Velvet is the fourth generation of this specific bloodline.  Her sire is IFC Green Bay Butkus; a nice male owned by Joe Kuklenski (Green Bay Kennels).  Her dam (North Star Tyger of the Woods) is a good hunting female out of FC Buck's Branch Kalagha and North Star Squeaky Squirt.  Tyger is owned by Joe Jisko.  Joe bred Tyger to Butkus after seeing him run up at Joe Kuklenski's running grounds.  Joe was impressed by Butkus's search, check ability, and forward progress on the line while maintaining good speed pursuing the rabbit.  Velvet is approximately 6 1/2 years old now (December 2015) and has been running rabbit since she was about five months old.  I was concerned that Velvet would not have the check ability I prefer because Butkus is hare bred and Tyger already has plenty of speed and has hare breeding in her pedigree.  I was wrong; Velvet has good speed but is able to hang on to the line.  She checks a little wider than some of my other dogs but not to the point that it is a disruption or a problem.  She has an excellent sense of direction when she contacts the line and stays with it real well.  We ran Velvet on hare in November (2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014) in Maine and she ran them like she had been running them all her life.  It was a lot of fun to see her and Squirt braced together pushing the hare around and around for hours at a time.  There were a few checks but they did not last very long and they were off and running again.  I am impressed with Velvet to this point and it will be fun to continue running her and watch her mature.  I will utilize Velvet in my breeding program and plan to breed her to Toby within the next year.