photos

do you see what i see?

Let me see if I can help ya out




This bugger won't take GO THE HELL away for an answer LOL. We keep tripping over him, and he keeps coming back. And yes, that's out the backdoor!



When out looking for him and came upon this really big fat bunny. Grins & Gossip say they'll take care of both of them LOl





These are my new star lilies, like I said, that yellow one is gorgeous.


This one unfortunately didn't make the move, and I really want another one. .it bloomed the day Cleo died, so i consider it Cleo's lily.


As I wait, i'm currently on ebay trying to find some of those I lost. . .i love my bulbs, and it's ALL Bonnie & Marie's fault LOL

More random thoughts

The last few months have been amazing watching Gossip get back into shape. She's not quite at 100%, but by the time racing comes back to this area, she should be.

Bonnie had told me that a dog with a flexible topline can go through some amazing changes, you can make them do amazing things with their topline (she showed me some photos of an adult dog she was able to do some amazing things with his toplines, heck it's why after a certain stage, I try to get self stacked photos of puppies!), and if they've been sick or crate bound it can definitely affect their topline as they lose muscle mass, and I've now seen that once again, she's right. It was a lot easier to see with Gossip vs Grins, as she was NEKKID. lol Grins has never been nekkid, my grey Tribble boy. She doesn't have a lot of topline anyway(built a lot like a good racing greyhound), it's just what I like, but it's not flat. .in the midst of her 7 month down time, it went flat. Now she's muscling up, and her topline is coming back :)

Now, after 6 wks of good hard running, it's coming back. Just in time for her coat to go again LOL

Heard back from the local shop with the agility room you can rent. Debating now on taking a class or just renting from them every other week. The class would be a good thing, could have help working her with the damn weaves,the only thing we'ev not mastered yet.

Took Dei out front after taking down the dog walk and the teeter last night. The look on her face when she tried to ignore me and go do the dog walk was hysterical, but, otoh, she did listen to me yesterday and I got her to do three jumps in the row, and gave her the aframe as her reward. May try and get up earlier in the day(ugh) in order to work her in the morning when there's no humidity, 10 minutes outside showed it was more humid than it felt, ick! Yes, Landon, I will try and get you more video of the doggy playing LOL

Had to go to Wallieworld last night, and made the mistake of walking thru the garden center. Found two star lillies in colours I've not seen before: White & Yellow. And I had to buy them LOL Yes, garden centers have become as bad as fish stores for me lOL I love my star lillies, and lost so many of them in the move, it's nice to find them again. So they're waiting to get planted in my garden ;)

Random thoughts

It's a beautiful day out, sky is blue, humidity isn't too bad, beautiful breeze, just about perfect.

I'm tickled life is looking better, the car's paid for, big yeah, I thought my previous car was a good find, but this one is way better, my old vet bill is half way to being paid off(yippee!!!). I have some beautiful breedings planned in the future with my three gorgeous girls and a nice girlie coming my way to breed to Wings. I have great friends and good (IMHO) dogs.

Also helps that I've finally shrugged off the shackles of the last toxic person in my life, well the last two, the idiot ex and the person I gave a dog to down south who's proven just how evil she was. I should've seen that when she attacked Nadine on a public list, and Nadine has always been nothing but the sweetest lady every time I’ve seen her, but I took it as the wicked witch's influence on her, now I know better.

It's sad that only after the fact, that I realize just how nutso she is, she really reminds me of Kyra's breeder, both her and her scumbag buddy. Bipolar definitely seems to fit both of them, sickening sweet as long as you give them what they want, but once you cross them, evil as can be, and they can swing back and forth in a nanosecond. But you can't hate people like that, it's not their fault they're screwed up in the head, it's biological, all you can really do is pity them for who they are and hope they will one day gain professional help and get themselves fixed. But you have to want to be fixed, and some people like being vile 6th graders. Sad, really, but you can't let it bring you down, that's why you shrug off the toxic people. The good, intelligent, smart people see them for who they are. I can't count the number of people who asked me what their problems are, and it's they're sick in the head.

OH well, shrug it off, and continue your life. That's all you can do. I do seem to attract the very schizophrenic nutcases in the breed. Too bad there's not an inoculation against that. LOL Just glad my friend didn't get that puppy from one of them that she'd wanted, she's had enough of the psychos in this breed too!

It's strange how people not in the dog world are nowhere near as vile and nasty as those who are. Guess it's because they're mostly woman and they can't play my penis is bigger than yours is. Tho I've been told that it's true in any competitive sport. . thank heavens with sports growing up, we were taught sportsmanship, something that's severely lacking in the dog world.

But I've got some great friends, and they make up for the ones who need straight jackets. "Always look on the bright side of life".

I put in for almost 2 wks of vacation for xmas in Vegas & California! Disney here we come! WAHOO!! Too bad it's so expensive to fly dogs, I might be tempted to let Marie take Gossip for awhile to do OFC, wait, no, no can do. .I love that brat child too much, hard enough letting her go for one day this last weekend, can't imagine being without her for longer than that, and those of you who've seen her with me know she's just like Obie was with his mom. . .

Then back home to bust my butt to make sure I have the money for the nationals. Talked to a member of the BCOA board last month, and he cleared a lot up, along with the fact it wasn't my post that got him riled, but another lady who's known for being . . well . .her posts can piss a lot of people off lOL

As for Borzoi. I realized earlier today that the breed has come a long way in the last few years; I can now count almost 2 dozen NICE males, who are sound bodily (which is obvious by their performance careers). Temperament's on some of them I don't know, as I've never seen them in person. A few of them surprise me, as I never thought to see dogs of those bloodlines I would like enough to think of breeding to. One boy in particular is lovely, and thankfully even with the bloodline I'm not particularly fond of, he's not linebred on the bitch my friend produced that had so many health problems surrounding her. I've already got the nod to use him if I want to, and I'm pleased as punch, he's faaaaaaaaaast too!

off to do things!

Gossip

So, Gossip went racing with her Uncle john: THANKYOU JOHN!!! I love the fact there are people in the area (well and out of the area too, but they can't help me out if I can't go LOL0 who believe in my girl as much as I do.

He called at 1, and I though her winning streak may finally be broken. She's been in 21 meets (that's 63 races) and only lost one race, but today one of Vanessa's fast girls(Indigo or maybe Novel, john wasn't sure LOL) beat Gossip the 2nd race. It is about the time she'd be having puppies if I'd bred her back in April, and some dogs go into a funk and go off their stride. She didn't last year, but she was also in rock hard shape, this year with being down 7 months, she wasn't so rock hard. Oh well, every record has to be broken, right? That's what they're there for, to be broken. And couldn't pick a better dog to beat her, Indigo's a pretty little thing, and Novel is Grin's daughter. .

Anywhooo, didn't hear from him, didn't hear from him. This is the first (and so far only) time I've let someone else take one of my personal dogs running, so I was nervous anyway. . .images of her having hurt herself, overheating, something happening to wizard, car accident on 95, you name it, it went thru my mind.

And then i get a call from John, he's 30 mins from here, and not to worry, Gossip pulled a win on the third race to win the meet LOl

22 race meets and only lost 2 races, not bad, not bad.

She's currently zonked out somehwere. . .

working, wishing, playing

LOL.

Working: Damn it gets warm and humid here fast. . .tried to do some weeding on the flower garden as I have some ideas on how to spruce things up a bit, but damn you get hot and sweaty fast. . let alone the back ache.

Yesterday I did the same to my veggie garden, my tomatoes already bare fruit YEAH!!! I am so tickled, especially with the current tomatoe shortage/scare. . .i love them, but not enough to risk getting sick. My watermelon plants are going bonkers, the peppers not so much. My iris' are growing well, tho only one of them bloomed this year, I'll have to dig out around their bulbs this fall, they are so finicky it's not funny. My star lilly is looking GORGEOUS, too bad I didn't get pics of the bloom when it first happened, beautiful purply red colour. . .goign to have to pick up some more, the ones I gave Bonnie last year are huge and such pretty pinks, customers have commented on them. Planted some more iris & star lillies :) Gotta get mulch up there to keep the weeds away, this had originally been tilled 2 yrs ago for a garden, but the people who did it never took care of it. . .so it got overgrown. . .i'm trying to keep up with it, but the way some of these weeds grow, good HEAVENS!!

Also worked on my salt water tank yesterday. Had to make use of the day off and no puppies darnit LOL And no racing today because of that, damnit :P So scrubbed it of the coraline algae, and put my new coral in. Isn't he purty? He's now all fluffed up and looks to be very very happy. It's hard getting good photos in the tank, may have to upgrade my camera lOL Yeah, when money grows on trees. Hell, there's a 75 gal tank on Craigslist I'd love to have, and Bonnie's all for getting a bigger tank LOL She's more excited than I am, makes sure all visitors comes and sees it. Need to find her her cardinal banghaii for the tank.

Wishing:
Missing the flexibility of my old job. . I'd be able to put in hours in order to take off early to go long distances, but I also had a much more reliable car than I do now. Nothing wrong with my 97 Dodge neon, it has really low mileage(35k), and gets 40+ mpg, but I would not be comfy driving it 8 hrs to Camden SC to run LGRA or to IL, even tho I'd love to pit Gossip against Sammy & Bartleby. Hell, I'd've loved an honest match against Zemny, but that didn't happen :P When I get back in school, I'll have even less time for playing, oh joy, hopefully I'll still be able to fit it in, or i'll burn out, btdt.

Hell, wishing I'd finish school instead of getting distracted with the need to work in order to do more doggy things. . .having only 6 dogs and 4 cats has definitely cut down on the vet bills, that's for sure, and knock on wood, no emergencies in 2+ yrs. Even Fidget's vet bills weren't that high, most expensive part was the food, but that's because I refused to go thru heroics for a 16+ yr old kitty. . . thankfully racing is a lot cheaper on the pocket book than coursing. . .


Playing:



Played with Dei on the agility equipment, she had the zoomies something bad and decided to do it HER way. LOL. Oh well, you can tell she's having a blast, can't you? yeah, the video isn't perfect, hard to do when you're doing it yourself and running the dog. Will have to break down the teeter & the dog walk, as when she gets the zoomies, that's what she runs and does instead of what I want her to do LOL BRAT

well, off to weed some more now that i've cooled down

nevermind

Had a nice rant, but ya know what/ The scumbag is NOT worth it. She's no better than the breeder of my first Borzoi, and as such, is NOT worth my energy or time.

She's too chicken to show up at a LGRA event up this way, so it just goes to show you what she's made of:Chickenshit.

Enough, off to do things a lot more fun :)

oh, Piccies!

I forgot to post these wonderful pics that my friend Susan Amicucci took our last time out


That's Gossip's nose you see coming out of the box before it barely opens LOL

That's Gossip digging in to show her competitoin her fuzzy little ass.


Dei racing her little heart out


Dei's adorable little face watching the bunny, I hate to see she's starting to gray.


The three girls(Reba, Gossip, Dei) taking off

And then some lovely photos of them walking to the line.

agility & dei

So, I picked up some snow fencing(not sure if I stated this before LOL) to fence in our agility equipment as I wanted to start working off lead with Dei, and not have to worry about her bolting for the hills like the last time I did this.

So, I closed off the equipment, reset it(had to take it all down for Bonnie to mow), and brought Dei out to play.

I'm tickled that she paid a lot of attention to me, did just about every obstacle I wanted her to do, in the ORDER I wanted her to do, tho I'm going to have to block off her three favs to get her to do things more my way(the dog walk, the aframe, and the teeter). If she decides she has enough, she goes and does that instead.

Shithead LOl

Her standing on the aframe asking me what i'm going to do about her not coming down, BRAT

I am tickled tho she's doing the weaves with the cheese balls, we will continue using them for awhile and then start weaning them out until she gets them only at the end. We've also started doing taller jumps, which she just loves, zoom! She's also doing the chute with increasing speed, so I'm tickled pink

Put her up and worked Bonnie's boy Surya a bit, eh's hysterical, when you praise him for doing well, he gets the zoomies, he has no clue where his ass is on the aframe. Oh well LOL maybe that's not in his future. I looked up to see Ms Dei pouting something fierce, how dare mom work with someone ELSE!

So I got her out and worked her a bit more, than quit for the evening LOL

Nope, not quit, took Gossip out, she needs more work, bulldozered thru the jumps to get the treats LOL. .but did do the dog walk pretty ok(needs to hit the contact at the end), did the baby teeter, did the aframe with glee, and did the chute the first time I asked her to, with speed to, so I'm tickled.



Mamazoi in her palace LOL. She's not quite fat enough she can't lift her leg to pee LOL

specialing or ranking a dog

Someone asked me if it really mattered who was #1 Borzoi of all time.



And it got me thinking, does it really matter if you have the #1 Borzoi for X year in whatever venue? What does it do? Why do you special a dog, whether to #1 show ring or #1 in the myriad of performance events.



It probably doesn't matter to anyone but the owner and/or breeder, and maybe clueless puppy buyers, yet people in every venue scramble to get that coveted 'win'. They plan on where to go, who to show or run under, if they're more devious, they devise who not to run or show against for fear of losing, and in some instances I've seen, the very last event of the year, stuff the entry with fillers just to INSURE their dog wins.(this more towards coursing than any of the other)



But by the next year, unless you're like one person I know who constantly threw it in people's face, very few people will remember who was #1 dog last year. .so why bother?



In my shoes, because it's fun, it's a nice bragging right. It means my dog(s) have the ability to run at a lot of events,run clean, run fast, run well. But then, i dont' do this stuff and pull bullsh*t either. Since a lot of borzoi do not run clean their entire career, knowing your dog ran well enough to reach a goal you've set means a lot to me, especially if they do it without a DQ. You don't have to look hard to see good dogs who's careers were cut short because as soon as they started getting beat, they started running dirty, or quit because the other dogs were able to take the lure away from them. It meant they were still able to run well enough that they continously placed so they could be ranked. ..



Granted, the last is only applicable to those who play the game fairly, too many play the run a crapload of a dogs and yank anything that might beat the dog you're tryign to campaign. I don't play those games. Thankfully, just about everyone who runs in the NE doesn't either, so you know when our dogs rank, they do it honestly: by truly beating their competition.

The other reason I like doing it in LGRA anyway, is the comraderie. .it's a close knit community because it's not a large number of us, and because we all have to help each other. When Carol lost her little Basenji guy, we all mourned for her, when Karen lost Mike, we all mourned with her, when I lost Obie, they all knew who he was, unlike with coursing and showing, you pretty much know every OB person in your area. And that's a big reason of why I keep coming out. . .as of right now,t here's not one vile person running. It makes for a great weekend with great people.

Of puppies & things

The wait begins.

I don't breed often, so everytime this event rolls around, I have to pick up my trusty breeding books, dust them off, and refresh my mind. I've whelped 5 litters in 11 yrs, my last one almost 3 yrs ago, things go vague in your mind. LOL. Especially with everything that's going on in life. And since the last litter I cobred (didn't whelp, only litter I wasn't there for) was the breeding from hell with an emergency C-section 5 days before the babies 1st due date, I'm a bit ansy. Thankfully she's in capable hands during the day while I work, but so far all seems to be ok.

She just keeps getting BIGGER.

Started taking her temp this morning, she was not pleased with that at all. I'll take it three times a day, within 24 hrs of it dropping below 99, the babies will be here, helps me plan my day.

And now looking to the future. Dei'll be bred next year, but my attempts to find a girlie for Umbra & Wings is just not going well. . .I was offered a girl I loved as a puppy, love the pedigree of, but her owner took horrid photos of her to send me, so not sure if it's worth the time & effort to get her here, for fear she will be horrid. OTOH, if she's as lovely as her photos were as a 4 month old puppy(and the promise she had at like 7 months), she's exactly what I need.

Decisions, decisions decisions ;P

May just end up freezing Umbra, for future use. . unfortunately Sage is a continent away now lOL

And that's the other issue, breeding Sage again, tho there are two lovely males on that side of the continent that I'd love to use. One related, one unrelated to my stuff. So much I want to do, so little space to do it in ::SIGH:: At least this should make me happy BOo's owner is being uncooperative hunh? LOL

Goose

And a pic for people who don't believe Gossip curls up and sleeps in the front seat of my 97 Neon LOL

weather SUXS

OMG, does this weather SUCK. I have no clue how hot it got today, but I was MISERABLE! After being up to midnite due to a minor emergency with one of my friend's dogs, I ended up not being able to crawl out of bed =at 6 like i wanted to to get things done before it got too damn hot, and boy did it, ewwwwwwwww. So glad we decided not to go racing today, and we cancelled tomorrow to, the race committee moved the roll call up 2 hrs, but it's still goign to be too hot for zoi. . so we stay home.

darnit, we were going to have 11-12 borzoi there, ARGH!!!

Touchet continues to get wider, Gossip is getting thinner as her hair leaves her LOL Oh well, will make her cooler for the summer.

If weather permits, we'll go coursing next weekend to get the J to Reba's JC and get her ready to run in open this fall. Then LGRA end of the month. . .then nothing til August. . just hot, evil nasty weather!

Belmont was a huge disappointment. . I hope they find nothing seriously wrong with Big brown, but damn I'd wanted to see him take it away.

Off to round up my kiddos and head to bed, am BEAT

Misc stuff

What a wonderful nice weekend. Weather didn't cooperate Saturday with pouring rain, but it was pretty darn nice for Sunday with a nice breeze off the ocean.

Was a small meet, most of the Borzoi went to the II, but hearing what the conditions were, I was so right in saying screw that.

The ass kissers will deny it, but I've heard from a reliable source who has no problem stating it the way it is and will not bend to peer pressure just to be 'liked', that it was too damn hot on saturday, and crap assed lure operation on Sunday. I am tickled a couple of Northeasterns did well, with my buddy Wizard finishing with a BOB win at the II, he has only been in three ASFA trials, lol, wonder if John is even able to keep his head on work today LOL He didn't find out until today, since he was flying home from China yesterday. Wiz is Dei's intended :) I hope her pups get his intensity. Then Ariel's handsome boy Lemans and Wiz's brother also placed. But i'm still glad I didn't go.

Instead, I went to MAIGC's LGRA, and had a blast. Wonderful people, wonderful dogs, no nastiness, nothing, problems were dealt with politely. . and it was a great weekend, even if Gossip proceeded to break my last halemar muzzle. I've got a quick order in for replacements before this weekend, but boy she did a job on it, splitting the rigid plastic right in half, almost jabbing herself in the eye, and getting her jaws smashed over the end of the muzzle, caught over the p3's on her offshow side. .brat. She's a face pounder extraordinaire that's for sure.

Wham wham wham, as a friend said, i'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have(7 yrs) with the intensity of my dogs LOL. But, OTOH, considering what she did to herself this weekend, she's ready to go with Wiz & John to the next LGRA event while I sit home on pins & needles and wait to hear how they do LOL. She hogtied herself, covered herself with mud, slammed on those brakes, and came up sound and raring for more. Her fans said they'd help him out as needed.

And it'll just show how much further she has to go to get back into shape. Wiz, Novel, Indigo, Basa, all younger than she is, and darn fast, she's beat 'em before, but that was BEFORE the injury, so we shall see (Fingers crossed) I will worry, but alas, must work and help Bonnie set up for the PVBC meeting on Sunday. Thought of not going racing Sunday and letting JOhn take her, but with the new news that the proceeds benefit Karen Lorenzo with Mike's dr bills, i want to go so I can take extra dogs to support this.

Dei picked up 2 more points, sitting herself at 10 of 12 points needed to finish her GRC. Not at all bad for a 7.5+ yr old girlie, who didn't start running till last fall, tho she did tell me two full weekends was enough mom. . she's definitely tuckered out, but she's not used to this either. . .but she's made me proud, close quarters, being interfered with, she keeps going. . She's going to be the bed mouse for the summer til it's cooler for her to run, she was definitely not enjoying herself this weekend.