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.

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 :)

the lgra/notra nationals

The LGRA/NOTRA nationals are over. . .

It was a very bittersweet nationals for me, and for two of my friends. . .T lost her promising basenji at the 2007 Nationals, he slipped his collar and was hit by a car :( Deb lost her Iggy last year, he got away from her and also was hit by a car. . .so lots of tears were shed for great friends gone too soon.

I took seven dogs with me. . .Ava flew out, which was a nightmare in and of itself. . .friend was supposed to ship her Saturday, didn't get there early enough saturday, so had to go back to my friend's that night, stay with her, get up, ship her out Sunday, which was a total nightmare. . .especially when i got lost in Newark. . .but Ava got to portland, is in her mama's hands, and promptly came into season LOL

Secret was along for the ride because she's stuck to me like rice, and some of Gossip's friends wanted to see her. . .other than forcing herself up front, between the captain chairs anyway she could, and when she couldn't, curling up on the nylon crate behind the chairs, she was a pretty good girl.

I had Focus for Bonnie, didn't expect anything really from her, she was in season end of july, so is just getting out of her slump, but since she was the only dog that was able to touch Gossip when she was 100%(and even then, it was only an occasional race she beat Gossip at), we entered her. Robin sent Ryder up for me to run, poor boy was out of shape due to the horridly hot summer they've had, John entered Wiard in Notra, we entered Reba in Notra, and I had my Ziva entered. DIdn't expect much from her, she is a baby still, the youngest by a year, but I was proud of her.

The weather was SOOO much better than last year's freezing rain, only thing i got this year vs a nasty cold last year, was wind chapped face/

Poor Ziva, she started the day in high point, but she tried her hardest, and came in 3rd behind much older and experienced dogs Bart(1) & Kyrie (2). She ran well for being the baby and still coming into her own, tieing for 5th and coming in 6th overall. Very pleased with her runs.

Ryder couldn't get his butt out of the box for 1st High Point and came in 4th, and that screwed him up for the rest of the day. . he placed 2nd behind the eventual BOS FTE winner Doro, and won his last race, to come in 5th(tied with Ziva)

Focus, as Gossip's pitch hitter, ran better than I'd hoped, and won all three races, to win the Nationals. . .I wish Gossip had been around, that was the only way the High Point races could've been better. . a huge ribbon and a trophy came home to Bonnie's delight.

What was extremely pleasing was 7 of the 8 top Borzoi went back to DC Silkenswift Blaze of CHaos(and more titles i cant' remember this am). . nice especially when I got wind of a nasty rumour that silkenswift dogs have horrid fronts and thus makes them slow LOL. .. 15 dogs running. . not bad at all. . .

Didn't get to enjoy the awards banquet due to having to go back to Newark, which was a shame, as I know it was a lot of fun.

We'll ignore the nightmare of getting Ava on the plane, and judge right onto NOTRA nationals. . .I had 5 of the 10 dogs entered. . think I may've lost my mind when I offered to run dogs for people LOL.

Reba ran her little heart off, but was in line to get the turtle after an OC, DNF happened, and then it happened, she couldn't get thru the dogs in front of her, and she went OC :( A disappointment for her little junior handler Georgia, who had(with adult help), dressed & muzzled her, she then walked her to the box with very little help, Mr John helped her box her, and with help she caught her, where she walked her back and undressed her lOL. . SHe proved that a 5 yr old could run Reba. . only one time was Reba not polite, otherwise she was the perfect, calm, sweet angel.

Ziva suddenly stopped fighting me at the box, stopped sitting in the box, now if she could only learn to stick to the turns(I know, give her time!) She finished 6th and picked up her first ORC points(0.5), I was more pleased with her progress in getting over the scare she got last month from a rough handler than anything.

Focus ran nicely, but started running out of steam. . .she ended up placing a respectable 4th, the 2nd high scoring non ORC, she's still not doing turns like she will in a few more meets.

Wizard, wizard shocked the crap out of many people by almost beating Bartlby, who is almost unbeatable, the last race. . he was ahead of Bart, and at the last moment slowed down enough Bart caught up with him and he tied. . Hopefully John'll listen to me and excercise that boy. . .he ended up placing 2nd due to that last race, finishing the day as the high scoring non titled oval racing boy.

I was very pleased with the kids. .. had a wonderful day, wish I'd video'd that last race it was so freaking amazing to watch as the siblings duked it out, first Valkyrie, than Bart, and then Wizard. .the top 4 dogs of the meet were all littermates: Bart, Wizard, Valkyrie, Focus

It wasn't as horrid as I feared it would be. . yes, I did miss my girl, but I had fun due to great friends. . .

The EAST COAST ROCKED THE NATS!!!!

Morphing into the butterfly

A continuation of my prior post.

Bringing out a young dog can be rather scary.

There's been a lot of nastiness after the finish line in recent meets, unfortunately, anything that happens after they cross the line is ok. .. a good owner will pull the dogs, a poor owner won't. . .I will pull a dog who comes across the line roaring at another dog. Hasnt' happened often, but it's something I can't stand. I know of dogs who were ruined by that type of behaviour.

Ziva & Jenny are soft, Ziva more than Jenny, so I had let them run practices alone, and with dogs I know are clean and bomb proof. . Jenny unfortunately came into season, but after learning to box, and doing a clean run with her father, I decided to enter Ziva into a meet. .

First meet, I entered dogs of Bonnie's and mine that I knew were clean, and took Wizard, and with each race, Ziva got more and more confident. . at first she was afraid of the box and not sure of strangers, wouldn't let anyone but me box her, or catch her. Made it real hard to run her, but we managed :)

Just as scary it is worrying about her getting a good experience, you worry about them not being naughty. Thankfully, she kept running clean, even when a strange dog was entered into the mix.

The second weekend, with each race, she got better, to the point that last race Sunday, my Nancy boxed her and I pulled her off the bunny, yes, PULLED her off. I was soo happy to see that

Ziva ran and ran nicely. The shy butterfly she was the first day was gone, and she was much more outgoing and sure of herself, soliciting pets and scritches, this second fear period can be such a PITA, even throwing a tantrum if she was made to wait for her turn to box by the end of day Sunday LOL.

Just as it's scary to bring out a new dog, it's also exciting to watch them bloom and learn the game. She was very tuckered by the end of the weekend.

I feel more confident allowing her to run with other dogs, it'll still be handpicked who I allow her to run with for awhile. . Ariel's girls and Orleans, no problem, I've never seen those three run dirty at all, Mary M's, girls same thing. But there are some boys in the area that Ziva's going to have to get used to their screaming before I feel comfy allowing her to run with them. They've bothered Reba who's been doing this awhile. . and she won't run with dogs who don't play nice after the finish line, not til she's more sure of herself. If that means having to pull her, I will.

But I was so happy to see her in on the bunny, she allowed Gossip & First to kill the toy, she wanted the plastic.

Now it's to start from the beginning with Jenny, who's out of season next week. .we're probably out of racing til August due to the weather. .it'll be interesting to see hwo the two sisters run together, hopefully they'll run clean together!