Secrets Secrets

Been busy with work and enjoying the four kiddos. I can't believe they're 4 months old. Thought I'd share photos of them, some newer some older. Hopefully weather's nice enough that I'll be able to get more.

There were four pups, two boys, two girls. The white & red boy Mielikki HiNote Secret Traveler has moved to VA with Nacht and the Erdmans. He's keeping them busy! Sounds like he has an obedience career ahead of him as well as whatever else he wants to do!

HiNote Mielikki Secret Intrigue AKA Blondie, just off a few weeks crate rest
from an injury.  Waiting on the perfect home!

Blondie playing with their "Tante" Pickle Hill's Cashmere.
 Cashmere LOVES puppies, doesn't matter who they belong to!

Blondie being silly, sorry, can't flip it LOL

And somewhere racing around the yard being stupid that day, she managed to rip a toenail out.
She's lucky she's cute LOL

My two keepers. Mielikki HiNote Secret Agent Man AKA Duckie, my tankie red brindle,
And his sister Mielikki HiNote Can't Keep A Secret AKA Scarlet, co owned with Margaret

LOVE his little brindle face

Starting to teeth, but loving what I see here!

Scarlet, the wiggle worm, just shy of 4 months!

So very very happy with these babies!

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.

Happy Holidays

Well, I got a semi decent xmas: Didn't get what i want, but you can't get them back once they're gone. . .but it was semi decent

Secret's DM:
1st. The Wait is OVER!!!

I hate waiting

I am not the most patient being

So, when I sent in Secret's OFA DM test 12/3, the next three weeks were hell on my nerves

Why?

Because the results of this test could so affect the choice of stud dog, my first choice may or may not be a carrier since his grandfather sired a number of carriers, so it was really important to me to get these results.

She's not due in til March/April, but I wanted to do the test ASAP. .not sure when the stud dog owner'll do him. . but now I know it doesn't matter for breeding purposes who I will breed her to. . as she's clear :) So as I said in my previous post, even if he's a carrier or hell, an affected, I will use him.

Now to work on the older dogs. Not that I'm going to breed any of them except maybe Grins again, but the more dogs we have tested, the better idea we have of the gene pool. . and well, Grins' mirror cousin is an "at risk", so a bit worried there and Dei's half sister was a carrier, soo it is important. . .Also helps clear litters(The holiday & NCIS litter)

A load of my mind, just in time for xmas.. .not that I didn't have other loads to occupy my mind:

2nd
Poor Dei had a strange wart pop up. I thought it was a tick, yeah, I know, WTH was I thinking, a tick in December? But that's what it looked like. . so THursday Bonnie took her to the vet's(I couldn't get off work the day before a holiday), and I waited on pins and needles. She's 10, so anything odd comes up I will be a worry wart(Excuse the pun LOL). Thankfully Dr Knickman says it's just a skin tag, but we're having it removed when she goes in for a dental next month. He said she looks really good for a 10 yr old. I have to say, she looks way better than her mom did at this age. Lost Kyra at 10 yrs, 3 months, the way Dei looks, she is going to live beyond that, barring anything going wrong, you can never tell. She's currently enjoying life as a house dog. Too many old dogs in the dog kitchen, and she's too naked to be a yard dog, so she's been guarding my desk at night, and she's holding the floor down quite well!!

3rd:
Two Fridays ago, I noticed the heat sensor on the car was fluctuating. . and not just slightly, it would raise up to half way, drop down, raise up, drop, all while just driving in town, wasn't doing anything extreme with it. Came straight home, took it to the Car Vet the following Monday, and got the bad news: Head Gasket. . .the early Neons were known for bad head gaskets, damn Dodge never did a recall on it, even tho it is a widely known problem. Thankfully, the Car isn't going to cost me anywhere near as much as I'd worried, even with a new timing belt, water pump and the headgasket. .and hopefully I will get it back Monday and it'll last me another 50K. . .not that it didn't ruin Xmas, but oh well. It's my 13 yr old car and only has 76k on it, can't complain too bad.

And the last tidbit that wasn't a worry, but made xmas a decent one. . I now have 4 opens to run. . we held a practice yesterday, and Ms Nacht & Bratty Bella got their ASFA Certs. Bella looked really great, running like a little blond adult. Bonnie looked at me after Bella came off the field, totally ignoring her yardmate who was a little brat and tried to play with her and asked "You're keeping that one, right?" Oh yeah. . .most definitely, keen as Grandpa Brooks and great uncle Grins. . .it'll give me something to do with that one until she matures, she's currently very very coltish, vs Nacht who is looking much more mature.

Depending on weather, will go get their QC's next weekend, but that gives me Ziva, Jenny and the two girls(And Reba when she's not in season) to run. After not having an open dog to run since Grins back in 2004, it's soo nice to have a few . LOL Secret had a nice practice too, shocked BOnnie with the speed on the straight(did an almost 200 yds straight then turns), look forward to getting her out some more before she comes into season. We'll try Aurora next time(My knee said no more in the cold wind) and maybe Gibbs now that he's had time to mentally mature. It was a lot of fun running the lure again, ran it for a Shihtzu, a Samoyed puppy as well as a crapload of Afghans and our BOrzoi.

4th:
I think I have a new OB dog. .Jenny. . this bitch has learned to open the dutch door. .. so, next month, we will start Rally and agility training as my knee allows LOL. . .she's unfortunately a house dog at night due to her neck injury(Think she got T-boned by her idiot brother), she doesn't have the undercoat the others have and with subfreezing weather, she'd be a Jennycicle. . .this morning, she let ALL the old dogs into the house. .too smart for her own good. Maybe we'll start doing some training tomorrow LOL

Had a quite day at home, usually go for a walk on xmas, but no car meant we took a nap and just relaxed. . .tomorrow we might get hit with snow, oh joy, I was so hoping none this year LOl

Hope everyone had a safe happy holiday

Fall's flying by

Geez, I keep getting behind on my blog. . .just no energy to do so. .

Fall is here, the temperatures are falling, the leaves are turning colours and the ground is littered with a multi coloured blanket. Mornings are crisp, frost starting to appear, and the dogs are full of piss & vinegar.

Events are starting to wind down up here. . .makes it easier for me to take it easy LOL. . knee is feeling better, but still protests now and then. . still trying to be good on it. . .so do not want to screw it up. .

Weekend before the LGRA/NOTRA nationals, I so needed a break, so I loaded up the car with Secret, Reba, Focus on Saturday, and Secret, Focus, Tipperary and my friend's boy Ryder on Sunday and headed out coursing. Forgot how much I hate early mornings. . .

Secret was there for socialization and to see if she had any interest in the plastic bunny. Been 4 1/5 years since I've seen her, can't remember if she showed interest, and friends wanted to meet her, so off we went.

We waited while Marie got ready with Focus' sister Kyrie, to see if she was interested in plastic, unfortunately, once it turned, Kyrie came back to her mom, but boy she sure looked good. Secret showed some interest, ears up, watching it, jumped a bit, but not anything extreme, but some. . .enough to excite me about putting up a practice in the front field.

Poor Reba's bad luck with idiot dogs moved from the race track onto the coursing field. .Prelims Saturday, she had a dog coursing her, she pulled away from him, but as they came in at the finish, he cut right in front of her, literally, causing her to fall when she clipped him, a hard roll, but thankfully she got up and kept running. . .poor little red head, she has the worst luck with dogs being bad against her. .. thankfully she no longer reacts to them, and keeps going. . second course was very uneventful(and he was removed from the field!), and she came out on top for two points. .making her halfway towards her FC. .. she ran out of steam for BOB runoff, I've gotta recondition her(And Ziva) for stamina/endurance. . .but we'll be hitting more coursing, so hopefully that'll help. As you can see, her roll was not very fun looking, but she took it in stride
I think I have these in the right order LOL

Trying to recover

Soooo nto happening

Trying not to roll over

Sliding with the flow

She is so unflapable anymore, she got up and kept going


Sunday was slightly warmer, but a beautiful day all day. Unfortunately, the same dog who was bad to Reba ran on Sunday, even tho I strongly suggested to his owner he should, and he was even naughtier with Ziva. .

You can kinda tell he's not on the bunny, but on her

Here he is, according to the judge, trying to bite her

Thankfully, Sunday's judge demanded the course ended just shortly into the run because he was trying to bite her. Ziva turned and started back to me, with the other dog in pursuit. The judge grabbed him by his blanket, and when Ziva saw that he couldn't get her, she ran back to shred all the bunnies off the line, pleasing me to no end.

Why? With a novice dog(This is her 2nd course), especially one of her age, you worry about bad things ruining them for running, she's very soft as I've mentioned before. I almost pulled her, but hoped that she'd be fast enough to pull away, and well, you have to find out sometime. They started the course from the beginning and she finished it gorgeously, even tho she ended up doing a somersault on her head trying to stop LOL. That was reminiscent of her daddy & uncle Obie.

Not bad for a baby learning to use her back and bodd

Ran Ryder for my good friend Robin and she was tickled beyodn belief when I called to say yeah, she needed to get him out. . .since he's a dog Bonnie's interested in, we were all pleased to see him run. Such a sweet goofy boy. . .He took a nose dive at the first turn, not expecting it to turn(as he's been doing mainly oval/straight racing), but got up and kept going.

Took Secret in hand and headed to the scoreboard, which was set up next to the starting line. . .which was a huge mistake, when the whippets took off, she tried to go with them, and almost ripped my arm off LOL

Ziva went on to win her stake, and again she petered out on the BOB run. . but she had an otherwise good day with good running dogs, so I was very pleased. .she also seems to've gotten thru that 2nd fear period, as very little bothered her. . .

Last weekend we had racing in the front field. Due to Bonnie working with Lou of Pickle Hill Borzoi to try and rehome the last of the dogs leaving his home after his lovely wife dying, I had no help, so took it easy. . .I felt I had to support MAIGC, as they are some of my favorite racing friends

So, Saturday Focus, Grins(who was feeling frisky and silly and BOUNCY), Reba, Tipperary and Ms Jenny ran. . .Jenny's pleasing me, her head's getting straight from teenage hormones, she's boxing well, and breaking well, and she placed a respectable 2nd behind ms Focus in the meet. Reba & Grins ended up tying, with poor Tipperary taking the turtle. Tipperary could not beat Grins for the life of her this weekend. It is truly interesting to see how season slumps affect bitches, some not so much, some a lot.

Ms Secret got to try the bunny, and the first try, was not so sure. . her Uncle John Jones had to give her a gentle nudge when the bunny started, and then she took off. Unfortunately, unlike her sister and papa, once it's done moving, she's done with it LOL We ran her with Reba for certification, and she ran clean, I was so pleased.

Sunday I had no help and with my bad knee, decided to run fewer dogs. . jenny won the meet, looking better and better each run, and Secret placed 2nd!!! She is not sure how to use her body as she's never coursed before, but everyone was tickled for me, no matter what box she came out of, she'd zip to the right rail LOL I don't expect much out of her, she is 6+, but it's nice to know she will run, and run clean(She passed Tipperary without a problem), for breeding purposes, if she had no desire to run, I wouldnt' breed her to anything but Grins nuts on the bunny. . .

My Tofu girl's(kani LOL) puppy Belle is STILL a nut on the bunny, she was standign on her hind legs watching the bunny come down the track, ears up, eyes wide, trembling in excitement tried to get between the slits of the box. Ran her through the open box and she looked soo good.

This weekend was a 'down' weekend. . there was racing within driving distance, but my get up and go get up and left. . .so I scheduled a practice for RAW(Racing at the WEdge) for Saturday

Again, we couldn't've been blessed with better weather: 60 degrees, the tank top and capris came out for the day. It was a nice, easy course, basically an odd shaped diamond, about 500 yds...We had 27+ dogs show up, Borzoi, Whippets, Afghans, a CHinese Crested, Border Terriers, a Podengo and a Dutch shepherd. All but one of the Borzoi ran(she ran, just back to mom as fast as she can LOL), and the CC, One BT, and the dutch shepherd all got nice runs in.

I was very pleased to see Jenny run a nice, clean run with Ms Focus, poor Focus, got put in the test dog position LOL Then Kari's little girl Brandy got a nice clean run first alone and then with Ms Focus, two new opens for us next spring! Weehee!!!! Tolian, Brandy's brother, came out to play and got a nice run in.

And then it was Secret's turn. . .now again, Secret hasnt' seen a bunny in 5 yrs. . .I whipped it beneath her nose from behind and she took off, made the first turn, got to the 2nd turn, stopped to smell. SOMETHING at that corner kept interrupting dgos to sniff, quickly I flipped the lure, ripped it back under her nose, she came tearing back towards me after it, I flipped it again and took her back around, she made the fourth pully and said I've had enough LOL Need to work on her recall some LOL But I was tickled to see her run.

Then I got a learning experience. I run the lure for all breeds at LGRA BUT NGA greyhounds, I don't feel comfy at this point in time in running it for them. . .but I have never ran it for coursing, which is a different horse, and never ran it for a whippet. Damn Linda Day's whiplet caught the bunny before the first pully LOL I learned to keep it further away, and had a great time.

All three of the Kani puppies got in AWESOME runs, even Aurora, who I wasn't sure was goign to run. Hopefully Nacht's European Owner will get her out, because she is hot for that bunny, we'll be getting ehr cert and get her to events before she goes home. .. cant' believe they're almost a year old.

Grins got to be test dog for another dog who's been 'iffy', unfortunately the other dog fought his muzzle and thus we weren't able to tell for sure if he'd run clean, he got hormonal at the finish, strutting up to Grins, ears up, head high, tail up. Grins was Grins, oblivious to that sh*t, because there were two bunnies to destroy and damnit, he was going to kill them!!! LOL

All and all, we ahd a very successful first practice for RAW. . as they left, I was asked when the next one was LOL .. dang I hadn't recovered from the first one yet LOL but I scheduled a new one for next month already, and can't wait to do it again.

This was the first time I've done it all myself. .usually I set up the field, and someone else runs the lure, but it was a very educational day for me, and I can't wait to do it again!

I will be working on recall with Ms Secret so she can try again. . walking her down in that front field did NOT do my poor knee any good. . .thankfully she wasn't the only snot, one of the afghans did the same lOL

May go up to an ASFA event and learn FTS work, we'll see what the energy is like this weekend :)

I've got a secret

So, two weeks ago, Margaret emailed me and asked if I could pick Secret up early. . things had transpired and she was between jobs that wanted her to start early. . with some talk, we agreed, and two saturday's ago, I got up at 3:30, was in the car by 3:45 and drove, with one of my favorite people, Kari, 14 hrs round trip to pick up Gossip's sister.

Gotta say, I'm so thankful to have had Kari with me, it would've been a two day trip, no way I could've done 14 hrs on my own. .. I was shutting down when we pulled into the driveway at 8. No idea how people drive like that every weekend, nope.

It was so nice to see Margaret, first time since 1997, even if it was a really quick visit, as she was heading back to Tn to see her family, we had our 7 hr drive home. . .tears were cried, and then we packed Secret up into the rental car and headed home

Forty-five mins into the drive, she started moaning/groaning, and wouldn't stop, worried she was stressing, I pulled over, but as soon as she got on the grass, she squated for a mile long pee. . .poor girl. Once she was done, into the car, and lay down and be a good girl for the drive. . .

Kari's a great conversationalist, and a wonderful traveling companion, so even tho it was a long day, it went a lot faster than it would've, and before i knew it, we were home. .

She's like Gossip in some ways(lovely tanky body), and unlike her in other ways(Stubborn as hell, not as bouncy), she's slipped into the job as my shadow without an issue. . and has become a good house dog, tho she's learning manners when humans are eating, you don't try and snitch off the plate.

She's very overwhelmed with all the dogs, but is slowly warming up, she's not as confident and sure of herself as Gossip was. . .lighter on her feet tho. . .

She's moved into the dogbed in the bedroom, and pleasing me to no end, she's not showing any interest in the cats. Like her sister, she goes in, finds the bed, and plops down.

What's funny is Pippens reaction to her. For the three weeks since Gossip had died, he'd wake me up at about midnight, crying and crying, wandering around the bedroom. .. since secret's come up to the bedroom, he has been silent. . and as soon as she walked in the bedroom and laid down, he was in her face, totally obblivious that she was a strange dog, rubbing all over her, licking her legs, treating her totally unlike the way he'd treated Dei all along. Thankfully, even tho I've muzzled her, she's been ignoring him, and if she's unmuzzled, she cleans his ears. ..

She's fit back into the house like she was always here. .. and for that i'm thankful. .and I'm also thankful that I'm now sleeping thru the night. . her presence is soothing. . .for nothing other than that, I'm happy she's home. .

She's home

Gossip came home Tuesday night

How such a vibrant, bright, full of life, full speed ahead girl can be reduced to such an ugly tin box, is so beyond me.

Been owned animals on my own for 18 yrs now. . and have lost animals, way too many over the years, mostly to natural causes, only one of them 'all of a sudden', and that was a stupid yard accident on way too much ice. . but this has been the worse. .because there was no illness, nothing.

I keep trying to think of something she could've gotten into, but the three kitties that sleep with me every night are fine. . and we still wait the report. . the prelims were confusing at best. .

Each day is hard, a little easier than the one before, but still hard. . as Gossip was my shadow. Unless it was too hot for her to go someplace with me, or work, she went everywhere with me. . she helped me thru losing Obie, took me on so many adventures. If it weren't for her, I would not've rented the van last year and gone to MI to the Nationals, nor would I've rented the van and gone up to NH by myself. . most of the 47,000 miles put on my car in 3 yrs, were put there because of her, racing, shows, classes. . or just joy rides. . .she was my partner in crime, my copilot, my best bud. . .

House is so empty without her and Surya. . Dei & Tilly just don't exude the presence they had. They're quiet souls for the most part. . Gossip & Surya were the class clowns. .

Once I can handle it, she'll be put in an Urn more her style. . and ashes from her & Obie will be sent to have a heart pedant made to hang in my rear view mirror. .they were both my copilots. . .both curled up in the front seat of my cars(Obie in the 'stang, Gossip in the Neon). Found a place that will make beautiful glass pedants, and it just 'feels' right.




Pick up the rental car tomorrow and rush down to Bristol VA to pick up Secret. . not sure i'll be able to do the trip in one day, but going to try. On one hand, I hope she's nothing like Gossip in personality, OTOH, it would be nice to have some of that back. . .hopefully she will be ok with the cats.

Then it's back to the drawing board after I recover monetarily from the last month(No credit cards are good, but also sucks :P), health tests and stud dog shopping. . i have my eye on a few boys, unfortunately, one of them is way out west, another is too young( yearling), and the last isn't as keen on the bunny as I'd like. . even more unfortunate, there's no whole brother of Surya around. . .his half sibs are nowhere near as nice as he was, IMHO.

Secret & Ike

Got a note earlier this week from Secret's mum. .they're ok, got some damage to the house and yard, biggest problem is lack of electricity and worry about finding gas for the generator. . .feel so bad for them, and wish I was closer to help them out. Hope things don't go worse for them. they could be without power for a month, omg, we were out for a handful of days and life was hell

Secret'll be coming back tho, she's worried after two evacuations in 2 wks, about moving a bitch in season with unaltered dogs. She is NOT in a position to deal with an oops litter . .I know that worry. . .so she offered her back instead of just spaying her. A Wonderful lady, and one of my oldest friends in Borzoi, Margaret loves Secret, but also knows how important Secret is (and agrees she's too nice to spay if she can come back home). . she's one of two dogs I regret ever letting go, but not knowing exactly how bad my life was going to go, a good home came along, and I let her go. . .she'll come back, and either just stay with me, or Bonnie may take her. . .I owe Bonnie a replacement pup since Titania didn't turn out, so that's fine with me. . . I'll get to show her, and we'll try her in the front yard to see if she'll run. She did a LGRA practice as a puppy, but was not as promising as her sister, but who knows. Otherwise, I'll show her :)

Other dog, I realised the other day that I regret letting go, is Yanna. . she may not've been the perfect show dog, but she was a sweet little bundle of love & I loved her in return, but had to do what was best for her. . .granted, I couldn't've standed to look at her when I lost Obie, since she was his mini me, but I miss her. . .oh well, hindsight's 20/20

Agility tonite, rented hour tomorrow, and a nice relaxing weekend. . .NOTRA got cancelled, so I'm staying home. .tho I'm kicking myself in the butt for cancelling my day off Saturday, Vanessa's going todwn to NC and she asked if I wanted to go with her to see Pat, oh well :P