see more then once?  Should Tom Hopkins be satisfied with (the pups are dead and it isn't our fault)?  Who wouldn't want to know more then that I ask myself?  Especially when you haven't been getting cooperation on trying to pick out and pick up your pup.  This just doesn't make sense to me but that is just my thoughts.  With my thoughts and 4 quarters you can buy a USA Today Newspaper.

Another question I ask myself is when they notified someone the pups were dead why wouldn't they say what day they died and what was the cause then.  I ask myself why did it take a week(?) before they told what had happened to the pups?  Why not tell the day they died and what killed them when you tell people something had happened to them?

NOW I WILL BE ADDING MORE ABOUT THIS.  I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE SPRING CREEK ROCK SEMEN AND HOW OKC TREATED DUANE CLARK IN THEIR DEALINGS.  I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE LIMO FUTURITY AND MORE! I WILL BE GIVING MY THOUGHTS OF WHAT I THINK ABOUT THESE SUBJECTS AND MORE AND HOW THESE THINGS FIT IN THE HISTORY OF OUR TREEING WALKER BREED! 












OKC is working very hard to try and get any thread deleted from the UKC and PKC forums where they are mentioned UNLESS it is a thread that they are working on to try and put a good spin on OKC.   In my opinion they are using numerous different screen names to again try to FOOL people.

Steve Kinney and OKC are welcome to go on any of these links and respond to anything that is said.  They still have an account on this site and they are NOT banned.  They do visit the sites.  When they pay a visit they are free to tell their story.  Any issue they think is not correct, they are able to tell their side of the issue if they choose.  I will also post their response on this website if they want.  Just ask it be put on here when they post a response.  These threads are not meant in ANY way to harm anyone, but they are meant to get the truth and History out.  My opinions are my opinions and my beliefs.  If I am incorrect about anything I will correct it simply with the proof I am incorrect.  And I will also post I am incorrect.  I am telling my truth as I see it.  If I am wrong, show me where I am wrong or made a mistake and I will correct it.








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THE STORY STARTS BEFORE THIS, BUT THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE STORY.



















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