I love health clinics, they're a cheaper way to get those necessary health tests.
Since Secret didn't get bred this fall and her CERF (eyes)expired last month, need to get hers done, want to get an "official' one on Grins(he's had 5-6 of them done, but only once on the proper paperwork and his breeder forgot to take registration number, etc with her when she took a bunch of dogs), and Kani's new mom has agreed to get all of Kani's tests done, and this is the last one she needs. I'm so happy and thankful her new mom is going out of her way to do these things for me. Kani's also had 1-2 unofficial ones. . .but want an official one, so been looking at clinics now that my life has slowed down.
And am frustrated. . if you're going to be listed as a contact for information on ANYTHING, then you should be answering your emails. Found one that is convenient to kani's owner, a bit inconvenient for me(2.5 hrs), but we could meet and do all three at once, wrote them over a week ago, and have heard nothing. Especially annoying as there's a closing date for entry
There's a local vet who does it, but for the cost of doing all three at a health clinic!
Also need to get Touchet in and get her scanned for her microchip so she can get her Chic, she's got allt he needed tests, but for some reason, none of the vets scanned her for her microchip, and I totally flaked out about it, guess I'll take her in tomorrow when I take poor Herbie in for his vet visit.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
and the band moves on
Trying to keep myself busy so I don't dwell over Dei's illness. . .I've been enjoying running her daughter Jenny. .Jenny floats over the field, her movement is effortless as she glides. . it is truly beautiful to watch, even more so the way they had the Best in Event laid out for the Regional. . .the long straight away cut right in front of you and they were close enough you felt like you could touch them as they went by, and Jenny just coasted by like a ghost. I'm so glad Bonnie told me not to sell her. She is the more confident runner of the two girls, Ziva is soft and has a bullseye on her butt for a**hole boys, Jenny doesn't care. . and exudes confidence on the field and off the field.
She has also brought excitement back to the race track. . .since Gossip died, there have really not been close racing, but now she and her cousin Focus are reminiscent of Gossip & Focus's fueding. . it's a guess who comes across the line first, especially since with muzzles on, you have no clue which black face is which as they come barreling down the track at you. We've been joking Jenny's only been winning cuz her head is slightly longer, cuz it sometimes is Jenny literally by a 'nose'. . .those two are usually shoulder to shoulder, like an 8 legged canine version of Odin's Sleipnir, with Focus occasionally eeking out a race win, but not the meet win.
Bella's been coming out, now that she's learned to use her legs. I look forward to getting her out coursing next year. Unfortunately, she's inherited her mother's short seasons, but we'll squeeze as many events as we can in the 5.5 months she's not in season.
We tried GIbbs, unfortunately trying to find the right combo for a test dog scenario is hard. .either the dogs got a better break then him and he didn't get close enough to see, or he got the break and took off. .. we tried him, but he bounced off of Secret and i'm not sure if it was purposeful or not, so pulled him til I can figure out a way to set him up. . .
Frankie got to run, and he's going to be a ball. Such a sweet goober boy, he got away and was pouncing on the pieces of bunny that had fallen off on the track, pieces of plastic about a quarter wide, he then turned and saw me and the OH MOM!! Lightbulb came on. Ran him thru the box, and he wasn't bothered by it at all. We'll work on the box some more this weekend, and he'll go for his QC next month if luck is with me. . in no hurry, he's a year old, I've got 2.5 and almost 2 yr olds to run, but you definitely can tell who he's linebred on.
And then Ms Bounce. . who is a trip, and is constantly making me laugh. Put her in the box, before we got the door down, she was coming out from between her back legs. .. shut the door, she was facing forward, opened the front door, she was backwards LOL But she turned and was off like a bullet tearing off down the field. She is such a sweet easy going baby girl. She and Frankie remind me a lot of grins, so will have to take it easy with both of them
Otherwise trying to acclimate to the sudden drops in temperature. .we froze at the REgional first weekend in October, it was snowing on the way home. .. following weekend it's warm enough for shorts. . yep, fall is here in the mid atlantic region
Monday, October 10, 2011
Circle of life and all that crap
Circle of life
it just ain't fair.
11 yrs ago, I was waiting on pins and needles to see if my darling Kyra was going to grace me with another litter. .she had had her tryst with the handsome DC Silkenswift Blaze of Chaos SC, CD, LCMIV, SGRC, SORCII and it was a waiting game. She eventually gave birth to what became my most successful litter to date. .. luck had a lot to do with that, I got them in homes that ran them for the most part. . . .lots of firsts, a lot of fun.Unfortunately, luck was not on my side for my three keepers. I lost my Races(Mielikki A Day At the Races SC) to the dog flu at 4.5, after he'd sired a lovely litter that gave me my heart dog Gossip, I lost his brother Obie(BIF FC Mielkki My Fairy King MC, FCH) to bone cancer, but their sister(Mielikki PRophet's Song GRC) stayed on with me. .
it just ain't fair.
11 yrs ago, I was waiting on pins and needles to see if my darling Kyra was going to grace me with another litter. .she had had her tryst with the handsome DC Silkenswift Blaze of Chaos SC, CD, LCMIV, SGRC, SORCII and it was a waiting game. She eventually gave birth to what became my most successful litter to date. .. luck had a lot to do with that, I got them in homes that ran them for the most part. . . .lots of firsts, a lot of fun.Unfortunately, luck was not on my side for my three keepers. I lost my Races(Mielikki A Day At the Races SC) to the dog flu at 4.5, after he'd sired a lovely litter that gave me my heart dog Gossip, I lost his brother Obie(BIF FC Mielkki My Fairy King MC, FCH) to bone cancer, but their sister(Mielikki PRophet's Song GRC) stayed on with me. .
she was a homebody for a few years, always the perfect house dog (except for her infatuation with the cat box), never demanding, 23 hr and 50 min bladder if I let her, happy to do nothing more than lay at my feet, tho she did enjoy our long walks. She suddenly took to racing at 6+, finishing her GRC as a veteran against younger dogs at 7+. Giving me a lovely litter at 8+ yrs old, never sick a day in her life, some neck problems for a bit last winter, but bounced back from that and spaying at 10+, winning BOS in a huge veteran sweeps last fall and winning Best in Sweeps this year, not looking her age at all.
Summer 2011 at 10.5+
Last month, my last remaining get of Kyra, my sweet Dei, came up lame, and then a huge lump over her hip bone. Took her to the vet, an aspiration came up blood, so the initial DX was a nasty hematoma. The lump didn't go away, in fact, it got larger, and the medicine, specifically previcox, put her in the ER with a bleeding ulcer. . She made it thru that, only to have that damn lump be even bigger. .and unfortunately in a place that isn't easy to remove. . it pressed into the nerves in her hip joint. . .cancer sucks. So fast, in less than four weeks from no lump to this. ..
Trotting in the Veteran's ring BCGNY 2011
Vet doesnt' want to put her under for a biopsy, so idea what kind of cancer exactly, just a nasty, fast growing one. We're taking it one day at a time. . long as she's eating and able to get up to go potty, we'll just take it one day at a time, but it kills me. . they're just not here long enough. . .
Her two remaining siblings are doing well .. Eros doesn't look his age, Scirocco looks older than both of them, may be her inky dark face. But I don't have the bond with them that I do with Dei . .she was the one who stepped into Obie's shoes when he left, holding the spot for Gossip and keeping it warm, always next to me, always just there. . the thought of that space being empty has me in tears.
Vet called Saturday with no hope from the specialists. .the one said we could go to germantown for radiation, but with 3-4 days a week, not feasible with a day job, and too far to go to drop her off and go to work. Another said chemo might only give her amonth or two, and not worth doing that. . .not when she'd be sick and miserable from the chemo
So, we take it one day at a time. . she's happy, snoozing away next to me, or in front of the TV, enjoying her special dinners of whatever she'll eat. . and I try not to dwell on the near future. .
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
the waiting game
Waiting game
I'm not a patient person. . .patience may be a virtue, but tisn't one of mine, so this waiting really sucks.
Until Secret came to me, she was an 8 monther. . well, her last season was last August/September. . .::SIGH::
She's with Grins' during the day most days, and he's not paying her much attention. He's told me Cinnabar was in season, that Snow Princess was in season, that Ondine was in season, but no interest in SEcret's tush.
Makes a girl want to scream.
I'm sure she'll pick the most inopportune time. . such as after I've sent in $100 of unrefundable entries, the weekend I plan to head to CT for coursing. . .
So what do you do while you're waiting for a watch pot to boil, or in this case, a watched butt to come into season? You find other fun things to do!
I'm not a patient person. . .patience may be a virtue, but tisn't one of mine, so this waiting really sucks.
Until Secret came to me, she was an 8 monther. . well, her last season was last August/September. . .::SIGH::
She's with Grins' during the day most days, and he's not paying her much attention. He's told me Cinnabar was in season, that Snow Princess was in season, that Ondine was in season, but no interest in SEcret's tush.
Makes a girl want to scream.
I'm sure she'll pick the most inopportune time. . such as after I've sent in $100 of unrefundable entries, the weekend I plan to head to CT for coursing. . .
So what do you do while you're waiting for a watch pot to boil, or in this case, a watched butt to come into season? You find other fun things to do!
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Bounce! Bounce!
Soooo, as I mentioned, I have a new puppy. . she's a blue brindle, dark eyes, dark grey pigment. She is the granddaughter of Mir: DC Mielikki A Kind of Magic SC, LCM, SGRC, SORCII http://www.rosehillwindhounds.com/Current/Mir/Mir.html, as well as Grins' brother Stardust.
She is as you can tell from the photos NUTS for the lure, keenest one in the litter. . .but tonite, she proved just how crazy she is lOL
Went out to double check her microchip for her AKC papers and took the lure toy out, 4 of the 6 are interested, with her being the keenest. . the chinchilla girls kept trying to chase, but she wouldn't let them play, so I grabbed hold of her to let them play with it a bit. She wasn't happy to have me have a handful of her hair, but she was a good dog.
I let her go, she tore off after the bunny, and I turned my back on her, swishing the bunny away. I wish I'd had a camera as I pulled teh bunny over my head and told them enough
She is as you can tell from the photos NUTS for the lure, keenest one in the litter. . .but tonite, she proved just how crazy she is lOL
Went out to double check her microchip for her AKC papers and took the lure toy out, 4 of the 6 are interested, with her being the keenest. . the chinchilla girls kept trying to chase, but she wouldn't let them play, so I grabbed hold of her to let them play with it a bit. She wasn't happy to have me have a handful of her hair, but she was a good dog.
I let her go, she tore off after the bunny, and I turned my back on her, swishing the bunny away. I wish I'd had a camera as I pulled teh bunny over my head and told them enough
Suddenly, this 6 month old puppy jumps UP into the air, slamming me on my shoulders, launching herself over my head to grab the bunny
Yep, she's NUTS. I was laughing so hard, I have puppy paw prints on my shoulders, and she was proud of herself.
I think I'm in trouble, I have a feeling she's goign to be like Grins.. .LOL
Another one leaves the nest, just in time for horrid weather
Some people say that the hard part is letting puppies go. . I say the hard part is waiting to find out if the new owners love them as much as I want them to.
I've only ever had one dog returned because the owner was odd, didn't give him time to settle in(his new home, he settled in within a few days, the 1st home didn't even give him 12 hrs), but I still worry in sending dogs far away, will he/she be exactly waht the owner wanted? Will the personality fit? Will he/she be a good puppy, etc, etc, etc.
As I think I mentioned, the perfect sounding home for Aurora finally fell into my lap. .after two loons, one person who decided the pedigree didn't have enough champions so couldn't be a show quality puppy, one who's life fell apart and she opted out of buying her, the perfect home seems to be here. .and Aurora left for her new life in the Midwest.
Thankfully they have had Borzoi for a few years. . so they know what to expect with an 18 month old hairless girl LOL She blew her beautiful puppy coat just in time to move to her new home. They were so excited to get her home and to get her ready for the show ring this fall, but that doesn't alleve the worries.
But, my worries seem to've been needless. .she is working out really well, enjoying playing with her cousin, playing with the Aussie, and quickly fitting herself in. Every text I get from them has me smiling. . .silly sweet Aurora has found herself the best of homes. In fact, she weasled them into letting her sleep outside her crate last night, next to their bed LOL
I am looking into getting a passport to take Nacht to her new home, would love to visit Germany, even if only for a weekend, get some real good German food, bring home some REAL Eiswein :) And just waiting for the Princess to come into season and trying to endure this UNGODLY weather!!
Grins is crated in the house during the day right now, Touchet lays around like a slug. Can't believe she's 12.5. . .with luck, she'll be my first 'teen', the rest have finally gotten brains and don't exert themselves much. . .wish I could hide in the AC bedroom til this all broke! Was hoping to go coursing this weekend, but nope, not with the heat without index being high 90's on Saturday!
I am not in Texas, it should NOT be over 100 without heat index!
I've only ever had one dog returned because the owner was odd, didn't give him time to settle in(his new home, he settled in within a few days, the 1st home didn't even give him 12 hrs), but I still worry in sending dogs far away, will he/she be exactly waht the owner wanted? Will the personality fit? Will he/she be a good puppy, etc, etc, etc.
As I think I mentioned, the perfect sounding home for Aurora finally fell into my lap. .after two loons, one person who decided the pedigree didn't have enough champions so couldn't be a show quality puppy, one who's life fell apart and she opted out of buying her, the perfect home seems to be here. .and Aurora left for her new life in the Midwest.
Thankfully they have had Borzoi for a few years. . so they know what to expect with an 18 month old hairless girl LOL She blew her beautiful puppy coat just in time to move to her new home. They were so excited to get her home and to get her ready for the show ring this fall, but that doesn't alleve the worries.
But, my worries seem to've been needless. .she is working out really well, enjoying playing with her cousin, playing with the Aussie, and quickly fitting herself in. Every text I get from them has me smiling. . .silly sweet Aurora has found herself the best of homes. In fact, she weasled them into letting her sleep outside her crate last night, next to their bed LOL
I am looking into getting a passport to take Nacht to her new home, would love to visit Germany, even if only for a weekend, get some real good German food, bring home some REAL Eiswein :) And just waiting for the Princess to come into season and trying to endure this UNGODLY weather!!
Grins is crated in the house during the day right now, Touchet lays around like a slug. Can't believe she's 12.5. . .with luck, she'll be my first 'teen', the rest have finally gotten brains and don't exert themselves much. . .wish I could hide in the AC bedroom til this all broke! Was hoping to go coursing this weekend, but nope, not with the heat without index being high 90's on Saturday!
I am not in Texas, it should NOT be over 100 without heat index!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
A new face
was given a wonderful gift recently. . a new puppy.
Yeah, I know, i need a new puppy like I need a hole in my head :) but this puppy will fill a hole in my life right now.
I have 6 dogs. . .none of them have any inkling of wanting to be an Obedience/rally/agility dog. .Touchet is too old at 12.5, Dei I will only allow low level agility equipment, but no jumps, because she's 10.5, Grins has a nano second brain and has never learned how to do jumps, he barrels thru them, Secret. .Secret is a princess, she gives orders, she doesn't take them LOL. Ziva is currently a spaz and Bella is a Princess in training. . .I've tried all the younger dogs on the agility equipment, and none of them seemed keen on it, so I was holding out in hopes that a Secret puppy would have the 'zest' and desire to work for me, especially agility.
My friend commented they kept finding one of her puppies on top of a dog house, an adult Borzoi sized dog house, since she was 3 months old. .told her if she was interested in the bunny, I wanted her. I took the lure toy out and put food down, and the pups all mobbed the food bowls, started shaking the bunny, and bam, here comes Ms Goat herself(with her lovely brindle brother on her heels). Yep, she was keen, she wanted the bunny more than she wanted her dinner!
Took her out of the yard, and put her on the dog walk, bounce bounce bounce, happily trotting across the dog walk at 5.5 months old. . yep, I was really thinking of takign this puppy
Bounce working the real dog walk
Took her out with me this weekend to a racemeet, and to my surprise, there was agility equipment set up.. now Dei always got stressed and wouldn't work out for me in strange places, so before we ran I took her over, boing boing boing, over the dog walk, not once, not twice, but three times by the end of the day.
Walk on the way up the teeter
Took her to the teeter. . this she wasn't as sure of, but by the end of the day, I got her to do it, with me holding her harness, twice! I was so pleased. I then took her over to stand at the box, and although she jumped when it opened, she wanted to take off with the salukis, not much bothered by the LVCC's box at all. And everyone loved her. . .a few wanted to steal her :) So, introducing my agility hopeful: Bounce!Have no clue how to start a puppy, but we're goign to have fun!
Tired bounce after the end of a long day
So, introducing my agility hopeful: Bounce!Have no clue how to start a puppy, but we're goign to have fun!
I
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Hiking with dogs
Yesterday I decided I wanted to go for a nice hike with my dogs. I used to hike all the time in Germany. My best friends & I used to walk everywhere, and I miss it. . so, I grabbed the great bag that was for Meet winners at the LGRA/NOTRA nationals(They had a bunch of extras, so I was given one as the handler of FOcus as well as the one which came home to Bonnie), packed it with 6 20 oz bottles of water(three frozen), and one 33 oz, a water bowl, and some snacks for me, put my Camera in a zip log bag(in case it rained), my license & Iphone in another(IN case something happened!) grabbed Aurora & Secret and left at 8:30.
Our hiking place of choice was the Torrey C Brown Rail Trail Beautiful trail, mostly shaded by trees, lots of neat things to see and watch like the geese above.
As well as beautiful scenery like the gorgeous lily above. I love day lillies, even the tiger lilly, and that picture came out quite well if I may say so myself.
And if you payed really close attention, sometimes you'll find something really neat, like this bird, We THINK it's a Great Blue Heron. I thought at first it was a funny looking log. The tree he's on was across the river, so no way to get really close, so I pulled out the camera and zoomed in and took pictures from three different angles. I love these type of birds(herons, Cranes, etc), so was very pleased to see this on my walk! Unfortunately, tho my camera is a decent one, the quality of pics when I zoom in as much as I did isn't great, but it's still a rather neat photo!
Secret loves hiking in areas like this, she is constantly on hunt for fun things to chase. I would love to be able to take her out OFC because of how keen she is on game. We literally had a squirrely jump out underneath her nose and I had to drag her fuzzy butt away LOL I'm not exactly sure what caught her attention in the woods to bring up the radar ears above. She is my gamiest on live game dog, but so gentle with little dogs and cats, I love it.
The biggest problem were the rude bikers, but most of the bikers were wonderful. We'd be walking and I'd hear "On your left", I'd pull the girls in, and they'd go by, slowly so as not to scare the dogs. THe rude ones would just run up on our butts and zip by. Granted, by the end of the day, the two girls were pretty blaise about it, but at the beginning, Aurora was rather put out by the idiots flying by.
It was a great walk for Aurora, who hadn't seen strollers before. She learned quickly that Strollers meant kids, and she LOVES kids. She met this little boy going up and coming down, and had him giggling licking his face like crazy. She got to the point she'd see a stroller and get all excited, so she was in for a HUGE surprise when the last stroller she saw had a dachshund in it LOL
The weather wasn't horrendous, was 77, but the humidity was decently high that along our 7 mile trek, I stopped 5 times to offer the dogs water. It was pissing me off to see people out biking their dogs, no water on the bike for the dogs, in weather that was making me sweat at a fast walk, let alone if I was forced to trot.I made sure to thank the one walker I saw who had this neat vest contraption on her great dane that carried her dog's water. She agreed with me about the stupidity of people. A very sweet small dane and I really need to find that vest, as I told the dogs they should be carrying their own water instead of me LOL
If you're going to walk with dogs in the summer, you need to take LOTS of water, I carried quite a few lbs on my shoulders, to make sure they were covered.
Lots of wonderful compliments on my girls, even by people who didn't slow down, but were nice enough to tell me how beautiful they were. I'm so glad I didn't wear my headset like I normally do. I wear it to walk in beat with the fast music I have labeled just for our walks, but it was a very nice experience
I had hoped to make it a longer hike, but I am not in shape and my bad knee started aching, thankfully it was just an ache, not a throb. It has been amazingly good recently, and so I took the walk without the brace .. well, I also didnt' want to deal with the disgusting feeling of sweaty knee under that brace! It also was getting a bit too humid. Next time, we'll get up earlier and go, as the girls seemed to enjoy. .we may go back tomorrow(Well, Secret & I, and someone else :)) depending on how I feel. By the time it was all said and done, we hiked 7 miles, not bad, heart rate monitor says that's 1200 calories!
Got about a mile from the car, it started sprinkling, had a small training session with the lady with the dachshund. Her 11 yr old male was the one in the stroller and being good, the younger one was on leash barking, snarling and lunging at my zoi, who were ignoring him. She picked him up and was soothing him, so I gave her some hints on what to do and not to(which includes picking him up and helping his napolean complex). Hopefully it'll help the next time he sees big dogs
So all and all, a nice morning, went shopping at petsmart, picked up some new beds which were already on sale, then I got an additional 15% off, then came home and took a nap :)
Our hiking place of choice was the Torrey C Brown Rail Trail Beautiful trail, mostly shaded by trees, lots of neat things to see and watch like the geese above.
As well as beautiful scenery like the gorgeous lily above. I love day lillies, even the tiger lilly, and that picture came out quite well if I may say so myself.
And if you payed really close attention, sometimes you'll find something really neat, like this bird, We THINK it's a Great Blue Heron. I thought at first it was a funny looking log. The tree he's on was across the river, so no way to get really close, so I pulled out the camera and zoomed in and took pictures from three different angles. I love these type of birds(herons, Cranes, etc), so was very pleased to see this on my walk! Unfortunately, tho my camera is a decent one, the quality of pics when I zoom in as much as I did isn't great, but it's still a rather neat photo!
Secret loves hiking in areas like this, she is constantly on hunt for fun things to chase. I would love to be able to take her out OFC because of how keen she is on game. We literally had a squirrely jump out underneath her nose and I had to drag her fuzzy butt away LOL I'm not exactly sure what caught her attention in the woods to bring up the radar ears above. She is my gamiest on live game dog, but so gentle with little dogs and cats, I love it.
The biggest problem were the rude bikers, but most of the bikers were wonderful. We'd be walking and I'd hear "On your left", I'd pull the girls in, and they'd go by, slowly so as not to scare the dogs. THe rude ones would just run up on our butts and zip by. Granted, by the end of the day, the two girls were pretty blaise about it, but at the beginning, Aurora was rather put out by the idiots flying by.
It was a great walk for Aurora, who hadn't seen strollers before. She learned quickly that Strollers meant kids, and she LOVES kids. She met this little boy going up and coming down, and had him giggling licking his face like crazy. She got to the point she'd see a stroller and get all excited, so she was in for a HUGE surprise when the last stroller she saw had a dachshund in it LOL
The weather wasn't horrendous, was 77, but the humidity was decently high that along our 7 mile trek, I stopped 5 times to offer the dogs water. It was pissing me off to see people out biking their dogs, no water on the bike for the dogs, in weather that was making me sweat at a fast walk, let alone if I was forced to trot.I made sure to thank the one walker I saw who had this neat vest contraption on her great dane that carried her dog's water. She agreed with me about the stupidity of people. A very sweet small dane and I really need to find that vest, as I told the dogs they should be carrying their own water instead of me LOL
If you're going to walk with dogs in the summer, you need to take LOTS of water, I carried quite a few lbs on my shoulders, to make sure they were covered.
Lots of wonderful compliments on my girls, even by people who didn't slow down, but were nice enough to tell me how beautiful they were. I'm so glad I didn't wear my headset like I normally do. I wear it to walk in beat with the fast music I have labeled just for our walks, but it was a very nice experience
I had hoped to make it a longer hike, but I am not in shape and my bad knee started aching, thankfully it was just an ache, not a throb. It has been amazingly good recently, and so I took the walk without the brace .. well, I also didnt' want to deal with the disgusting feeling of sweaty knee under that brace! It also was getting a bit too humid. Next time, we'll get up earlier and go, as the girls seemed to enjoy. .we may go back tomorrow(Well, Secret & I, and someone else :)) depending on how I feel. By the time it was all said and done, we hiked 7 miles, not bad, heart rate monitor says that's 1200 calories!
Got about a mile from the car, it started sprinkling, had a small training session with the lady with the dachshund. Her 11 yr old male was the one in the stroller and being good, the younger one was on leash barking, snarling and lunging at my zoi, who were ignoring him. She picked him up and was soothing him, so I gave her some hints on what to do and not to(which includes picking him up and helping his napolean complex). Hopefully it'll help the next time he sees big dogs
So all and all, a nice morning, went shopping at petsmart, picked up some new beds which were already on sale, then I got an additional 15% off, then came home and took a nap :)
Friday, June 10, 2011
A month like a roller coaster: can I get off now?
What a month, good and bad, up and down, just like a roller coaster at 6 Flag. . and one I'd've rather not've gone on
Friday, 5/13, wow, just got that when looking for the date, makes sense for how horrid this weekend started. I took Treasure to a cat specialist vet, who after examination, looking at his xrays, the blood work, and examing him, gave me a totally different diagnosis, and worse than Cancer.
At least with cancer chemo, or surgery can or MAY help, but not with Feline Infectious Peritonitis. .. that's a death sentence. . .incurable, so much unknown about this horrid diseaseshe drew 700cc's of fluid off Treasure's belly and he still was filled with this crap. . .I left him in her hands, with fear, as I lost Pandora last year when I boarded her when she wasn't feeling well. .. and I should've gone with my gut feeling, as he passed away Saturday night. . .if he hadn't been so bright eyed and talking with me Friday, I wouldn't've left him, but I didn't think he'd leave me so quick. . OTOH, not sure I could’ve handled him passing away on me in the hotel room and having had to figure out what to do with his little body or even waking up to him dead on my bed, so not sure which way was better, but it put a huge damper on the entire weekend. . .this new vet was very sweet and tried to comfort me, but nothing comforts me. He was my pillow buddy. He came into my life when I lost my Schatzi, thus his name Treasure the memories. . one of the meanings of Schatzi is treasure. .. and I was so hoping I'd have him at least as long as I had Schatzi(12 yrs), but it was only 8 years ago that I brought him home. And after the finally diagnosis, I was hoping to be able to cuddle him one last day, but it wasn't meant to be.
They just don't live long enough
Boy did this just put a whole barrel of ice water over the weekend. . .first vacation I'd had since last May, and i couldn't even really enjoy it. . .just like my LAST vacation!
But, I'm ahead of myself.
So, after dropping him off I packed the van with 7 dogs: Ziva, Jenny, Nacht, Focus, Wizard & Logan(RR) and then the brat, err secret, cuz I know she'd've driven everyone nuts all weekend. She's not a good house dog if i'm not in the house(paces), and is a PITA in the backyard at my ETA. .. yes, brat. Drove down to the field, staked out an area with my xpen and ez-up, and headed to the hotel.
Little did I know that the hotel I chose, I had to cross a ferry to get to. . .EEKS. . .it's not open all day, it closes sometime in the evening and doesn't open til 5. .but would they cross with just one vehicle on it? Unsure, and not wanting to get stuck there if they wouldn't, I had to map out a new path, chose a different hotel for Saturday, and tried to sleep. Ziva & Secret enjoyed the hotel room rights with both of them being good girls. Was in bed at like 10:30-11.
Couldn't sleep, tossed and turned, looked at the clock so many damn times, afraid of sleeping thru the alarm(roll call was 5:30 for those helping), saw it was 3, knew I had 45 minutes of sleep, and fell back asleep, next time I woke up, I glanced at the clock, it was 4:20, EEKS!!!!!! I had set the alarm for 3:45 pm, not AM. .. slammed everything into the van and took off. Got lost because the GPS kept trying to take me back to the damn ferry. . .not a good way to start the morning.
Got the kids roll called, found the RR's handler for the day, and went back to finish setting up. .
Thankfully they had made sure to put Borzoi 1st in the running order, so we were on almost as soon as we started. I'm so thankful for the extra hands that were around(Sally marciszewski, CHuck Grabosky, Steph Parkers darling hubby, Chuck's father in law, Frances Burnes), since I was running 4 of the 6 opens(my three and Bonnie's girl) and thankfully only one of the 20 FChs!! LOl
The field was a challenging one, definitely showcased the dogs who had enduranced, very hilly, parts that you had to step out further on the field to see if you were short like me :) A number of dogs took tumbles with the 'ditches'. Jenny came back with her blanket wet, so I know she did, but didn't see it because of where she fell. Some amazing runs were ran. Some of the dogs took the scenic route over the hay bales, which was just so neat to watch. Soon as we were done, it was walk the dogs out, and head back to the field to do my huntmastering job for salukis.
Got done there, grabbed something to eat, and went to find friends terri & Susan, watched a few of the greyhound runs, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
By the end of the day, all the walking made my knee hurt. . .I happened to've parked in BFE. I packed up everything but the EZup and the xpen, and went to move the van closer to awards so I could get on the road ASAP and not walk back and forth
Now, it hadn't rained all day, but the ground was soft. .. and it proved too soft for my cargo sized van, and when I threw the van in reverse, tires started spinning. Damnit.
Turned the wheel and tried to drive ahead a bit and throw it in reverse on fresh turf, same thing. Got out, but unfortunately the people who had parked next to me had really tied their xpen down, so no way I could just pull thru and keep going.
So, I went looking for Dean wright, who rounded up a bunch of men, and with their help pushing it, I backed that SOB up and out, and kept going til I was on asphalt, not wanting to park it anywhere it could get stuck again.
End of day results was Wizard won his flyte of 10, then best FCH(40 points), Jenny, Ziva, Nacht went 2,3,4th,(18, 12, 6 points) with Jenny & Nacht winning breeder stake. Mr Logan placed 4th in open for his mama(think she said there were 7 opens)
Headed back to the hotel, got there, asked for a 1st floor room as close to the parking area as possible because my knee was killng me. In fact, stepped out of the van and it gave out. They set me up, backed my van into a parking spot as close to the room as I could get, and went to my room, and my brain went WTF????
It took me a minute to process that the room was filthy, garbage on the dresser, bed not made, it hadn't been cleaned. Went back up front, walking, cuz I am not comfy backing that thing in and out, and was hoping that they'd set me up close to wehre I'd parked to make life easier on me. They apologized profusely, gave me another room, unfortunately, this one was not as easy to get to, had to traipse quite a bit to it, yeah, on the 1st floor, but the inner courtyard area, with no convenient parking.
Then, the dogs all went on strike, refusing to potty on leash, the youngsters all wanted to play and run: WTH? Didn't they realise they had ran their little butts off earlier???? Fed them, settled them down for the night, took Jenny & Secret back to the hotel room, with visions of a nice, long, hot as I could get it, bath in my head.
My vision was not to be, Jenny nor Secret would settle down and be good beddogs, so crawled into bed after I wasn't able to connect to the internet I paid for, and went to bed.
Up early once again and headed out, parked on a different area, downhill, and with Dean's help, got my Xpen & EZ up over to the van. And then the day began.
This field was challenging in a different way. With a lot of dips and hills, the bunny was out of sight for quite a bit of the course, and if the dogs zigged left and the bunny right, they could easily get unsighted. Numerous dogs throughout the day came back to their handlers after losing sight of the bunny.
After Prelims, I was waiting to huntmaster, when I got the call from the vet, letting me know my little man had passed away over night. Up until that point, it had been a wonderful, fun weekend with great old friends and making new friends.
I tried to put that aside to finish out the day, was hard. . .my animals are my family, and Treasure had a special spot in my heart. .. watching my girls run helped, especially silly Jenny. She started coming in on the bunny hard, sliding in to home, under the line, grabbing the bunny, reminding me in so many ways of her Uncle Obie & Daddy Grins. I was very pleased with my girls runs and Wizard as usual for me, ran really well. When the finals came in, it was Wizard 1st of 19 in FCh, Jenny 1st of 5 in Open, and a lovely bitch named Tory in Veterans. After the dust settled for the BOB runoff, Jenny was the breed winner for the day.
Jenny flying
Tho I didn't think she had a snowball's chance in hell of winning, I ran her for Best in Event. .I don't know if she'll ever get a chance, so WTH right? I was very pleased with her run, but could definitely see she was not in the shape the others were in. Considering she was just two weeks or so post season(Hell, all of them but Ziva were!), I was very happy with her run.
I put her up and watched the rest of the runs, and there were some awesome ones. The basenji Searsha able to keep up with her longer legged running mates, Sammy the black greyhounds beautiful course with his nice running stakemates, and even a really amazing run of Deerhounds.
End of Sunday resulted in Jenny BOB(40 points), Wizard 1st(40) points, Ziva 2nd(15 points), Focus 3rd(10 points), Nacht 4th(5 points), Wizard & FOcus winning Bonnie the breeder stake, and Jenny coming home with the awesome pyrun trophy :)
Didn't make up for a crappy day Sunday, but it made it slightly better.
Went out to dinner with a great group of people including Katie Kaltenborn & Shirri Peake, before heading home to crash.
The fields were gorgeous, the weather almost perfect, the field committee did a great job with the battery operated water sprayer, and the competitors for Borzoi as well as those I huntmastered for were WONDERFUL!! Saw some great runs and was in the perfect position especially Sunday to be able to enjoy them. Got to see some dogs run that I hadn't seen before and it was overall, a nice weekend barring Treasure's loss.
Jenny is getting better and better every run. . .the next time out was LGRA, and she won two meets over Focus, who has only ever been defeated by two dogs: Doro, and Gossip. .she would OCCASIONALLY eek out a race win, but never ever beat Gossip for the meet win, so I really am looking forward to this fall once she & Focus are over their post season slump.
Friday, 5/13, wow, just got that when looking for the date, makes sense for how horrid this weekend started. I took Treasure to a cat specialist vet, who after examination, looking at his xrays, the blood work, and examing him, gave me a totally different diagnosis, and worse than Cancer.
At least with cancer chemo, or surgery can or MAY help, but not with Feline Infectious Peritonitis. .. that's a death sentence. . .incurable, so much unknown about this horrid diseaseshe drew 700cc's of fluid off Treasure's belly and he still was filled with this crap. . .I left him in her hands, with fear, as I lost Pandora last year when I boarded her when she wasn't feeling well. .. and I should've gone with my gut feeling, as he passed away Saturday night. . .if he hadn't been so bright eyed and talking with me Friday, I wouldn't've left him, but I didn't think he'd leave me so quick. . OTOH, not sure I could’ve handled him passing away on me in the hotel room and having had to figure out what to do with his little body or even waking up to him dead on my bed, so not sure which way was better, but it put a huge damper on the entire weekend. . .this new vet was very sweet and tried to comfort me, but nothing comforts me. He was my pillow buddy. He came into my life when I lost my Schatzi, thus his name Treasure the memories. . one of the meanings of Schatzi is treasure. .. and I was so hoping I'd have him at least as long as I had Schatzi(12 yrs), but it was only 8 years ago that I brought him home. And after the finally diagnosis, I was hoping to be able to cuddle him one last day, but it wasn't meant to be.
They just don't live long enough
Boy did this just put a whole barrel of ice water over the weekend. . .first vacation I'd had since last May, and i couldn't even really enjoy it. . .just like my LAST vacation!
But, I'm ahead of myself.
So, after dropping him off I packed the van with 7 dogs: Ziva, Jenny, Nacht, Focus, Wizard & Logan(RR) and then the brat, err secret, cuz I know she'd've driven everyone nuts all weekend. She's not a good house dog if i'm not in the house(paces), and is a PITA in the backyard at my ETA. .. yes, brat. Drove down to the field, staked out an area with my xpen and ez-up, and headed to the hotel.
Little did I know that the hotel I chose, I had to cross a ferry to get to. . .EEKS. . .it's not open all day, it closes sometime in the evening and doesn't open til 5. .but would they cross with just one vehicle on it? Unsure, and not wanting to get stuck there if they wouldn't, I had to map out a new path, chose a different hotel for Saturday, and tried to sleep. Ziva & Secret enjoyed the hotel room rights with both of them being good girls. Was in bed at like 10:30-11.
Couldn't sleep, tossed and turned, looked at the clock so many damn times, afraid of sleeping thru the alarm(roll call was 5:30 for those helping), saw it was 3, knew I had 45 minutes of sleep, and fell back asleep, next time I woke up, I glanced at the clock, it was 4:20, EEKS!!!!!! I had set the alarm for 3:45 pm, not AM. .. slammed everything into the van and took off. Got lost because the GPS kept trying to take me back to the damn ferry. . .not a good way to start the morning.
Got the kids roll called, found the RR's handler for the day, and went back to finish setting up. .
Thankfully they had made sure to put Borzoi 1st in the running order, so we were on almost as soon as we started. I'm so thankful for the extra hands that were around(Sally marciszewski, CHuck Grabosky, Steph Parkers darling hubby, Chuck's father in law, Frances Burnes), since I was running 4 of the 6 opens(my three and Bonnie's girl) and thankfully only one of the 20 FChs!! LOl
The field was a challenging one, definitely showcased the dogs who had enduranced, very hilly, parts that you had to step out further on the field to see if you were short like me :) A number of dogs took tumbles with the 'ditches'. Jenny came back with her blanket wet, so I know she did, but didn't see it because of where she fell. Some amazing runs were ran. Some of the dogs took the scenic route over the hay bales, which was just so neat to watch. Soon as we were done, it was walk the dogs out, and head back to the field to do my huntmastering job for salukis.
Got done there, grabbed something to eat, and went to find friends terri & Susan, watched a few of the greyhound runs, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
By the end of the day, all the walking made my knee hurt. . .I happened to've parked in BFE. I packed up everything but the EZup and the xpen, and went to move the van closer to awards so I could get on the road ASAP and not walk back and forth
Now, it hadn't rained all day, but the ground was soft. .. and it proved too soft for my cargo sized van, and when I threw the van in reverse, tires started spinning. Damnit.
Turned the wheel and tried to drive ahead a bit and throw it in reverse on fresh turf, same thing. Got out, but unfortunately the people who had parked next to me had really tied their xpen down, so no way I could just pull thru and keep going.
So, I went looking for Dean wright, who rounded up a bunch of men, and with their help pushing it, I backed that SOB up and out, and kept going til I was on asphalt, not wanting to park it anywhere it could get stuck again.
End of day results was Wizard won his flyte of 10, then best FCH(40 points), Jenny, Ziva, Nacht went 2,3,4th,(18, 12, 6 points) with Jenny & Nacht winning breeder stake. Mr Logan placed 4th in open for his mama(think she said there were 7 opens)
Headed back to the hotel, got there, asked for a 1st floor room as close to the parking area as possible because my knee was killng me. In fact, stepped out of the van and it gave out. They set me up, backed my van into a parking spot as close to the room as I could get, and went to my room, and my brain went WTF????
It took me a minute to process that the room was filthy, garbage on the dresser, bed not made, it hadn't been cleaned. Went back up front, walking, cuz I am not comfy backing that thing in and out, and was hoping that they'd set me up close to wehre I'd parked to make life easier on me. They apologized profusely, gave me another room, unfortunately, this one was not as easy to get to, had to traipse quite a bit to it, yeah, on the 1st floor, but the inner courtyard area, with no convenient parking.
Then, the dogs all went on strike, refusing to potty on leash, the youngsters all wanted to play and run: WTH? Didn't they realise they had ran their little butts off earlier???? Fed them, settled them down for the night, took Jenny & Secret back to the hotel room, with visions of a nice, long, hot as I could get it, bath in my head.
My vision was not to be, Jenny nor Secret would settle down and be good beddogs, so crawled into bed after I wasn't able to connect to the internet I paid for, and went to bed.
Up early once again and headed out, parked on a different area, downhill, and with Dean's help, got my Xpen & EZ up over to the van. And then the day began.
This field was challenging in a different way. With a lot of dips and hills, the bunny was out of sight for quite a bit of the course, and if the dogs zigged left and the bunny right, they could easily get unsighted. Numerous dogs throughout the day came back to their handlers after losing sight of the bunny.
After Prelims, I was waiting to huntmaster, when I got the call from the vet, letting me know my little man had passed away over night. Up until that point, it had been a wonderful, fun weekend with great old friends and making new friends.
I tried to put that aside to finish out the day, was hard. . .my animals are my family, and Treasure had a special spot in my heart. .. watching my girls run helped, especially silly Jenny. She started coming in on the bunny hard, sliding in to home, under the line, grabbing the bunny, reminding me in so many ways of her Uncle Obie & Daddy Grins. I was very pleased with my girls runs and Wizard as usual for me, ran really well. When the finals came in, it was Wizard 1st of 19 in FCh, Jenny 1st of 5 in Open, and a lovely bitch named Tory in Veterans. After the dust settled for the BOB runoff, Jenny was the breed winner for the day.
Jenny flying
Tho I didn't think she had a snowball's chance in hell of winning, I ran her for Best in Event. .I don't know if she'll ever get a chance, so WTH right? I was very pleased with her run, but could definitely see she was not in the shape the others were in. Considering she was just two weeks or so post season(Hell, all of them but Ziva were!), I was very happy with her run.
I put her up and watched the rest of the runs, and there were some awesome ones. The basenji Searsha able to keep up with her longer legged running mates, Sammy the black greyhounds beautiful course with his nice running stakemates, and even a really amazing run of Deerhounds.
End of Sunday resulted in Jenny BOB(40 points), Wizard 1st(40) points, Ziva 2nd(15 points), Focus 3rd(10 points), Nacht 4th(5 points), Wizard & FOcus winning Bonnie the breeder stake, and Jenny coming home with the awesome pyrun trophy :)
Didn't make up for a crappy day Sunday, but it made it slightly better.
Went out to dinner with a great group of people including Katie Kaltenborn & Shirri Peake, before heading home to crash.
The fields were gorgeous, the weather almost perfect, the field committee did a great job with the battery operated water sprayer, and the competitors for Borzoi as well as those I huntmastered for were WONDERFUL!! Saw some great runs and was in the perfect position especially Sunday to be able to enjoy them. Got to see some dogs run that I hadn't seen before and it was overall, a nice weekend barring Treasure's loss.
Jenny is getting better and better every run. . .the next time out was LGRA, and she won two meets over Focus, who has only ever been defeated by two dogs: Doro, and Gossip. .she would OCCASIONALLY eek out a race win, but never ever beat Gossip for the meet win, so I really am looking forward to this fall once she & Focus are over their post season slump.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
longest 24 hrs ever
I have so many blogs started, just haven't finished them and posted them. .
Last week I endured 24 hrs of HELL. . .the longest 24 hrs ever.
Nacht needed 6 points going into the weekend. .unfortunately there's no other ASFA until the end of June, and I'm hoping she's in Europe by then. . who knows, been hoping she'd be in Europe for awhile. . .unfortunately there was a conflict, with LGRA put on by my friends. I felt obligated to support them, since they were in the front field. . .and was just going to not worry about the ASFA, and hope it was cool enough in June to run and that she'd be here.
A friend said they were going, and after thinking about it a bit, she had liked him and been very outgoing and friendly with him the last time she'd seen him, had let others slip and catch her, I didn't think anything of there being problems when i asked if he minded running her.
Unfortunately when I handed her off, even tho I thought I had packed everything, her brain stayed home. Her teenage hormones were taking up all the brain space. . (she was in season in April)
Now, she ran Saturday at LGRA, was fine with all sorts of people handling her, walking away, boxing her, etc, etc. . .so she MUST'VE had her brain then, but somewhere between Saturday evening and Sunday morning,she misplaced it. Maybe Gibbs borrowed it for the day, but I have never had a bitch become such a complete nincompoop during her 'slump' as Nacht did Sunday. . .and things that hadn't bothered her before then did, tho getting attacked by a basenji probably didn't start her day off(thankfully the bad dog came away with only tail feathers). I don't know exactly what happened, was told she acted spooked that day, and suddenly I had a missing dog. . .
ANd thus starts the worse 24 hrs EVER.
I wasn't there to see what happened after she decided to play keep away coming in for BOB, been told conflicting stories, so not going there. . what all stories agreedupon was she got away thru a gape in the fence.
I got the call on the way there, and that trip, which normally takes about an hour, felt like it took 3. . .when we got there, they showed us where she had disappeared into. A heavy thatch of overgrown woods in the middle of farmland. . not a huge batch of woods, a couple of acres with house and a paddock of whitetail deer. They'd already talked to the landowner, and so I went traipsing thru the woods.
Four hours of here puppy puppy puppy. . .stopping to sit in the AC for a bit and rehydrate and then go out again, my friends drove around, talked to people, gave out numbers, while I walked the woods. Wanted to make sure someone was on the outside in case she went out hte back or sides. . .
Four hours, not a sign of her, mind you, she was wearing her pink blanket, but not a sign, tripping over dead wood, vines, getting attacked by wild rose and berry bush thorns, brushing against who knows what?
Oh yeah, did I mention I was in shorts? I am so glad I started to wear tennies to events since I hurt my knee, more support. . so I at least had them on and not my crocs of last year. . .I left Sunday looking like a survivor of a battle of cats. . .and praying I hadn't walked into poison ivy. Unfortunately, I think I did.
We decided that she probably was collapsed somewhere in that mess. It was somewhere around 90 with high humidity, and she had on a heavy black fur coat. . .needing fliers to hand out, and unable to do much more as walking that area in the dark was a leg breaking opportunity, we headed home.
Got her microchip registered and went to findtoto.com.
This is a WONDERFUL website. You put the zipcode of the area the dog was lost in, and pick an option from 250 calls to 10000 neighbors to call in that area, and an automated phone will call everyone in that area they can get hold of and leave them a message with a description of the dog, your number, and other pertinant information. It is a wonderful tool, ended up being unneeded, but I know it has helped others bring their dogs back home.
Homeagain gives you a flyer and Bonnie ran that to kinkos as I was so exhausted and stressed I was dead on my feet and sick to my stomach. . part of that was probably I hadn't eaten anything since 11 that morning. . tried to sleep, didnt' happen, up early with plans to brush a bunch of dogs, take her bed and a bag of food over with the flyers and seed the area with food and hair into an empty paddock on the land owner's property when we get a call.
She was SPOTTED!! First sign of her since she'd slipped into the woods. Workers at a speedway about half a mile away from the woods, headed back towards the coursing fields, were trying to lure her in with water. I was ready to jump in the AC-less Neon but Jim convinced me to wait a few minutes until he got ready so we could go out in the Prius which has AC, glad I did, as by the end of the day we needed it. Less than 20 mins later on our way there, they called back to say she'd been caught.
When we got there and she saw me, she couldn't stop talking, moan moan moan moan, and then she went to Jim and did the same thing. Not sure if she was saying OMG You came back for me, or OMG, I promise NEVER EVER EVER to do that again. . .
Seems she stayed in the woods as far as we can tell all night Sunday, and then headed across the fields saturday morning. . the workers found her curled up under the ambulance with her coursign blanket tangled around her backlegs. Got her out of that and she took off to hide in the bathrooms which is where she was when my two friends who were at the field for the event got there.
She seems no worse for wear, not even her paws seem sore. She's started on metronidazole for giardia, just in case, and she enjoyed being a house dog for a week, making sure her stools are ok, as we had no idea what she may've eaten. She is now back in with her siblings.
Thank heavens it was really less than 24 hrs, she went missing about 1 pm Sunday, and was caught by 10 Monday. . but it was the longest 21 hours I've ever dealt with. . .other dogs I know of have been missing for anywhere from 4 days to never found again, or if found, dead on road, so I'm glad it was ONLY 21 hrs. . .but it was the most horrendous 21 hrs ever.
Putting her collar and leash on her put her brain back with her, cuz she was back to her normal self when we got out to thank people at the field. Didn't want to leave my side, but back to mooching people she wouldn't let touch her the day before. . evil child
She will not be going running for a few weeks, her coursing was crappy post season anyways, so it'll give her time to get over this slump and cement her brain back into her head.
THe adventure seemed to affect me longer than her, I had stomach upset for a few days, but we're both back to normal. . .silly little Nacht
Last week I endured 24 hrs of HELL. . .the longest 24 hrs ever.
Nacht needed 6 points going into the weekend. .unfortunately there's no other ASFA until the end of June, and I'm hoping she's in Europe by then. . who knows, been hoping she'd be in Europe for awhile. . .unfortunately there was a conflict, with LGRA put on by my friends. I felt obligated to support them, since they were in the front field. . .and was just going to not worry about the ASFA, and hope it was cool enough in June to run and that she'd be here.
A friend said they were going, and after thinking about it a bit, she had liked him and been very outgoing and friendly with him the last time she'd seen him, had let others slip and catch her, I didn't think anything of there being problems when i asked if he minded running her.
Unfortunately when I handed her off, even tho I thought I had packed everything, her brain stayed home. Her teenage hormones were taking up all the brain space. . (she was in season in April)
Now, she ran Saturday at LGRA, was fine with all sorts of people handling her, walking away, boxing her, etc, etc. . .so she MUST'VE had her brain then, but somewhere between Saturday evening and Sunday morning,she misplaced it. Maybe Gibbs borrowed it for the day, but I have never had a bitch become such a complete nincompoop during her 'slump' as Nacht did Sunday. . .and things that hadn't bothered her before then did, tho getting attacked by a basenji probably didn't start her day off(thankfully the bad dog came away with only tail feathers). I don't know exactly what happened, was told she acted spooked that day, and suddenly I had a missing dog. . .
ANd thus starts the worse 24 hrs EVER.
I wasn't there to see what happened after she decided to play keep away coming in for BOB, been told conflicting stories, so not going there. . what all stories agreedupon was she got away thru a gape in the fence.
I got the call on the way there, and that trip, which normally takes about an hour, felt like it took 3. . .when we got there, they showed us where she had disappeared into. A heavy thatch of overgrown woods in the middle of farmland. . not a huge batch of woods, a couple of acres with house and a paddock of whitetail deer. They'd already talked to the landowner, and so I went traipsing thru the woods.
Four hours of here puppy puppy puppy. . .stopping to sit in the AC for a bit and rehydrate and then go out again, my friends drove around, talked to people, gave out numbers, while I walked the woods. Wanted to make sure someone was on the outside in case she went out hte back or sides. . .
Four hours, not a sign of her, mind you, she was wearing her pink blanket, but not a sign, tripping over dead wood, vines, getting attacked by wild rose and berry bush thorns, brushing against who knows what?
Oh yeah, did I mention I was in shorts? I am so glad I started to wear tennies to events since I hurt my knee, more support. . so I at least had them on and not my crocs of last year. . .I left Sunday looking like a survivor of a battle of cats. . .and praying I hadn't walked into poison ivy. Unfortunately, I think I did.
We decided that she probably was collapsed somewhere in that mess. It was somewhere around 90 with high humidity, and she had on a heavy black fur coat. . .needing fliers to hand out, and unable to do much more as walking that area in the dark was a leg breaking opportunity, we headed home.
Got her microchip registered and went to findtoto.com.
This is a WONDERFUL website. You put the zipcode of the area the dog was lost in, and pick an option from 250 calls to 10000 neighbors to call in that area, and an automated phone will call everyone in that area they can get hold of and leave them a message with a description of the dog, your number, and other pertinant information. It is a wonderful tool, ended up being unneeded, but I know it has helped others bring their dogs back home.
Homeagain gives you a flyer and Bonnie ran that to kinkos as I was so exhausted and stressed I was dead on my feet and sick to my stomach. . part of that was probably I hadn't eaten anything since 11 that morning. . tried to sleep, didnt' happen, up early with plans to brush a bunch of dogs, take her bed and a bag of food over with the flyers and seed the area with food and hair into an empty paddock on the land owner's property when we get a call.
She was SPOTTED!! First sign of her since she'd slipped into the woods. Workers at a speedway about half a mile away from the woods, headed back towards the coursing fields, were trying to lure her in with water. I was ready to jump in the AC-less Neon but Jim convinced me to wait a few minutes until he got ready so we could go out in the Prius which has AC, glad I did, as by the end of the day we needed it. Less than 20 mins later on our way there, they called back to say she'd been caught.
When we got there and she saw me, she couldn't stop talking, moan moan moan moan, and then she went to Jim and did the same thing. Not sure if she was saying OMG You came back for me, or OMG, I promise NEVER EVER EVER to do that again. . .
Seems she stayed in the woods as far as we can tell all night Sunday, and then headed across the fields saturday morning. . the workers found her curled up under the ambulance with her coursign blanket tangled around her backlegs. Got her out of that and she took off to hide in the bathrooms which is where she was when my two friends who were at the field for the event got there.
She seems no worse for wear, not even her paws seem sore. She's started on metronidazole for giardia, just in case, and she enjoyed being a house dog for a week, making sure her stools are ok, as we had no idea what she may've eaten. She is now back in with her siblings.
Thank heavens it was really less than 24 hrs, she went missing about 1 pm Sunday, and was caught by 10 Monday. . but it was the longest 21 hours I've ever dealt with. . .other dogs I know of have been missing for anywhere from 4 days to never found again, or if found, dead on road, so I'm glad it was ONLY 21 hrs. . .but it was the most horrendous 21 hrs ever.
Putting her collar and leash on her put her brain back with her, cuz she was back to her normal self when we got out to thank people at the field. Didn't want to leave my side, but back to mooching people she wouldn't let touch her the day before. . evil child
She will not be going running for a few weeks, her coursing was crappy post season anyways, so it'll give her time to get over this slump and cement her brain back into her head.
THe adventure seemed to affect me longer than her, I had stomach upset for a few days, but we're both back to normal. . .silly little Nacht
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Potomac Valley Borzoi Club Supported Entry
On to less depressing news
I made it thru our supported entry without a hitch in MY giddy up :) A new knee brace, new tennies, and my knee didn't hurt until the long a**ed trek back to BFE to get in my car. I was very very pleased.
Dei has become somewhat of a ham now that she's 'retired'. . .she strutted herself around that ring, being pointed out for Best Veteran in Sweeps as the oldest Borzoi entered by a few years(next oldest just turned 8!) The judge was very complimentary of the condition she was in, and how muscled she was, even for a 10.5 yr old Veteran! Dei thought the day was great, as if she nudgy'd someone they'd pay her attention LOL
Nacht tickled me pink by following in sister bella's footsteps and acting like a little pro(for me LOL). Kept at a nice trot even when someone behind us kicked the gate, kept her stack, didn't get bothered by having her bite checked, nada. . considering I haven't taken her to a handling class at all for fear of screwing up that knee, I was beyond tickled at how well she behaved, and she went on to win her class of three in Sweeps & in regular class.
Tomorrow is BCGNY, so here's hoping everything goes well there. . .it unfortunately has chances of rain. This show is either rainy or miserably hot. Bathed the girls last night, so tonite is primping them and packing the rental van. Friend's van is in the shop for a new tie rod(EEKS, glad we found that out before we left for the day!) Then up at o dark thirty and off for the day.
Then a nice weekend of doing nothing. . after getting charbroiled last week at my practice, I'm glad to just be able to relax, to charge my batteries for next week. . me, 5 Borzoi, possibly 1 RR, and the weather for the II looks LOVELY!!!
I made it thru our supported entry without a hitch in MY giddy up :) A new knee brace, new tennies, and my knee didn't hurt until the long a**ed trek back to BFE to get in my car. I was very very pleased.
Dei has become somewhat of a ham now that she's 'retired'. . .she strutted herself around that ring, being pointed out for Best Veteran in Sweeps as the oldest Borzoi entered by a few years(next oldest just turned 8!) The judge was very complimentary of the condition she was in, and how muscled she was, even for a 10.5 yr old Veteran! Dei thought the day was great, as if she nudgy'd someone they'd pay her attention LOL
Nacht tickled me pink by following in sister bella's footsteps and acting like a little pro(for me LOL). Kept at a nice trot even when someone behind us kicked the gate, kept her stack, didn't get bothered by having her bite checked, nada. . considering I haven't taken her to a handling class at all for fear of screwing up that knee, I was beyond tickled at how well she behaved, and she went on to win her class of three in Sweeps & in regular class.
Tomorrow is BCGNY, so here's hoping everything goes well there. . .it unfortunately has chances of rain. This show is either rainy or miserably hot. Bathed the girls last night, so tonite is primping them and packing the rental van. Friend's van is in the shop for a new tie rod(EEKS, glad we found that out before we left for the day!) Then up at o dark thirty and off for the day.
Then a nice weekend of doing nothing. . after getting charbroiled last week at my practice, I'm glad to just be able to relax, to charge my batteries for next week. . me, 5 Borzoi, possibly 1 RR, and the weather for the II looks LOVELY!!!
Treasure
Well, Treasure's still ticking, still snuggling in bed, still talking to me, still demanding to be petted. We took him off of lasix last week since my vet doesn't think it's his heart and he started eating, not what he should be eating, but with his belly full of ascites, not a lot of room to eat. . .but he is eating on his own. In fact, 9 times otu of 10 he'll pop up with interest at the sound of the popcan.
I think my vet is surprised at how bright eyed and alert he was when we went in Monday. .. he tried palpating him, but could feel nothing because of the fluid. He drew some off, sent it to the lab, but it was inconclusive. We may attempt another ultrasound.
I've started crating him during the day. Pippens can be a little jerk sometimes, as can Herbie, Treasure's littermate. . .it also allows him the leisure of eating his canned food without the butthead twins eating it first. As soon as I open it, he jumps shakily on the bed and curls up, waiting for me to join him. He's been enjoying kitty crack(catnip), and loves nothing more than being brushed, Vane little boy.
He has his good nights, like last night, where he spent all night on my bed, either on my pillow or at my feet. I woke up with him curled up against me, purring. . not sure if it was a good purr or a "Mommy I hurt Purr". . .so we spent time cuddling before I had to get up. Night before, he spent most the night on the dog bed, may've been softer than the human bed. or maybe he got sick of Mom's tossing and turning. .
A little apprehensive about going out of town next weekend. . last time i left a sick kitty at the kitty spa, I lost her. . .I know he'll get the best care, but thankfully I won't be too far away if need be. . .
I think my vet is surprised at how bright eyed and alert he was when we went in Monday. .. he tried palpating him, but could feel nothing because of the fluid. He drew some off, sent it to the lab, but it was inconclusive. We may attempt another ultrasound.
I've started crating him during the day. Pippens can be a little jerk sometimes, as can Herbie, Treasure's littermate. . .it also allows him the leisure of eating his canned food without the butthead twins eating it first. As soon as I open it, he jumps shakily on the bed and curls up, waiting for me to join him. He's been enjoying kitty crack(catnip), and loves nothing more than being brushed, Vane little boy.
He has his good nights, like last night, where he spent all night on my bed, either on my pillow or at my feet. I woke up with him curled up against me, purring. . not sure if it was a good purr or a "Mommy I hurt Purr". . .so we spent time cuddling before I had to get up. Night before, he spent most the night on the dog bed, may've been softer than the human bed. or maybe he got sick of Mom's tossing and turning. .
A little apprehensive about going out of town next weekend. . last time i left a sick kitty at the kitty spa, I lost her. . .I know he'll get the best care, but thankfully I won't be too far away if need be. . .
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
calling a spade a spade & losing another one
Last week, my favorite kitty started ailing, suddenly. With cats, they'll be fine one day, and then the next, almost overnight, they are suddenly ill, and that was him. Last weekend he was fine, last Tuesday he had an extended abdomen and muscle wasting on his hips. No one knows for sure why they show no illness until it's too late when they are really ill, but it makes treating them hard to do, because by the time you know they're sick, the disease/illness is so far along, you usually can't do anything but say goodbye.
Unfortunately, it's not something he can get better from. .it's either heart failure or cancer. . .the vet wasn't very optomistic due to how fast he has gone downhill, so is not encouraging me to spend a lot of money just to 'know' what he's sick of. . .he did do an ultrasound, and heart looks normal, but there is so much ascites(liquid in his abdomen), they couldn't get a look at his other organs to see if there were any tumours. He's so weak, exploratory surgery is out, and I'd hate to have him die on the table. I'd rather he passed at home, or in my arms, not on a cold table.
So, it's just a guess, just like when I lost Schatzi the same way, fine one day, suddenly ill the next.
So it's just a waiting game. ..
Up until yesterday, he was being better than past cats(which total 5 I've had to forcefeed) in letting me put food in the back of his mouth and swallowing it. Today not so patient and nice, wanting nothign to do with the chicken I made him, tho he did eat 1/2+ of a can of fancy feast today while I was at work. . problem is, he should be eating about 4 of those a day
Unfortunately with cats, going off their food will kill them faster than just about anything, due to 'fatty liver disease'.(feline hepatic lipidosis) which causes liver failure. . .so you have to forcefeed them. . .it's not a fun game of making a sick cat eat. . .babyfood is the easiest as it can go thru the syringe easier and is a lot less messy than trying to puree cat food into a nice thin mess. I more often than not get more food on me than in the cat, and hate it, hate spendng the last few days/weeks with an ailing pet fighting them. It's hard enough letting them go, watching them get weaker, without remembering how you fought with them.
Unfortunately, the PC world has encroached into the cat world, and if you tell many 'feel good' cat people you are forcefeeding, they ahve conniptions, they prefer the gentler term 'assisted feeding'. . this isn't a child or older relative that has problems hitting their mouth, you are making an animal eat, forcing them to do something they would rather not due, yet they get soooo damn pissy if you point that out. .and I refuse to use the words 'assisted feeding', when I know what i'm doing is forcing them to eat, even if it's for their own good.
And BOY do they get uptight if you refuse to use their PC words "asissted feeding". . I guess it's their way of making themselves feel better for doing something not so nice. . but I'm sorry, a spade's a spade. .cat has no desire to eat, you're forcing it. Why do people have to fancy up things instead of just being honest with themselves??
it sucks. .treasure is my boy, he's only 8. . this is the 4th in the last 15 months. .and he's nto that old, barely 8 yrs old. .. he stepped into the hole Schatzi left back in 2002. It's only a matter of days really, but as long as he enjoys having his ears scritched and plays with the ribbons on a racing blanket I have in the room, we'll keep going, but my pillow will be so empty when it finally is time
Unfortunately, it's not something he can get better from. .it's either heart failure or cancer. . .the vet wasn't very optomistic due to how fast he has gone downhill, so is not encouraging me to spend a lot of money just to 'know' what he's sick of. . .he did do an ultrasound, and heart looks normal, but there is so much ascites(liquid in his abdomen), they couldn't get a look at his other organs to see if there were any tumours. He's so weak, exploratory surgery is out, and I'd hate to have him die on the table. I'd rather he passed at home, or in my arms, not on a cold table.
So, it's just a guess, just like when I lost Schatzi the same way, fine one day, suddenly ill the next.
So it's just a waiting game. ..
Up until yesterday, he was being better than past cats(which total 5 I've had to forcefeed) in letting me put food in the back of his mouth and swallowing it. Today not so patient and nice, wanting nothign to do with the chicken I made him, tho he did eat 1/2+ of a can of fancy feast today while I was at work. . problem is, he should be eating about 4 of those a day
Unfortunately with cats, going off their food will kill them faster than just about anything, due to 'fatty liver disease'.(feline hepatic lipidosis) which causes liver failure. . .so you have to forcefeed them. . .it's not a fun game of making a sick cat eat. . .babyfood is the easiest as it can go thru the syringe easier and is a lot less messy than trying to puree cat food into a nice thin mess. I more often than not get more food on me than in the cat, and hate it, hate spendng the last few days/weeks with an ailing pet fighting them. It's hard enough letting them go, watching them get weaker, without remembering how you fought with them.
Unfortunately, the PC world has encroached into the cat world, and if you tell many 'feel good' cat people you are forcefeeding, they ahve conniptions, they prefer the gentler term 'assisted feeding'. . this isn't a child or older relative that has problems hitting their mouth, you are making an animal eat, forcing them to do something they would rather not due, yet they get soooo damn pissy if you point that out. .and I refuse to use the words 'assisted feeding', when I know what i'm doing is forcing them to eat, even if it's for their own good.
And BOY do they get uptight if you refuse to use their PC words "asissted feeding". . I guess it's their way of making themselves feel better for doing something not so nice. . but I'm sorry, a spade's a spade. .cat has no desire to eat, you're forcing it. Why do people have to fancy up things instead of just being honest with themselves??
it sucks. .treasure is my boy, he's only 8. . this is the 4th in the last 15 months. .and he's nto that old, barely 8 yrs old. .. he stepped into the hole Schatzi left back in 2002. It's only a matter of days really, but as long as he enjoys having his ears scritched and plays with the ribbons on a racing blanket I have in the room, we'll keep going, but my pillow will be so empty when it finally is time
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
more fun in the mud
I don't remember coursing in such nasty weather as I've been doing lately. . .LOL. . weather in MD has been hit or miss, at least it's not gotten hot as fast as it did last year, still perfect weather for Zoi, even if it's miserable weather for us humans.
Saturday was horrid, with high winds, horridly cold rain. Borrowed the van which was like driving a sail boat with the way it handled the wind. Clouds were ripped across the angry grey sky, trees whipping around in the wind, thankfully not a lot of line problems. Put points on my friend's girl and Mr Wizard, and got a QC on a Mir granddaughter, and was never so happy as when we finally got on the road and started heading home. Lots of flooding, with a local dog show being cancelled due to it and the photos I saw of that were horrendous, show hall beyond flooded!
Parking was fun due to the field being soaked to the gills. . I left before a lot of people, so not sure if anyone got stuck LOL
Sunday started out with high winds and an overcast sky, but quickly changed to cleared skies and pretty nice weather.
Ziva proved she enjoyed the mud by putting on four spectacular runs. . not because I ran her for field, but becuase I handed her off to someone and in her thrashing, she managed to get loose while the 2nd course of FC's were running. Thankfully she was wearing the missing blanket(blue), and wasn't trailing her leash. As I walked off the field with her and Wizard, was told it was one of the best courses people had seen LOL. . Didn't make up for the fact I'd gone 11 years without a dog getting loose LOL After the BOB runoff, she was still raring to go, but I wasn't going to try her a 5th time LOL
After being attacked, she has taken to taking the bunny out to the judge where she feels safe to tear it apart. . I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not LOL She doesn't run away when I go out to get her, she just doesn't want to be near the other dogs when she shreds her bunny ..turkey child. Many who knew her father told me they could tell she was sired by Grins LOL. Even after four runs, she was still raring to go, but I didn't tempt fate with having her run across the mudpits again. She did get a nice BOB win: 4 point major, with Wizard bringing home the 3 point major from the FC stake.
Unfortunately both my cert dogs came up with a 'hitch to their giddy up', but Charles offered his handsome Serrano who ran well with Miss Jenny, who now has her QC, taking a nose dive in a pool of water, and still getting up to tear across the field and kill her bunny
I sure did not enjoy putting those disgusting dogs in my car. . LOL.
the dogs were flatzois, jenny curled up in the front seat, head draped across my knee, Ziva in the backseat with her head draped over my arm .. not the most comfortable way to drive.
Looking at the next coursing event. . well, that's the II, am toying with the idea of going to some NOTRA, but also looking at AKC events, I have 4 Opens now, so strange to finally break that dry spell.
Unfortunately, Grins is probably retired from competition.. off and on neck problems just bouncing around the yard. . .he doesn't realise at 8.5, he should NOT stop on the top of his head. He'll get to cert dogs now and then and run at our practices, but he more than likely is never going to enter the coursing field again. . maybe NOTRA wont' be as hard on him .. we shall see.
This weekend is our supported entry. Ordered a new knee brace. First show that I've shown in since the knee went CRACK!!! last fall(9 months ago) hopefuly I'll be able to do this without collapsing. Brand new outfit(former outfit doesn't fit anymore!). Dei's in veterans, as I'm very proud of my 10.5 yr old, and Ms Nacht in 12-18, it hopefully will be fun!
Saturday was horrid, with high winds, horridly cold rain. Borrowed the van which was like driving a sail boat with the way it handled the wind. Clouds were ripped across the angry grey sky, trees whipping around in the wind, thankfully not a lot of line problems. Put points on my friend's girl and Mr Wizard, and got a QC on a Mir granddaughter, and was never so happy as when we finally got on the road and started heading home. Lots of flooding, with a local dog show being cancelled due to it and the photos I saw of that were horrendous, show hall beyond flooded!
Parking was fun due to the field being soaked to the gills. . I left before a lot of people, so not sure if anyone got stuck LOL
Sunday started out with high winds and an overcast sky, but quickly changed to cleared skies and pretty nice weather.
Ziva proved she enjoyed the mud by putting on four spectacular runs. . not because I ran her for field, but becuase I handed her off to someone and in her thrashing, she managed to get loose while the 2nd course of FC's were running. Thankfully she was wearing the missing blanket(blue), and wasn't trailing her leash. As I walked off the field with her and Wizard, was told it was one of the best courses people had seen LOL. . Didn't make up for the fact I'd gone 11 years without a dog getting loose LOL After the BOB runoff, she was still raring to go, but I wasn't going to try her a 5th time LOL
After being attacked, she has taken to taking the bunny out to the judge where she feels safe to tear it apart. . I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not LOL She doesn't run away when I go out to get her, she just doesn't want to be near the other dogs when she shreds her bunny ..turkey child. Many who knew her father told me they could tell she was sired by Grins LOL. Even after four runs, she was still raring to go, but I didn't tempt fate with having her run across the mudpits again. She did get a nice BOB win: 4 point major, with Wizard bringing home the 3 point major from the FC stake.
Unfortunately both my cert dogs came up with a 'hitch to their giddy up', but Charles offered his handsome Serrano who ran well with Miss Jenny, who now has her QC, taking a nose dive in a pool of water, and still getting up to tear across the field and kill her bunny
I sure did not enjoy putting those disgusting dogs in my car. . LOL.
the dogs were flatzois, jenny curled up in the front seat, head draped across my knee, Ziva in the backseat with her head draped over my arm .. not the most comfortable way to drive.
Looking at the next coursing event. . well, that's the II, am toying with the idea of going to some NOTRA, but also looking at AKC events, I have 4 Opens now, so strange to finally break that dry spell.
Unfortunately, Grins is probably retired from competition.. off and on neck problems just bouncing around the yard. . .he doesn't realise at 8.5, he should NOT stop on the top of his head. He'll get to cert dogs now and then and run at our practices, but he more than likely is never going to enter the coursing field again. . maybe NOTRA wont' be as hard on him .. we shall see.
This weekend is our supported entry. Ordered a new knee brace. First show that I've shown in since the knee went CRACK!!! last fall(9 months ago) hopefuly I'll be able to do this without collapsing. Brand new outfit(former outfit doesn't fit anymore!). Dei's in veterans, as I'm very proud of my 10.5 yr old, and Ms Nacht in 12-18, it hopefully will be fun!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
getting older
Yippee, another year older
Older I get, the easier I find it to look back and go WTF happened? WTH did that happen??
Friendships lost over stupid sh*t. . .not any one the sole reason of it, all parties involved could've been a little more flexible. .
I also am finding it easier to deal with people I've had problems with in the past. . .long as they don't prove to be fools. Am actually talking with one person who used to be a friend, but the friendship broke. . don't know if it'll ever be a friendship again, but at least the communication line is open and I can hear about my pup she has, even if said pup is almost 10. The door is open, and it's nice that door is open and that I hear about said pup more now than I have ni recent years
Another one has a litter I'd love to have a pup out of, too bad there's no boys in that litter LOl. .
Trying not to be as prickly. . .or easy to go on the defensive. .. hard to do, I have a temper, tho it's mellowed with the last few years. Facebook has been a wonderful, I have gotten to know people I didn't really know on email, changed my opinion(Some good, some bad) on people via facebook, some people will let it all hang out, and boy it can make you see the real them. . not sure why it's different, but have forged some nice friendships with people off of facebook, and got to know people better.
Yet, the older I get, the less patience I get for fools.
Nor do I have a lot of patience for those who enjoy stirring up sh*t.
Unfortunately, there are a few of those in the dog world. . .people with nothing else to do.
Last fall I got caught between one of these people when they called my friend outwest, accusing a local club member of not taking care of his dog at a field trial .. they had my friend upset, sure that Bud had left his dog in distress to go huntmaster, that he hadn't cared about his dog, who was in their words suffering heat stroke. This person had my friend wound tighter than a top over this. Why they called someone 18+ hrs away to complain, rather than pick up the phone and call the breeder, who is local, I have no clue.
My friend called me demanding I talk to the owner, I told her to call the breeder, then proceeded to do just that. The breeder contacted the owner and the field trial chair about the incident.
Truth of it was? Dog runs hot, field trial chair asked him to huntmaster and offered to take care of the dog for him. Dog was not in distress at any time, nor was he a cold hearted b*stard ignoring her. Why did this person feel the need to do that? Who knows. . just makes one shake their head.
So, here's to another year. . may it be better than the last
Older I get, the easier I find it to look back and go WTF happened? WTH did that happen??
Friendships lost over stupid sh*t. . .not any one the sole reason of it, all parties involved could've been a little more flexible. .
I also am finding it easier to deal with people I've had problems with in the past. . .long as they don't prove to be fools. Am actually talking with one person who used to be a friend, but the friendship broke. . don't know if it'll ever be a friendship again, but at least the communication line is open and I can hear about my pup she has, even if said pup is almost 10. The door is open, and it's nice that door is open and that I hear about said pup more now than I have ni recent years
Another one has a litter I'd love to have a pup out of, too bad there's no boys in that litter LOl. .
Trying not to be as prickly. . .or easy to go on the defensive. .. hard to do, I have a temper, tho it's mellowed with the last few years. Facebook has been a wonderful, I have gotten to know people I didn't really know on email, changed my opinion(Some good, some bad) on people via facebook, some people will let it all hang out, and boy it can make you see the real them. . not sure why it's different, but have forged some nice friendships with people off of facebook, and got to know people better.
Yet, the older I get, the less patience I get for fools.
Nor do I have a lot of patience for those who enjoy stirring up sh*t.
Unfortunately, there are a few of those in the dog world. . .people with nothing else to do.
Last fall I got caught between one of these people when they called my friend outwest, accusing a local club member of not taking care of his dog at a field trial .. they had my friend upset, sure that Bud had left his dog in distress to go huntmaster, that he hadn't cared about his dog, who was in their words suffering heat stroke. This person had my friend wound tighter than a top over this. Why they called someone 18+ hrs away to complain, rather than pick up the phone and call the breeder, who is local, I have no clue.
My friend called me demanding I talk to the owner, I told her to call the breeder, then proceeded to do just that. The breeder contacted the owner and the field trial chair about the incident.
Truth of it was? Dog runs hot, field trial chair asked him to huntmaster and offered to take care of the dog for him. Dog was not in distress at any time, nor was he a cold hearted b*stard ignoring her. Why did this person feel the need to do that? Who knows. . just makes one shake their head.
So, here's to another year. . may it be better than the last
Monday, April 11, 2011
Planning on puppies
So, in preparation to hopefully breed my darling princess Secret, I've been getting her health tests done. She Cerf' last fall, got her DM test in January, and two Mondays ago, I took her in and got her OFA Thyroid panel and heart eval.
I'm not sure when she's due in season, some people don't keep records like I do on things like that, just sometime this spring. So I took her in, hoping it was far enough ahead of her season, that we'd be ok. . .
Handed the vet the appropriate paperwork and got called in. . .he read over the OFA cardiac thoroughly, and then started the exam.
Now, I had her sister done by the specialist last year, and I swear it was over and done in a lickety split. Dr B took forever, to the point both Secret & I were fidgeting AND I started to worry he found something. Without saying anything, he took her in the backroom to draw blood, check her microchip, and brought her back, still not saying anything. . it wasn't until he handed me the paperwork and I looked down that i saw it was clear. . not as if I ended anymore gray hairs!!!
Last week, I got the results on the blood test, thyroid normal, wahoo!! :) Sent in the heart paperwork and now waiting on her Chic #. . need to get her mom's microchip checked and sent in, and then it'll be two generations of Chic'd dogs :)
Now it's a wait. . and rethinking stud dogs. .the top boy on my list is not keen on plastic, he interferes, not meanly I'm told, but still. . .Secret has prey drive, but her work ethic sucks LOL He is beautiful in every other way, the next boy I don't like the stud agreement given me, others I like would require chilled AI, and just don't have that type of money laying around right now.
Of the dgos locally, I LOVE Wizard, his built, his personality, his work ethic, his willingness to pelase, but he's not the dog for Secret. . .he's got the best front in that litter, the rest of his sibs are too straight for my tastes, and I'd like to fix her front(just a little more under), so nope, not him(tho I did get his dad to send me the DM swab and he's now been DNA'd for that and sent in!). . .oh well, may go the 1st choice I have. . and just hope the genes come together for running like they did with the Holiday litter.
I'm not sure when she's due in season, some people don't keep records like I do on things like that, just sometime this spring. So I took her in, hoping it was far enough ahead of her season, that we'd be ok. . .
Handed the vet the appropriate paperwork and got called in. . .he read over the OFA cardiac thoroughly, and then started the exam.
Now, I had her sister done by the specialist last year, and I swear it was over and done in a lickety split. Dr B took forever, to the point both Secret & I were fidgeting AND I started to worry he found something. Without saying anything, he took her in the backroom to draw blood, check her microchip, and brought her back, still not saying anything. . it wasn't until he handed me the paperwork and I looked down that i saw it was clear. . not as if I ended anymore gray hairs!!!
Last week, I got the results on the blood test, thyroid normal, wahoo!! :) Sent in the heart paperwork and now waiting on her Chic #. . need to get her mom's microchip checked and sent in, and then it'll be two generations of Chic'd dogs :)
Now it's a wait. . and rethinking stud dogs. .the top boy on my list is not keen on plastic, he interferes, not meanly I'm told, but still. . .Secret has prey drive, but her work ethic sucks LOL He is beautiful in every other way, the next boy I don't like the stud agreement given me, others I like would require chilled AI, and just don't have that type of money laying around right now.
Of the dgos locally, I LOVE Wizard, his built, his personality, his work ethic, his willingness to pelase, but he's not the dog for Secret. . .he's got the best front in that litter, the rest of his sibs are too straight for my tastes, and I'd like to fix her front(just a little more under), so nope, not him(tho I did get his dad to send me the DM swab and he's now been DNA'd for that and sent in!). . .oh well, may go the 1st choice I have. . and just hope the genes come together for running like they did with the Holiday litter.
mudfest 2011!
OMG. . mudfest 2011 is over.
There was mud
There was water
There was more mud
There was fun
There was more mud :)
I was hoping after the light drizzle last week the field wouldnt' be so bad, but. . .it poured overnight. . and the field was soup. . dogs took nose dives, snorkeled, owners were covered with mud. Numerous hunt masters ended up with mud on their foreheads, I got thru that job clean, it was my own dog that gave me muddy glasses. . .thankfully, I didn't fall :) I remember vividly the year I ended up in the mud with Races standing on my chest looking at me LOL
Going to take me forever to get the mud off of everything, including my poor boots!!
I had a load of fun huntmastering, well until Dart the Greyhound caught the bunny at the far end of the field when the line broke. it took me 5+ minutes to undo the macrome he made out of the line. I truly have no clue WTH he did, but it was a huge mess. Had a few WOW stakes, one RR and one saluki that was just AWESOME.
Ziva proved to everyone that she truly is Grins' daughter by her behaviour at the starting line. . leaping in the air, lunging, almost pulling me into the mud. Unfortunately her first course on Saturday was horrid due to issues. . 1/3 of the way thru the course, someone's whippet got loose. . we traipsed across the field, got the dogs, started it, damn whippet got loose AGAIN. Ziva had bumped the other dog trying to get to the line, so I told her I'd hold her back so she couldn't do it again(she was yellow, he was pink). Hunt master Tally-ho'd, I'm holding a squirming, jumping, fighting Ziva, and the male didn't move, I finally let her loose, and he chased her across the field. When she pulled away, he cut the field, and cut her off, causing her to stop. She looked for me and he chased her across the field. . thankfully the judge did the right thing, but it just drives me nuts.
Unfortunately, she was the only open I took who run beautifully, but then, she's the only one I (or Bonnie) had who isn't recently out of season LOL I miss the days where I had nothing but boys to run. We will be working with Gibbs this spring in hopes that he'll be ready to run this fall, because running girls STINKS LOL My step dog is visiting while his dad is in China and he'll be out running with me this spring, working on his LCM. Saturday he won his FC stake of three with a runoff, Ziva forfeited BOB to him, and then he went on to win a nice BIF run, a really nice run. Sunday,
Daquiri & Reba went with us instead of Tip & Bella. Daquiri is Mir's granddaughter, so family :) beautiful bright red brindle girl that I could steal. Little tank girl. And my friend Erin & I had a blast holding the two squirming, jumping, twirling, happy girls who REALLY WANTED THAT FREAKIN bunny LOL Thankfully neither of us ended up in the mud, not that you could tell with all the mud I had from huntmastering!
Ziva pleased me to no end by suddenly coming in hard on the bunny, then she snatched the bunny off the line, went out to stand in front of the judge, and shredded it. He was laughing when I tromped out there to get her and when I said she was Grins' daughter, he started laughing more. The run between her and Daquiri was GORGEOUS. . Ziva's got a little advantage with being longer legs, but it was a beautiful run, wish there'd been a photographer.
Wizard won his stake, but slowed down considerably at the end and was obviously sore, so I forfeited breed to Ziva who was raring to go, she's in better shape, but we're working on that with Wiz, that's part of why he's with me, getting in shape for the II.
Unfortunately, in Ziva's BIF run, she was attacked by the saluki, I wasn't sure that's what I saw, until the LO and huntmaster said they saw it,(as did numerous people who came up to me from field side) unfortunately one judge thought Ziva just 'got in the way' of the saluki, the other didn't see it. . she slowed off the bunny after that, and if the other dog was near it, wouldn't get close. .frustrating. . will have to make sure she gets some good experience with nice salukis be fore we try again.
OTOH, it seems like she's gotten over being afraid of men after a large tall, gruff gentleman scared the crap out of her last fall chasing her and yelling at her at a race meet when she got away from him. She was being nudgy to anyone who got close, she's still soft, and I won't let someone like that handle her again, but so glad she was being pushy for ear scritches and attention, even if she does like to rip bunnies off the line:)
So, Ziva finished the weekend with her 2 1sts, Daquiri got 12 points and a 2nd, and Wizard his last placements towards his LCM. We head to AKC coursing this weekend, a bunch of QC's to do!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Spring is Sprung!
Spring is here
The grass is starting to turn green, the frogs are starting to sing at night, the mud is back LOL oh lord is the mud back
We’ve had some massive rains lately, with flooding happening. The puppy yard was so flooded I couldn’t’ see Tipperary’s tunnels to China, had to step where the puppies went to insure I didn’t’ disappear up to my knees in her holes.
Work is a bear, so between that and trying to make sure I can show some of my own dogs this year and rehabbing that knee, been very busy. After a bout of neck pains and then slicing his toe open, Mr Grins is bouncing off of walls as is poor Dei who started suffering neck pain from a neck injury as a young bitch. I'dmanaged to wean her off her previcox to 113.50mg previcox every 2-2.5 days,and now down to nothing after a month on it, and she's not yipped in two weeks. Granted she's been mostly housebound, so we shall see what happens after she goes out to play, tho preliminary 'tests' of playtime seems to be promising.
Grins & Secret & I have been doing some powerwalk/jogs, Secret particularily enjoys it, as she hunts the entire time, ears up in the air, eyes scanning the horizon. It debounces Grins, exhausts Secret & I, and all and all, we are enjoying ourselves. Taking it easy right now as I managed to rehurt the knee either doing those walks or when I slammed my knee into the ground boxing a silken windhound, but can't wait to start up again I'm missing having an agility dog and/or a rally dog, so am starting to work with the younger generations. . Gibbs & Jenny have a lot of food drive and want to please me soooo bad, Secret's food oriented, but not so eager to please LOL Worked her a bit on the agility equipment, but she is too focused on the food and not paying attention to what she's doing, and when she quits, she does it in an interesting way, just lets her body go loose and falls off of the dog walk LOL We'll keep working, hoping one of the bobsy twins will be a triathalon dog for 2014. . They are both co owned with Bonnie, so we will each be working one of them in obedience, I think we're going to have a lot of fun.
Otherwise we've been getting out, enjoying the spring air and enjoying the dogs. March has been a busy month.
First weekend was our first racemeet of the year, and the Holiday youngsters did me proud, running clean, learning how to box without a problem, handled everything including the high winds that made the barn and box rattle horribly. Nacht was FTE on Saturday and although the box door slamming shut scared her, she ran well, turtle for the day, but that's ok, it's a learning experience. Bella was FTE on Sunday, and again, ran well, started boxing like a pro, and was the turtle for the day Secret pleased me immensely. She was Nacht's test dog on Saturday and then i ran her alone for two practices, and she's learning to use her body, don't expect much from her at racing, due to her age, but as long as she's enjoying herself she can run.
I entered her Sunday as she'd had so much fun Saturday, she is starting to break better, tho she almost lost her first race to Reba, pulling a mirror of her sister at the very end of putting on the after burners and bolted by her at the very last minute. She also for the first time ever, lunged at the squawker, and yes, she got A LOT OF PRAISE for it! The last race of the day, she tried to bolt into Bella's box, which just made me SOOO VERY EXCITED!! to see her willing to box. LOL She ended up coming in 2nd in the meet for a point:) I was very pleased. Ms Nacht picked up a .5 point. I was very happy with how the girls first weekend went.
Sunday was a fun day, low in people, I'd pull the neon up to the box, we'd box the dogs, and I'd run the neon to the finish line to pick them up LOL whatever works. . .it helped get us done before the torrential downpour really hit, which it did thankfully after we'd packed up and headed home.
Now that I have dogs to course again(FOUR of them!), I've been also hitting the coursing field. First saturday,it was horrid, horrid mud, cold wind, was supposed to be in mid 50's, but sure the heck didn't feel like it. My friend's girl came up owie after her runs, and Ziva did not push herself like she's done before and was owie a day later :( Nacht ran like gangbusters. She picked up a 2nd out of 7 on Saturday running against her distant cousin(their father’s are halfbrothers by stardust), and 3rd out of 5 on Sunday, (she and the NBQ were the only two who'd ran both days), which included an awesome show of agility when she launched herself over a dog who fell in front of her. Ms Jenny wowed people at her cert run on Saturday and again for her runs on Sunday, she was gorgeous, reminding me a lot of daddy and her uncles Obie & Wings. She took 1st in her stake, than BOB, and then on to BIF with a nice run with a nice azawak and a RR. Her mama is appreciating the BIF bed she won very much LOL
She promptly came into season LOl
Next time out, Ms Nacht surprised the heck out of me, picked up both her firsts, 32 points, and is now sitting at 66 points and both 1sts. Edith's gotten some help on how to get her started in Austria, and I know she's going to have a blast when Ms Nacht gets over there. Nothing easier than a pretrained dog :)
It’s so nice to be back on the coursing field, even if it’s more boring than racing because there’s a lot of waiting around. .racing keeps you busy all day long, and has a lot less equipment malfunctions! We're taking it easy this weekend, going to do a practice if it's not too yucky, and get ready for coursing next weekend then a few weeks of specialties. Jenny is on her way to Kansas with Kari and last text I got, she was being a perfect little angel. SUcks she's in season, but she still gets to play good little show dog :) Hopefully she'll behave better in the ring than her dork brother last year. First time I've sent a dog to the Nationals without me myself going. .. it stinks :P
The grass is starting to turn green, the frogs are starting to sing at night, the mud is back LOL oh lord is the mud back
We’ve had some massive rains lately, with flooding happening. The puppy yard was so flooded I couldn’t’ see Tipperary’s tunnels to China, had to step where the puppies went to insure I didn’t’ disappear up to my knees in her holes.
Work is a bear, so between that and trying to make sure I can show some of my own dogs this year and rehabbing that knee, been very busy. After a bout of neck pains and then slicing his toe open, Mr Grins is bouncing off of walls as is poor Dei who started suffering neck pain from a neck injury as a young bitch. I'dmanaged to wean her off her previcox to 113.50mg previcox every 2-2.5 days,and now down to nothing after a month on it, and she's not yipped in two weeks. Granted she's been mostly housebound, so we shall see what happens after she goes out to play, tho preliminary 'tests' of playtime seems to be promising.
Grins & Secret & I have been doing some powerwalk/jogs, Secret particularily enjoys it, as she hunts the entire time, ears up in the air, eyes scanning the horizon. It debounces Grins, exhausts Secret & I, and all and all, we are enjoying ourselves. Taking it easy right now as I managed to rehurt the knee either doing those walks or when I slammed my knee into the ground boxing a silken windhound, but can't wait to start up again I'm missing having an agility dog and/or a rally dog, so am starting to work with the younger generations. . Gibbs & Jenny have a lot of food drive and want to please me soooo bad, Secret's food oriented, but not so eager to please LOL Worked her a bit on the agility equipment, but she is too focused on the food and not paying attention to what she's doing, and when she quits, she does it in an interesting way, just lets her body go loose and falls off of the dog walk LOL We'll keep working, hoping one of the bobsy twins will be a triathalon dog for 2014. . They are both co owned with Bonnie, so we will each be working one of them in obedience, I think we're going to have a lot of fun.
Otherwise we've been getting out, enjoying the spring air and enjoying the dogs. March has been a busy month.
First weekend was our first racemeet of the year, and the Holiday youngsters did me proud, running clean, learning how to box without a problem, handled everything including the high winds that made the barn and box rattle horribly. Nacht was FTE on Saturday and although the box door slamming shut scared her, she ran well, turtle for the day, but that's ok, it's a learning experience. Bella was FTE on Sunday, and again, ran well, started boxing like a pro, and was the turtle for the day Secret pleased me immensely. She was Nacht's test dog on Saturday and then i ran her alone for two practices, and she's learning to use her body, don't expect much from her at racing, due to her age, but as long as she's enjoying herself she can run.
I entered her Sunday as she'd had so much fun Saturday, she is starting to break better, tho she almost lost her first race to Reba, pulling a mirror of her sister at the very end of putting on the after burners and bolted by her at the very last minute. She also for the first time ever, lunged at the squawker, and yes, she got A LOT OF PRAISE for it! The last race of the day, she tried to bolt into Bella's box, which just made me SOOO VERY EXCITED!! to see her willing to box. LOL She ended up coming in 2nd in the meet for a point:) I was very pleased. Ms Nacht picked up a .5 point. I was very happy with how the girls first weekend went.
Sunday was a fun day, low in people, I'd pull the neon up to the box, we'd box the dogs, and I'd run the neon to the finish line to pick them up LOL whatever works. . .it helped get us done before the torrential downpour really hit, which it did thankfully after we'd packed up and headed home.
Now that I have dogs to course again(FOUR of them!), I've been also hitting the coursing field. First saturday,it was horrid, horrid mud, cold wind, was supposed to be in mid 50's, but sure the heck didn't feel like it. My friend's girl came up owie after her runs, and Ziva did not push herself like she's done before and was owie a day later :( Nacht ran like gangbusters. She picked up a 2nd out of 7 on Saturday running against her distant cousin(their father’s are halfbrothers by stardust), and 3rd out of 5 on Sunday, (she and the NBQ were the only two who'd ran both days), which included an awesome show of agility when she launched herself over a dog who fell in front of her. Ms Jenny wowed people at her cert run on Saturday and again for her runs on Sunday, she was gorgeous, reminding me a lot of daddy and her uncles Obie & Wings. She took 1st in her stake, than BOB, and then on to BIF with a nice run with a nice azawak and a RR. Her mama is appreciating the BIF bed she won very much LOL
She promptly came into season LOl
Next time out, Ms Nacht surprised the heck out of me, picked up both her firsts, 32 points, and is now sitting at 66 points and both 1sts. Edith's gotten some help on how to get her started in Austria, and I know she's going to have a blast when Ms Nacht gets over there. Nothing easier than a pretrained dog :)
It’s so nice to be back on the coursing field, even if it’s more boring than racing because there’s a lot of waiting around. .racing keeps you busy all day long, and has a lot less equipment malfunctions! We're taking it easy this weekend, going to do a practice if it's not too yucky, and get ready for coursing next weekend then a few weeks of specialties. Jenny is on her way to Kansas with Kari and last text I got, she was being a perfect little angel. SUcks she's in season, but she still gets to play good little show dog :) Hopefully she'll behave better in the ring than her dork brother last year. First time I've sent a dog to the Nationals without me myself going. .. it stinks :P
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Yippee! Health testing
I've got a longer blog post coming up, but had to post a quick happy post
In the last two months, I've received two DM clear results
FC Silkenswift Rider of the Storm SC, FCh, ORC, GRC "Grins"
Mielikki-Mandolin's WikiWiki Makani "Kani"
With Grins results, that means the NCIS litter is all clear of DM by parentage(Since mama Dei is the same!)
Kani I was worried about, as her two brothers are carriers, but now I know at the worst her pups are carriers.
Kani also is thyroid normal, got that paperwork yesterday! Need to get her OFA Heart paperwork in, and look for cerf clinics, her new mama is willing to take her to one for me! (I didn't turn in her paperwork last time!)
Feel like I need to go buy a lottery ticket since my luck seems to be on the good side right now LOL
In the last two months, I've received two DM clear results
FC Silkenswift Rider of the Storm SC, FCh, ORC, GRC "Grins"
Mielikki-Mandolin's WikiWiki Makani "Kani"
With Grins results, that means the NCIS litter is all clear of DM by parentage(Since mama Dei is the same!)
Kani I was worried about, as her two brothers are carriers, but now I know at the worst her pups are carriers.
Kani also is thyroid normal, got that paperwork yesterday! Need to get her OFA Heart paperwork in, and look for cerf clinics, her new mama is willing to take her to one for me! (I didn't turn in her paperwork last time!)
Feel like I need to go buy a lottery ticket since my luck seems to be on the good side right now LOL
Monday, February 28, 2011
It's never enough
Doesn't matter how long you have them, it's never enough
There's only one call I dread more than the "lost dog" call/email from an owner, and that's the one of "I just lost"
Sunday I got up and checked my email, to receive a note from Sherita Hogan. My friendship with her had become distance over the years, but she was nice enough to let me know that she had had to make that hard decision to let Mir go, Diagnosis Kidney failure.
Mir was the over achiever of my successful Queen litter(11/24/00). When she approached me about a dog back in the fall of 2001, she wanted a performance dog, that's all. . .I offered her Mir, out of the boys I had left, he was keen, but would be too hard to finish in the NE due to missing teeth and a slightly narrow rear. The rest was history.
Anything Mir tried, he did well. . .he was officially known as DC Mielikki A Kind Of Magic SC LCM SGRC ORC, one of those rare dogs who could do it all, even the oval where so many dogs fail. And he excelled at it. His wins and career were things of dreams
He finished his GRC & ASFA FCH in four days
And his AKC FC in 6 events with 5 majors
2002 & 2004 Notra Nationals Breed Winner
The first winner of the NOTRA Fezzik Trophy
#19 AKC Coursing Borzoi 2002
#17 ASFA Borzoi in 2002
#2 Notra Borzoi 2002
#4 LGRA Borzoi 2002
#7 LGRA Borzoi 2003
#4 NOTRA Borzoi 2004
#4 LGRA Borzoi 2004
#2 Notra Borzoi 2005
#15 NOTRA All Breed 2005
BCOA Nationals 2005
LGRA
2nd in Meet (To his Nephew!)
High Scoring CH
High Scoring ORC!
Two time winner of the Susan Weinkein trophy Trophy in Region 4(From the veterans class!)
But most of all, he was Sherita's best bud, and a strong brick for her foundation. He's behind numerous dogs now, bred by Zoiboyz, Borchi, Golightly, Celeritas, Silkenswift, Kinobi & Attaway Borzoi, and leaves behind a legacy that'll last forever.
Sister Dei got special breakfast to celebrate his life, and Sister Scirocco & brother Eros got extra loving. . .My heart goes out to Sherita, but also a big thank you, for letting him become what he was meant to do. I know he was loved to the end of his days
Run fast little white boy, catch that damn bunny. . .
Sunday, February 20, 2011
the golden years . . .
For all that they do for us, there's only one way dogs really fail us.
They don't live anywhere near long enough
No,I haven't lost anyone lately. .. but my little girl Dei is starting to show she's no longer a spry young dog, but a 10+ yr old veteran.
She's been having off and on neck problems and when it didn't go away with house rest and some anti inflammatories, I took her in a few Fridays back. . the good news is her heart and lungs sound good, she's in great shape(we'll know more about her kidneys and liver tomorrow when she goes in for a dental and spay), but my sweet silly girl has developed arthritis and will probably have to be on some sort of medicine for the rest of her life to be able to live a normal life, may that be a few more years.
Unfortunately it's bad enough she can no longer go on our long walks, as I found out that even 2 miles is too much and she comes up lame :( hard to leave her sweet face behind. Maybe after a few more weeks of rest and previcox she can start working up to it, but i'm not holding my breath. . will just have to make sure she goes on trips to pet stores or something.
It's amazing how much of a difference that one little pill makes for her. The vet put her on it for a week to see if that's all she needed, we ran out on Saturday, and she was in so much pain Sunday, but within an hour of getting the new RX and giving her her dosage, she was feeling better, and today back to normal. . Now it's a matter of keeping her from doing stupid things like running with the younger dogs and jumping off and on dog houses. She's very very happy as being a house dog. Bonnie's enjoying her: she reminds her a lot of daddy Blaze, even down to the clueless look she sometimes gives you when she decides she doesn't understand what you want. She will miss being able to agility things, that's her joy, leaping on, off, and over things, but want her with me for a few more years at least.
OTOH, she's much more spry and able bodied than her mother was at this age, so let's look at the bright side, shall we? As she looks right now, she should be with me a few years more.
Just sad to realise out of my 4 dogs over the age of 2, three are veterans, (8.5, 10+, 12+) with the fourth going to join the rank of 'veterans' this fall. . .why is that sad? I guess I shouldn't find it sad, when I've had people tell me their borzoi rarely live to see the age of 8, but it means that there are that fewer years left to enjoy them.
Goods news is, Dei's DM test came back and she's clear!! YIPPEE!! Means her pups at the most will be carriers, waiting for Grins' test, should have the results in this week, Kani's was sent to her new mom for her to be done, so last to be done is Sage, hopefully!!
Thanks to everyone who joined in via email or facebook about my last post. . I am going to redo my screening process to ask if prospective puppy buyers have talked with any breeders recently or if they are on any waiting lsits. People can still lie, but maybe misunderstandings with other breeders can be avoided.
They don't live anywhere near long enough
No,I haven't lost anyone lately. .. but my little girl Dei is starting to show she's no longer a spry young dog, but a 10+ yr old veteran.
She's been having off and on neck problems and when it didn't go away with house rest and some anti inflammatories, I took her in a few Fridays back. . the good news is her heart and lungs sound good, she's in great shape(we'll know more about her kidneys and liver tomorrow when she goes in for a dental and spay), but my sweet silly girl has developed arthritis and will probably have to be on some sort of medicine for the rest of her life to be able to live a normal life, may that be a few more years.
Unfortunately it's bad enough she can no longer go on our long walks, as I found out that even 2 miles is too much and she comes up lame :( hard to leave her sweet face behind. Maybe after a few more weeks of rest and previcox she can start working up to it, but i'm not holding my breath. . will just have to make sure she goes on trips to pet stores or something.
It's amazing how much of a difference that one little pill makes for her. The vet put her on it for a week to see if that's all she needed, we ran out on Saturday, and she was in so much pain Sunday, but within an hour of getting the new RX and giving her her dosage, she was feeling better, and today back to normal. . Now it's a matter of keeping her from doing stupid things like running with the younger dogs and jumping off and on dog houses. She's very very happy as being a house dog. Bonnie's enjoying her: she reminds her a lot of daddy Blaze, even down to the clueless look she sometimes gives you when she decides she doesn't understand what you want. She will miss being able to agility things, that's her joy, leaping on, off, and over things, but want her with me for a few more years at least.
OTOH, she's much more spry and able bodied than her mother was at this age, so let's look at the bright side, shall we? As she looks right now, she should be with me a few years more.
Just sad to realise out of my 4 dogs over the age of 2, three are veterans, (8.5, 10+, 12+) with the fourth going to join the rank of 'veterans' this fall. . .why is that sad? I guess I shouldn't find it sad, when I've had people tell me their borzoi rarely live to see the age of 8, but it means that there are that fewer years left to enjoy them.
Goods news is, Dei's DM test came back and she's clear!! YIPPEE!! Means her pups at the most will be carriers, waiting for Grins' test, should have the results in this week, Kani's was sent to her new mom for her to be done, so last to be done is Sage, hopefully!!
Thanks to everyone who joined in via email or facebook about my last post. . I am going to redo my screening process to ask if prospective puppy buyers have talked with any breeders recently or if they are on any waiting lsits. People can still lie, but maybe misunderstandings with other breeders can be avoided.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
One to think on: Vetting buyers
Part of the learning curve of being a breeder is not to take things personally.
To stay in for the long hall, you've got to get thick skinned, realise nothing's written in stone, and that buyers whim change like MD weather, amongst other things.
Recently I was informed I had "Stolen" a puppybuyer. .
The buyer had talked to someone else about buying a puppy from a proposed (on paper) litter, an inquiry I had no clue of until I was accused of stealing the puppy buyer last month and this is something that happened back in September..
I never thought to ask the buyer if she was looking at another litter. In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? A good puppy buyer will talk to numerous people before choosing a puppy. You should never buy the first puppy or from the first litter you fell in love with, I always tell people to look at a lot of puppies or litters before making a decision.
What I was concerned with is that her references turned out(and boy did they), that she treated her dogs well(boy does she), and that my puppy would be in a good home(Boy is she :)), not that the buyer had talked to someone else a few weeks prior about a planned litter.
The buyer's first comments in an email to me were along the lines "I love this bitch, i've been wanting a chinchilla with Silkenswift lines, she's just what I want". .it was out of the blue, from left field, I'd never heard of this lady before and had no clue who else in the breed she had talked to other than the two breeders of her boys. Our conversations revolved around her experience in the breed, her other dogs, my dogs, and my puppy, nothing else. . .
Puppy buyers are allowed to talk to other breeders and allowed to choose to buy from another breeder and as you grow as a breeder, you learn this, or you burn out with anger, frustration and the toxicness of letting everything bother you.
The PITA buyer last fall was not a PITA because she bought from someone else, that was her decision, she was a PITA because she wasted so much of my time before TELLING me she was looking at the other litter, so many months dicking me around until she finally told me she was seriously leaning towards that other litter. She was not upfront and honest with me and that's what angered me. I wasn't upset with the breeder, it's not their fault, but I was upset with the buyer for jerking me around. . .I'm not sure if the breeder said anything or even knew, it's the buyer that was wrong for not being truthful, for not being up front, she wasn't wrong for buying a dog elsewhere, that was her decision. Hopefully she's happy with her choice, I'm much happier with the home Ava eventually went to. Less maintenance :)
You just can't take it personally if someone chooses a dog from a different breeder. . it just happens.
OTOH, maybe it is a question to ask prospective buyers, so one can talk to the other breeders and find out if a red flag had gone up that caused them not to sell a puppy, as well as to make sure that you're not selling your puppy to end up in situation like the West Virginia Rescues of years before: http://www.nbrf.info/index.php?p=gallery&id=140
Two different breeders sold dogs to this home, each sold a male and a female, not knowing the other breeder had already sold them a dog. Granted, at least one of those breeders is not responsible, but asking around may help stop situations like this from happening.
I just never thought of it until this silly accusation was thrown at me, but now I wonder if I should be asking. . .13 yrs of doing this, and I'm still given things that make me think.
There's only one breeder i don't mind 'stealing' puppy buyers from, but any responsible Borzoi breeder is glad to take a buyer away from this breeder. . .she's a blight on the rear end of humanity. Her dogs are livestock, sold to anyone with a check that clears, and so many of them end up in rescue. If she doesn't have buyers, she'd stop breeding, but otherwise, I don't think about it.
It happens. . .unless you've got a check and contract in hand(and even then they may have legal rights to change their mind) a puppy buyer can change their mind. This is ESPECIALLY true when the litter is just planned, nothing is concrete such that there actually are puppies in utero, let alone that they are whelped, healthy, and ready to go. I can understand looking for other pups along the same line as you want if the litter hasn't even been conceived, as so much can go wrong: doesn't conceive, aborts the litter, emergency c-section resulting in loss of pups or worse loss of mom, not enough pups to go around, etc, etc.
I've got people interested in my next litter, will they be there and actually wanting one when the time comes? Who knows, i don't care, what happens, happens. . .and eventually all the pups will find their forever homes. It just may take a year or two LOL Aurora is still here, case in point :)
It's why you've got to have a thick skin and not take things seriously.
I explained to my accusor that I had had no clue and hopefully cleared things up. . but it's given me something to think about, and I'll have to ask my breeder friends their opinions on this. She's apologized, but it does make me think. .
Thoughts are appreciated
Monday, January 24, 2011
home is where the heart is
I have developed a strong belief that a perfect home will always come up for each of my pups/dogs. . .when someone inquires on one of my dogs, if they're not gungho gotta have it, I've come to the decision they don't need my puppy/dog. . .
I want my homes to WANT said dog, not just kinda, but with all their heart. . .Maybe I'm overly cautious, but I don't want bouncebacks. .1 bounce back in almost 14 yrs, one sold back to me(and one death, something you just don't expect) in 8 litters, that's a good track record, and I want to keep it that way.
The only time I didn't go with that, I was pushed to wait the prospective wishy washy buyer out by my cobreeder, who assured me it was a good home, and well, I finally told said buyer to forget it, go elsewhere.
I don't normally place my adult Zoi. . but with my current pack, most of them can do more than one thing, so we can interact with each other their entire life doing fun things. First they run, then they start showing and obedience training. . .
Kani unfortunately doesn't fit in any of that. . she does not have enough prey drive to run, she's too submissive to people, you let her go, she goes and rolls over on her belly in front of someone, her seasons are so erratic and short(5-5 1/2 months) that she never carries enough coat for long to be shown, nor does she have a show ring personality. Because of her short seasons I worry about pyometra amongst other things so since she's had one lovely litter, I have been toying with the idea of spaying her and trying to decide about placing her, but she is so cute and sweet and such a great puppy sitter, I just couldn't do it. She is so darn special as her father's daughter, I couldn't do it. I hate letting dogs i've grown out this long go. Numerous people who've met her brother Dandy emailed me inquiring on her, but I just couldn't do it.
That changed this weekend.
When we moved to MD, there was a college kid working at Bonnie's kennel. Kani fell in love with him, she adored him to no end. She would turn herself inside out everytime she saw him, and if I'd been willing to part with her then, he'd've stolen her in a heartbeat.
This weekend, Kyle came down and picked Kani up. . his family had lost one of their two dogs, and they wanted a Zoi. . both parents work out of house, so a house trained, cat safe Borzoi was the best bet. . and I made the hard decision to let her go. Even to the minute he pulled out of the parking lot I wondered if I was doing the right thing.
But the giant Grins sized grin on her usual submissive petite polite grinning face when he came in the door told me i'd made the right decision. I have never seen her grin so huge as when she saw him Saturday. Her entire body wiggled in excitement, she crawled into the comfy chair with him and just looked sooo content. She hopped into his car and didn't look back.
Got an email this morning that everyone absolutely loves her, she's already curling up on the couch with Kyle's little(Teen) sister taking naps, isn't sure of the Greyhound and ignoring the cat. . .she may even go to school with his mom who's a teacher, which she would absolutely LOVE as kids are her thing. . I couldn't've designed a better home for her if I'd tried.
The perfect home came along. It just doesn't happen overnight. I've had others who wanted to take her and give her a forever home, but it just wasn't what my gut said to do, this time, my gut said yes. It made my month to know she's loved and in what sounds like a perfect home.
When I breed a litter, I know that I may end up keeping puppies longer than I'd really like to, because I am so picky, thus the Holiday litter is 13 months old, and Aurora is still with me. She is an easy going, happy, sweet puppy who's showing some interest in the running game, so it's not a big deal for me. Compared to Bellsabub(my keeper Bella who is an evil lil witch LOL), she is a perfect little angel. Bella is the better built dog, but Aurora is just too sweet and everyone loves her.
As I mentioned before, I've had two fruitloops inquire on her but my gut said to run away, I am so thankful I did. They ended up being personalities I didn't want to work with. Life is too short to deal with loonie puppy buyers LOL
A few months ago, a lovely lady I met on line inquired about GIbbs, she fell in love with blacks. . but i told her he was way too much dog for her, just NOT the right dog for her. He's too busy, too speed ahead, that he needed a home where he'd have a job other than holding down a couch. Unfortunately all the homes who've been interested in him are people who want 'just a pet'. . there's nothing wrong with that, if the dog will fit the home. . .Gibbs needs a home that'll job with him, do Obediance work withh im, something that'll keep him busy, he is not a sedate dog, not unlike his father. She thanked me for my time and my honesty, and we have become friends
I could've easily've sold him to her, but again, I don't want my puppies coming back barring the owner's death. I think Gibbs would've driven her nuts and then some LOL. Hell, he drives ME nuts somedays. . .and I would've had to figure out how to get him back from California, no thanks. . .so I helped her get one of the Pickle Hill dogs, and she's in love with little Nikki.
Unbeknownst to me until recently, she fell in love with Aurora, but as a person who's only had rescues, she had the mindset (not a bad one, as she's not anti breeder) that made her feel slightly guilty about buying a dog, so she thought of adopting another one of the Pickle Hill dogs. Unfortunately the California borzoi owner who was supposed to bring back another PH dog for her got into a horrid accident and that trip has been postponed indefinitely.
She talked to someone I know about adopting their foster, but backed out after hearing someone else really wanted her,and there were Pickle Hill dogs in california needing homes. Problem with them was their custodial owner is. . well .. no nice way to say it, so we'll go with Odd. .. the custodial owner blew up when rescue got their hands on the unregistered dogs that were on the farm, saying it would destroy the Pickle Hill heritage, that even tho they were paperless, they could still be bred, and you could make money doing it, because Borzoi went for $1200 in California. If that's true, I'm sure those are registered pups from champion parents! Not unregistered unknonwn pedigree puppies!
She had an unregistered male that Nikki's mom wanted to take, but kept jerking her chain about wanting to place him, but not wanting him neutered, (yes, it is a soap opera! LOL) and finally Nikki's mom gave up and one thing lead to another, and she came back and asked if Aurora was still available.
Back and forth conversation with her using me as a soundboard whether she should go ahead and push for the rescue out in California or buy Aurora. . she kept asking for advice, I kept telling her "go with your heart." I'd love to place Aurora, but I'm not going to push someone one way or another. It's their decision, and if they really want the puppy so be it, but if they can't make up their mind, I have no desire to place said puppy with them.
At which point she demanded why couldn't I be a pushier seller LOL. I'm not a good salesman, that's why Aurora's still here LOL I could've promised the one buyer YES she'd be a top quality show bitch, YES she'd definitely finish, and had her sold back in August if I was a better salesman LOL
Her hubby told her they had extra money now that they'd quit smoking, to get her if she wanted to LOL That it would be nice to have a dog without baggage that rescue dogs come with
Another home I wasn't looking for specifically, but I knew the right home would come along. This nice lady's been in love with Aurora since her pictures first went up, but poor Aurora's had home after home fall through or be denied by me. . .she told me if she'd known I had no problem placing what she considered a gorgeous dog in a pet home, she'd've gotten Aurora instead of Nikki, LOL that's ok, Aurora'll have someone her age if this sale goes through.
Until the contract and deposit is in hand, I've learned not to consider a dog sold. . .if it works out, I know AUrora'll be in a wonderful home, if it doesn't, she'll stick with me and enjoy placing with her sister's and running when it gets warmer. She is pretty enough to be shown, or pretty enough to be a couch ornament, her future in that way doesn't matter to me, only thing that does matter is a great home
I want my homes to WANT said dog, not just kinda, but with all their heart. . .Maybe I'm overly cautious, but I don't want bouncebacks. .1 bounce back in almost 14 yrs, one sold back to me(and one death, something you just don't expect) in 8 litters, that's a good track record, and I want to keep it that way.
The only time I didn't go with that, I was pushed to wait the prospective wishy washy buyer out by my cobreeder, who assured me it was a good home, and well, I finally told said buyer to forget it, go elsewhere.
I don't normally place my adult Zoi. . but with my current pack, most of them can do more than one thing, so we can interact with each other their entire life doing fun things. First they run, then they start showing and obedience training. . .
Kani unfortunately doesn't fit in any of that. . she does not have enough prey drive to run, she's too submissive to people, you let her go, she goes and rolls over on her belly in front of someone, her seasons are so erratic and short(5-5 1/2 months) that she never carries enough coat for long to be shown, nor does she have a show ring personality. Because of her short seasons I worry about pyometra amongst other things so since she's had one lovely litter, I have been toying with the idea of spaying her and trying to decide about placing her, but she is so cute and sweet and such a great puppy sitter, I just couldn't do it. She is so darn special as her father's daughter, I couldn't do it. I hate letting dogs i've grown out this long go. Numerous people who've met her brother Dandy emailed me inquiring on her, but I just couldn't do it.
That changed this weekend.
When we moved to MD, there was a college kid working at Bonnie's kennel. Kani fell in love with him, she adored him to no end. She would turn herself inside out everytime she saw him, and if I'd been willing to part with her then, he'd've stolen her in a heartbeat.
This weekend, Kyle came down and picked Kani up. . his family had lost one of their two dogs, and they wanted a Zoi. . both parents work out of house, so a house trained, cat safe Borzoi was the best bet. . and I made the hard decision to let her go. Even to the minute he pulled out of the parking lot I wondered if I was doing the right thing.
But the giant Grins sized grin on her usual submissive petite polite grinning face when he came in the door told me i'd made the right decision. I have never seen her grin so huge as when she saw him Saturday. Her entire body wiggled in excitement, she crawled into the comfy chair with him and just looked sooo content. She hopped into his car and didn't look back.
Got an email this morning that everyone absolutely loves her, she's already curling up on the couch with Kyle's little(Teen) sister taking naps, isn't sure of the Greyhound and ignoring the cat. . .she may even go to school with his mom who's a teacher, which she would absolutely LOVE as kids are her thing. . I couldn't've designed a better home for her if I'd tried.
The perfect home came along. It just doesn't happen overnight. I've had others who wanted to take her and give her a forever home, but it just wasn't what my gut said to do, this time, my gut said yes. It made my month to know she's loved and in what sounds like a perfect home.
When I breed a litter, I know that I may end up keeping puppies longer than I'd really like to, because I am so picky, thus the Holiday litter is 13 months old, and Aurora is still with me. She is an easy going, happy, sweet puppy who's showing some interest in the running game, so it's not a big deal for me. Compared to Bellsabub(my keeper Bella who is an evil lil witch LOL), she is a perfect little angel. Bella is the better built dog, but Aurora is just too sweet and everyone loves her.
As I mentioned before, I've had two fruitloops inquire on her but my gut said to run away, I am so thankful I did. They ended up being personalities I didn't want to work with. Life is too short to deal with loonie puppy buyers LOL
A few months ago, a lovely lady I met on line inquired about GIbbs, she fell in love with blacks. . but i told her he was way too much dog for her, just NOT the right dog for her. He's too busy, too speed ahead, that he needed a home where he'd have a job other than holding down a couch. Unfortunately all the homes who've been interested in him are people who want 'just a pet'. . there's nothing wrong with that, if the dog will fit the home. . .Gibbs needs a home that'll job with him, do Obediance work withh im, something that'll keep him busy, he is not a sedate dog, not unlike his father. She thanked me for my time and my honesty, and we have become friends
I could've easily've sold him to her, but again, I don't want my puppies coming back barring the owner's death. I think Gibbs would've driven her nuts and then some LOL. Hell, he drives ME nuts somedays. . .and I would've had to figure out how to get him back from California, no thanks. . .so I helped her get one of the Pickle Hill dogs, and she's in love with little Nikki.
Unbeknownst to me until recently, she fell in love with Aurora, but as a person who's only had rescues, she had the mindset (not a bad one, as she's not anti breeder) that made her feel slightly guilty about buying a dog, so she thought of adopting another one of the Pickle Hill dogs. Unfortunately the California borzoi owner who was supposed to bring back another PH dog for her got into a horrid accident and that trip has been postponed indefinitely.
She talked to someone I know about adopting their foster, but backed out after hearing someone else really wanted her,and there were Pickle Hill dogs in california needing homes. Problem with them was their custodial owner is. . well .. no nice way to say it, so we'll go with Odd. .. the custodial owner blew up when rescue got their hands on the unregistered dogs that were on the farm, saying it would destroy the Pickle Hill heritage, that even tho they were paperless, they could still be bred, and you could make money doing it, because Borzoi went for $1200 in California. If that's true, I'm sure those are registered pups from champion parents! Not unregistered unknonwn pedigree puppies!
She had an unregistered male that Nikki's mom wanted to take, but kept jerking her chain about wanting to place him, but not wanting him neutered, (yes, it is a soap opera! LOL) and finally Nikki's mom gave up and one thing lead to another, and she came back and asked if Aurora was still available.
Back and forth conversation with her using me as a soundboard whether she should go ahead and push for the rescue out in California or buy Aurora. . she kept asking for advice, I kept telling her "go with your heart." I'd love to place Aurora, but I'm not going to push someone one way or another. It's their decision, and if they really want the puppy so be it, but if they can't make up their mind, I have no desire to place said puppy with them.
At which point she demanded why couldn't I be a pushier seller LOL. I'm not a good salesman, that's why Aurora's still here LOL I could've promised the one buyer YES she'd be a top quality show bitch, YES she'd definitely finish, and had her sold back in August if I was a better salesman LOL
Her hubby told her they had extra money now that they'd quit smoking, to get her if she wanted to LOL That it would be nice to have a dog without baggage that rescue dogs come with
Another home I wasn't looking for specifically, but I knew the right home would come along. This nice lady's been in love with Aurora since her pictures first went up, but poor Aurora's had home after home fall through or be denied by me. . .she told me if she'd known I had no problem placing what she considered a gorgeous dog in a pet home, she'd've gotten Aurora instead of Nikki, LOL that's ok, Aurora'll have someone her age if this sale goes through.
Until the contract and deposit is in hand, I've learned not to consider a dog sold. . .if it works out, I know AUrora'll be in a wonderful home, if it doesn't, she'll stick with me and enjoy placing with her sister's and running when it gets warmer. She is pretty enough to be shown, or pretty enough to be a couch ornament, her future in that way doesn't matter to me, only thing that does matter is a great home
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