Best laid plans...

I had plans. Sleep in. Poultry yard renovations. Tack room wall construction. Clean garage. Go to Sunrise Services. Eat too much chocolate. Only the last item on my list was successfully completed.

My children had other plans and conspired against the first item on that lovely list. They now know how to enter their own dogs in shows!

Alec had plans to go to the Waterloo show to handle for Rebecca, show the boxer, take in a couple GSP's. Friday as I come home from work, there's a poofy Fred in the kitchen, pouting. Yeah, Alec entered Fred in veterans for the weekend, then in juniors for his sister, then entered Charlie too. Which means,after looking at the schedule, I had to find clean show clothes and tell Hubby, you are on your own. Fred was a walking cotton ball-he's decided to blow coat which means he's super fluffy and nothing you can do about it. Walt was bathed for the match and I was told I needed to wash my dog. Seriously folks, why do I wash my dog when I wasn't the one who entered him????

So cross off sleeping in. Poultry yard, that's tonight. Tack room wall-David has most of it done! Clean garage, next weekend. Sunrise services-we were up and gone before anyone even thought of holding them. Eat too much chocolate--Rebecca had a HUGE basket full of chocolate, snickers, kisses, and starburst. I ate my fair share then the bunny provided more on Sunday.

I'm not griping though--we had a blast! Meredith and Alec did a great job with the rough collies for Rebecca. Alec's girl, Ella, took BOS both days. Alec has shown her for most of her grand championship points, finished her GRCH on Sunday with BOS. She's a gorgeous little tri bitch that shows her heart out for him and produces even better. Meredith showed the WB on Saturday and WD on Sunday in breed. Jerod the old man, took BOV both days with Group 3 and Group 2, respectively. I got to show Ritz on Sunday to BOW.

Let's see, Oh cardigans, yeah. Charlie has two more points with WD/BOW on Saturday and best puppy. WD on Sunday. Fred was best Veteran and select dog both days. The Ms and he took 4th and 2nd in juniors, though Fred didn't look pleased to be there. Something about contracts, retirement, pension? I couldn't really understand him and told him to talk to the kid that paid the entry fee. The funny of Sunday was that the other class dog is also a puppy and way too happy. Seriously too happy. Lisa Bettis was handling him and when she tried to pick him up for the table, he bounced, attempted to jump and proceeded to hit his head on the bottom of the table. It left the judge, Lisa and most of us ringside laughing. Second attempt was much better but we were all still giggling.

Alec had a handful with GSP's-squirrelly dogs especially with the weather. Actually all the dogs were squirrelly. I was frozen. Unheated building, supposed to be sunny and I think someone needs to fire the weather guys. Holy cow, my feet were aching they were so cold. Meredith and Rebecca retreated to the RV with two space heaters and the furnace running, Stargate marathon, milk and naps.

Meredith helped show canaan dogs. Alec also showed PBGV's, vislas, and boxers. I ended up with a very bouncing SFT with mommyitis. Non-stop, go go go all weekend. But we had loads of fun! Now I have confirmed with my children that they have not entered their own dogs for anything coming up! I of course handed a large sum to Onofrio at the show for an upcoming show. Ouch. Next weekend is definately a stay home weekend. I swear! Okay, not stay at home, but no dog shows. Okay, somewhat dog show related, Alec has a road trip planned.....just wait to see what he brings home!

Hoping everyone had a very blessed Easter and remembers it's not the bunny that brought you the day, but the Savior.

Later gators....
C

I hate shopping

I know that's not a very girly statement to make. But I hate shopping. No, let me say this differently, I hate shopping with three kids. Sorry Husband, after last night, you are now considered one of the three.

Don't get me wrong, I love to buy stuff. Usually though I have a plan, a list and a mission to accomplish. Especially when I have tagalongs. If I'm by myself, that's different, because I go at my own pace and do some looking.

That's because I don't have to spend my time hiding from the hooligans, wrangling the misfits or constantly saying-stop that, you stand here and you over here!

Let's see, there's the Bread Aisle Incident of 2011. Or the cart arguement each time we go. How about "toxic cats?" Supposedly the comment on that one is that it's great to be going deaf(he has documented hearing loss)cause you can have fun with it. Or the constant "he's touching me. She's looking at me. Mine." "Hum, ice cream sounds great right now"

The Ms has a goal this year and it's to complete a full train of thought. Dad isn't helping this at all. Usually shopping on the way home in the evening entails the Ms on a thousand different tangents, Dad prompting her. I get tired just listening to it. Hum, like the dog in "UP"---- we get a lot of "SQUIRREL!" moments. (aka her other nickname for those wondering why I call her Squirrel)

I am the mother here. There are days I feel like the warden. Ever seen those moms at the stores racing down the aisle with a frantic look back? That's me, as I try to lose them in the store. The Ms stays close, I lose David a lot.

And don't even get me started on taking Alec and the Ms to the store. I do refuse to take all three anymore.

Later gators...
C

1 down, 9, er, 10 to go

I've already gotten to the countdown to the end and I've only just begun.

4-H obedience classes started last night. I've been teaching them for about 10 years now-seems like a lot less. Our county offers obedience(prenovice, novice, grad novice and open)showmanship, agility(on and off leash) and brought back again by popular demand, herding. I want to do rally but just not enough hours in the day.

Lucky for us, we have a great building to use, once the RV storage season is over. A full set of AKC regulation agility equipment. And lots and lots of kids. 40 so far with a few that didn't make the first night. 4 kids run two or more dogs.

And last night was the first night of controlled chaos. I lost my voice, froze my fingers but otherwise, had a great group of kids tha returned from last year and few new ones. And I'm only starting the countdown to the end because the closer we are to the end the better the dogs get!

My favorite Aubie was back and very happy to see me. So was Timber who is no longer a puppy and has the curliest coat that I have ever seen on a BC. And the kids, so many of the I've worked with over the years and are growing up right before my eyes.

Fred got dusted off to come and play demo dog. So did Lace until her alter ego of EBD came out and I sent her to a time out in the truck. She claims her sitter and stayer is broke. Told her I would be sure to work on fixing that. Moose was well Moose. His official handler for the summer the Ms, had him working like a pro. Fair will be over be for we both know it and he'll be heading off to new adventures with someone else.

It rained. The wind blew. Hail came down. It was colder then you know what. But we made it and I saw lots of smiles by the end of the night.

Later gator....
C

It's Friday, right? Seems like Monday

I think I'm having my own personal ground hog day. Reliving a Monday from the past. I woke up to a renewed joy of it being Friday, last work day, last school day, sleep in tomorrow, hubby home tomorrow, yada yada yada.

And then I let the dogs out.

Let's see, took my shower.

Went to front door, called dogs in.

Hum, what's Fred been doing? Oh no, he's been eating road apples left by Moo in the front yard and brought one in.

---side note, I teach all my dogs, I think all dog owners need to teach these, commands. Know their name, come when called, down, drop it and LEAVE IT!

Fred, drop it.

---side note, I do not have my contacts in yet and am totally blind-shapes, light and enough to not kill myself as I wander through the house.

So I bend down within 4 inches of the dropped object....

FRED---LEAVE IT! EVERYONE----LEAVE IT!

It's a duck head.

Of course here's where we insert an episode of CSI or Criminal Minds or flashes of the Godfather and the horse head.

So the side door on Chateau Quack/Chick Chalet has blown open during the night due to the gale force winds we are dealing with. My best guess is that a rogue or should that be stupid Cayuga flew the coop, and like the turkey fiasco of 2009, landed in the middle of the dogs that were out this morning.

I yelled for all hands on deck, got the head picked up and in the trash, contacts in, jeans on, towel on wet hair and all three of us went to inspect. Sorry, Alec, woke him out of a dead sleep. Anyway, it's either the duck that flew the coop or a yet to be named large dog with a skinny ass butt that leaned over the partition and took his pick. Chicks are all accounted for. Pip is still in the ICU and doing well. The rest of the gang is in a panic and as soon as the door to the pen was opene, fled the scene. Duck body removed from yard. Door to Chateau/Chalet secured. Back inside to try to salvage my hair, find my clothes and get to work. Bury the duck later, I might even fish it's head out of the trash and make sure it's buried with it's body.

Then I get to work, late. 4th floor, almost 5th floor parking. I hate stairs. And seems Walt wanted to make sure that Ashley and Ryan didn't forget about his time with them and chewed a hole throught the carpet and pad,under his crate. Road trip weekend to get the home wrecker back.

Insert the music from the Wizard of Oz where Dorthy and Toto are being sucked into the tornado, witch riding around on her bike.

Oh did I mention it's supposed to rain today? 1-2". It's cold-40 degrees. Seriously, is it Monday yet?

Later gators...
C

old horses and injured ducks

As most will notice, last week was, well, difficult. And you don't know the half of it. I'm dealing with "kids", that so makes me feel old, that it seems the parents didn't teach them about honoring committments. Okay, so not "kids", young adults? I use that term loosely. I mean seriously, young single and the world is ending. I won't go futher, I vented to Dawn about it and I still shake my head, but what is done, is done.

We have started the yearly ritual of the rain rot on my old man, Mooman, aka big fat cow, aka Hardy. He's 31 this year, acts like he's in his 20's but the body ain't what it used to be. He can eat grass but not hay, not enough grinding molars left. He's on pelleted feed anyway because a few years ago he developed choke. Now we add in timothy/alfalfa pellets. And as the weather warms up, it's the scramble to get all his old winter coat off before he gets wet and the rain rot starts in. But other then that, he's a royal pain in the ass. He comes out of the pasture to the front yard to eat grass, get his rations and harass the dogs. Boy does he love nothing more then coming up to the windows in the house and getting them all barking.

Pip, the oldest ancona hen, had a run in with the EBD 2 weeks ago. The ducks are known to walk right along the dog fence, totally ignoring the barking, snapping jaws of the predators known as the dogs. EBD had enough the other day and as we were talking standing by the slider door to the back yard, a very strong wind sent feathers floating into the yard. Too many feathers and by the time our brains clicked, EBD had pulled Pip 1/2 way through the fence. A quick-DROP IT! and the Ms ran to the duck yard to see what was left of her beloved Pip. She's got a huge gash in her chest, and no movement in her left leg, just flopping on the ground. Talk about heartbreak for the kid. But we did want to give the hen a chance and got an ICU set up in the Chateau. The plan was to take it a day at a time.

Okay, it's just a duck. And actually the Ms is very adult about this-it's a duck, she's old and this happens. I am happy to report that the "Mom, we have a problem" comment made to me on the basement stairs this morning, was a good problem. Pip survived the attack, made it through 2 weeks of ICU care and was not in her pen this morning but in with the chicks. Kind of walking, more of balancing act. She hates the chicks-hisses at them. Now to rehab! Once dear hubby returns home, we will be revamping the poultry yard-new runs to seperate the ducks and drakes, area for the chicks until the Chick Chalet gets moved in and a special spot for Pip.

Do you think TV's ready for a soap opera based on the daily chaos of our farm?

Later gators...
C

crossing guard

So today on the way to work, I'm tooling through a pretty little neighborhood. Actually growing up it was considered the back way into town. David grew up here. It's full of trees, deer, meandering creeks and turkey crossing guards.

Up the big hill almost to Mt Vernon Road, there is an entire line of cars...stopped. Up ahead I see turkeys. Lots of turkeys.

Iowa at one point had to import wild turkeys because our population was decimated by hunting and urban sprawl. It took a long time for turkeys to reestablish themselves but now, they are every where! Routinely one jogs along side of the truck just down our road. They come up to the edge of our field, play their mating games in the pasture and as noted above, cause major traffic problems.

Now a few birds cross the road, a few cars move on. The best part? The jake who is all fanned out and strutting his stuff---for the white mini van going the other direction. He's the one holding up traffic and allowing the rest to cross. Now either he's new to the cross guard job and didn't find the clearly marked crossing lines(heehee) or he really and truly is in love with the mini van. As I drive past the mini van driver is doubled over her steering wheel laughing. It was all I could do to keep a straight face.

Wonder how long she sat there and if her boss will accept the excuse that she was late for work because a turkey was playing crossing guard?

Later gators...
C

Finally, a city that has its head in the game.

Recent events in Hopkinton IA, have once again brought Breed Specific Legislation, or BSL, to the forefront. Granted the events that started this conversation are horrific-
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Hopkinton-Dog-Attack-Victim-Identified-City-To-Seek--117524223.html
Unattended dogs and children is a set up for disaster. Any breed of dog. Many people like to site the statistics of dog attacks and bites in the US. But remember, this is reported bites. Most are the ones requiring medical attention, happen with multiple witnesses and there is no information provided as to the events of the bite.

After having dealt with a dog bite during one of my kennel club’s dog shows, I got a really big eye opener when talking to the AKC rep. She’s one of my favorites, btw. No nonsense. Her statement-a bite, is a bite, is a bite. It doesn’t have to end with gashes, stitches, severe injury. It’s as simple as a grab of the pant leg, spit left on your arm or making sure all your digits are accounted for. Once a dog bites, there are extreme chances of it happening again and again, getting worse and worse. It’s small toy fox terriers, it’s large German Shepherds. it’s a Neopolitan Mastiff walking past an exhibitor sitting in a chair and attempting to eat the Pomeranian sitting on her lap. Yes that did happen and no, no one said a damn thing. Particular Neo ended up at some other show actually causing a fight and injuring a person and dog.

Basically, regardless of the dog and the bite, it’s the person responsible for the dog that needs to take action and own up to its dog’s behavior. The City of Hopkinton said just that, banning a breed, won’t solve the problem because next time it will be the hunter’s lab or the neighbor’s beagle that bites. How far do you go and how many breeds do you need to ban? Communities need to step up to the plate and make dog owners do right by their dogs. And breeders need to be more responsible about placing dogs-you can say no when a dog isn’t right for a person. Enforce you spay/neuter contracts.

Many thanks need to go out to the AKC for stepping up to the plate and providing timely information to the City of Hopkinton on why BSL doesn’t work. Thanks Jennifer! I’m very happy with the AKC being there to help when asked. They jumped right on it, sending letters, making phone calls and keeping me updated on what they were doing.

Now on to Center Point! Then to Springville and see about lifting the breed ban on... pandas!

Later gators..
C

work widow

Sigh, hubby dear, why California? Why can't it be some place where you can take a certain dog with you?

Max is a weinie. period. 85 lbs of German Shepherd who's afraid of wererabbits, keeps forgetting what happens when you pee on an electric fence(sorry guys) and is not allowed on the furniture, including my bed, because he takes up ALL the space.

This week he's lying on the rug by the door, staring at the opening. And that's all he's doing. No barking at the horses, chasing birds, picking on Eddie.

The count down continues and no, I'm not taking him with me to the airport. He'll have to wait for his reunion at home.

Later gators..
C

Disaster avoided or was it?

Lazy weekend. Alec and I headed off to a dog show. Thank God for late ring times! Nothing spectacular to report other than I had a banner day of shopping. Take my card away please, but it was all well needed items.

Picked up the new tack box from a gal from WI-already have the contents of my old one loaded into the new one and what can I say, I need to buy one more thing to make it perfect.

Moose got a Cool BedIII. He hogs it all to himself. I'm now thinking that a couple more of those won't hurt.

But the prize of the day was a folding dog ramp. Got it for a song, normally over $100 and well, I didn't pay near that for it. Now I won't have to lift girls when they finally figure out that their expanding puppy girths can't make the stairs. My back loves me.

The averted disaster was that the wicked weather went north of us and we didn't have to drive back home through it. Though the wind was anything but nice.

We did manage to visit a couple of the Dirty Dozen while we were out and about. Photos to follow but it was so awesome to see Charlie play with his brothers, Percy and Einstein. Those two boys have the greatest home and are so handsome. Pete was having fun rolling the boys and you can truly see that Charlie's best friend is Pete. Only issue was Palintine the Berner who came lumbering out and I've never seen Pete's eye's get so big! Certainly thought the big black and tan dog was a monster, though the Mooseie dog thought she was hot stuff.

Well, now to a week of being a work widow. Hope Hubby makes it back to Iowa in one piece.

Later gators...
C

Marg

God this is hard, especially when it's something I can't control.

CH Summit's Margaritaville FB 11/04-4/11

Her legacy.....

Russ

Dove

Bear and Frank

And her grandchildren....

C

snacks

If it's not one thing, it's another. The EBC(evil blue collie) decided that the Ms' favorite ancona duck was just right for a snack the other night and tried to pull it through 2" fence mesh. Duck is holding her own in the ER unit of Chateau Quack. Hope she makes it as she's one of our prettiest marked ducks.

And if that wasn't enough, Abbey has decided that she wants to be on a raw diet just like Charlie. Though she's decided that the prey model diet is what she really wants. Jail break and 2 chicks later(which a certain unnamed Mary Poppins dog helped), chicks moved to their new quarters in Chateau Quack--which will be renamed to the Chick Chalet once the other building is moved up to our place in 2 weeks(baring more rain).

I'm still cleaning dirt and dust out of all the show boxes and equipment from this last weekends show. Clothes got washed twice, shoes-well not sure if I can get them clean again.

Other then that, it's be kind of quiet. Sort of. A chorus of howling boy dogs happens about every hour on the hour. Someone's in season, can you tell? Just ask Fred who's certain he can figure out a way to have his way with her. That would be why there are two doors, three gates and two kennel doors between the smelly one and the hormonally challenged. And there are still two girls scheduled to go in within the month! Wee haa!

Later gators...
C

And another thing checked off the list!

Eddie been here and there lately, getting all his "stuff" taken care of.

Latest test results returned and this now qualifies him for his CHIC! He is an OFA Fair.

CERF-normal, PRA-clear and Fluff-affected test results are in the mail to be registered with OFA as we speak.

Now if there were only some way to test for Edweirdoism????

Later gators...
C

If you don't like the weather...

Cold and damp Friday-40 degrees. Moderate and dry on Saturday with a little wind. Hot, humid, windy, rain, hail, thunder and lightening on Sunday. 80 degrees.

That folks, is Iowa.

Friday we leave for Dewitt, IA for one of my favorite dog shows of the season. The site isn't perfect. The pie is awesome-I had strawberry rhubard. The show rings, dry and very dusty. The company-impecable. We always have some sort of good showing here, either performance events or conformation. This year we stayed in the conformation rings.

Let's see-Mr Charlie Bear was WD for 2 more points on Saturday. He showed well, still has issues with the elevator butt on the table but knowing his security blanket, aka, rePete was waiting ringside, he was a happy boy. Thinking about changing his name to Linus. rePete was RWB to a lovely girl, Angelica, owned, bred and shown by Connie Whan. Spitting image of her mother-wow! You never even can complain when the compeition is that good. Russ and Alec went BOB for another 5 pt towards his GRCH. That makes, I think 4 majors now? I'll have to double check.

The only comment I have on the cardigans was that people need to let their dogs move out in the ring. Granted it's not a race, but man, these slow walks around the ring really don't do the dogs justice. Some dogs just can't move, that I get, but some dogs can but aren't allowed to. And stringing a cardigan up to show like a toy dog-seriously people, get a clue. Work with your dog to keep their heads up or at least not on the ground. Okay, two comments. Hello, hasn't anyone read the standard about the coats? This is an ongoing FB discussion. Blowing a coat such that it's open, totally not correct. Poofy and toy handling was in the other building. Sorry, three comments. Condition of your dog. Be aware of that! Bigger is not better, especially if the fat makes your dog sluggish in the ring and that you can see it giggle as the dog moves.

Enough said.

Collies.

Eghads, we showed collies this weekend. I have now mastered the art of grooming a rough collie. Once you get past the myth of dealing with all that hair, there's really nothing to it. A correct dog needs almost nothing done to it. A little moisture in the coat, some chalk on the feet and brush, brush, brush, brush, and brush. We got into a wonderful discussion about brush types. I almost lost my favorite to Rebecca, because it's her favorite brand too. Luck has it I put my name on all my brushes! Now the goal is to find her a new one as her old one is on it's last leg.

29 rough collies entered. 20 of them Rebecca's. 18 shown. We had a spreadsheet. Seriously, you needed one! Meredith even got a chance to show a very unique looking blue dog-he was ash in color, hence his name, Ashton. Overall, I had a blast and love working with Rebecca. She has great dogs with wonderful structure and super breed type. She's a great person to learn from and I'm so happy that Alec is working with her now.

Alec and Connor took the smooth bred, Rebecca with Jerod the old man, took rough breed. So that meant I got to show Ruffles in group! None of us got a thing, but we had fun.

Sunday Russ took Select dog in cardigans-3 pt major and now 2 left to go for the Grand! rePete was once again RWB to Angelica-not complaining there. Charlie was Best Puppy and went on to a Puppy Group 3 :)

Collies-yeah, that was interesting. Judge and I had several conversations in the ring, including that I was in the wrong spot during BOB judging, so I did as instructed and moved up. When she did her exam of my bitch, she realized she was indeed a bitch, I had been in the right place in the beginning and my comment was you never argue when a judge tells you where to go. She laughed and said, you are correct. I ended up with select bitch! Lovely little girl that I've now shown a couple of times for Rebecca.

So packing up, blowing the dust off ourselves, we headed home. I am going to spend the next week getting dust out of everything before we head to Dekalb. The trip home was actually uneventful. It was the pulling into the driveway that just about caused an accident.

Less then 2 mins after we got home, we had HAIL! Lots of it. 1/2 dollar sized hail. Managed to get one dog out of the Big Tow, the crates off the hitch plate and into the house before God's Wrath came down. No major damage but the ground was covered. Really. And David's truck has a couple nice dings in the hood as well as the Big Tow with a few nice bumps.

And that my friends, is the short version of our dog show weekend. We came home to dogs very happy to see us. Chicks look like Chickens and are roosting anywhere they like-sides of the brooder, top of the water containers, you name it. Time to move to the chick chalet! No meetings this week, I need the catch up time.

Cough, sputter, hack--sorry, dust in my....well everywhere!

Later gators...
C