P P G L

SHOOT! 

I talked to the MB-F people, who are superintendants for Friday’s AKC trial, and they said Baby’s and my entry arrived after closing – at 2:25 – and they closed entries at noon, so they sent it back to me.  Wow.  That’s a first.  I think I even Fedexed it, but I can’t pull Fedex up on the Internet this morning (infuriating!), so can’t check on that.

A little later in the day, I got a letter from the MB-F people.  A letter?  I mean a strip of paper with my check.  Now on the paper they say the entry got there on 2/25!  Which 225 was it?  I don’t know.  But I mailed the entry through US mail, as Fedex finally came up on the Internet and no record of my sending to MB-F was listed.  Now if I mailed our entry through US mail from Broward county to Brooksville, which is in Hernando county, on the 18th of February, one would think it would take only a day to get from here to there.  Seven days?  It’s a 4-1/2 hour drive!  Where’s my Rescue Remedy!

This is yet another entry for the People Plan and God Laughs category.  I asked to take off Friday from work even.  Eeewww kay, did I already say

SHOOT? 

Sibling Rivalry

Bouchard got irate with something Luigi did this evening. You can see the steam coming out of his ears if you look closely enough, squint, and blow puffs of air from your mouth when it’s below 40 degrees.

I didn’t see what transpired prior, but when I stepped outside, Bouchard was prancing and ready to take some action on the “innocent” Luigi. I told him to knock it off, but he had a bug up his butt and continued to strut around Luigi, trying to egg the Italian on. Luigi ignored him because whatever he did to get Bouchard in this state of mind was done, and so was Luigi’s work. That boy can focus when he has a job to do.

Luigi loves to get Bouchard in trouble. Loves loves loves it! And Bouchard keeps falling for it. And so it goes, Luigi got Bouch in trouble again. Bouchard had to go into a crate behind an ex-pen closed room because he wouldn’t stop his posturing. He barked. I told him to stop. He stopped. A few minutes later, we went through the same thing. Eventually, when he was quiet, I let Bouchard out of the crate and he had to stay behind the ex-pen for a few minutes. When I let him out, he still had the bug up his butt for Luigi.

He walked around Luigi and Luigi ignored him. Luigi just kept his eyes ahead and held onto his blue Dino Cuz ball. Bouchard held his chest out like a peacock, walked around, peed on whatever needed pee, came back to taunt Luigi, who was the image of innocence through this whole dance he choreographed.

I had to go into the kitchen, and Luigi came with me while I doled out dinner. Bouchard strutted back and forth a few times, and Luigi put his blue Dino on the top of a bin. Bouchard walked by, stopped in front of the blue Dino and poked it straight on as if saying, “I could take this if I wanted to.”

Sister did that make me laugh! Though I couldn’t laugh out loud, or Bouchard would be hurt. Bouchard had a very real bone to pick with Luigi and was trying his best to set Luigi straight on his feelings while obeying Fort Doberdale’s premier rule – absolutely no fighting.

After the Cuz ball poke, Bouchard settled down. That was his triumph. He also hung around the kitchen a little more than usual while I fixed dinner just to show that he could be anywhere he wanted to be, even if Luigi was there. And Luigi acted the cool cucumber with the sausage snout and (not so) innocent looking, big brown eyes.

They’re my boys, and boys will be boys.  Sibling rivalry is a very real part of their relationship, and my keeping one step ahead of them is what keeps the peace.  Now where’s the Rescue Remedy?

Helen

Happy Birthday Girls Ginger (9) and Pippin (6)

Today we celebrate two Fort Doberdale birthdays. As they are in the month of St. Patty, we’ve dressed the part.

Ginger is 9 years old today! She is such a happy beauty.

And pretty Pippin. She’s 6 years old today, and full of sugar and some other special ingredients.

Birthday hamburgers were had all around. Here’s Ginger ready to make her wish and devour hers.

Yummy!

Pippin concentrates very hard and makes her wish.

Then she studies the first piece to decide where to start.

Happy birthday, girls.

Helen, their mom

A Chef Questions Her Efforts

I don’t know, but I’m thinking. I just made tomorrow’s dinner tonight for the FDSP. That’s because I need to get home and feed them and scram to a new dog class as soon as I get home. No minutes to waste. What bothers me is I work hard to make dinner for my babies, and when I was looking at the directions on how long to cook the macaroni, I laid the bag on top of the burner I’d just boiled water on for tea. I don’t know why, but I did. Well, the next thing that happened was the plastic bag melted and macaronis fell from the sky. Go figure. Dogs were dive bombing to eat these morsels faster than mosquitoes on a sleeping target. So why do I bother cooking the macaroni? Why not just put them in the bowl with the cheese and forget about boiling the veggies, too. Just chuck them in there as a frozen topping.

Why not? Well, I thought about that and came up with the answer. Because Baby, the Diva, would not go for that, that’s why. And she’s the Queen Mother.

She’s the reason Fort Doberdale exists. So I will continue being the FDSP Chef and cook the food unless the Queen Mother wants a raw chicken or turkey wing for a snack.

Helen

Baby: Did she come or did she run?

On our way to the show grounds this morning, Baby and I saw a Golden Retriever in the back of a pick-up truck, which was towing a boat. Bad news. Illegal news, but no police were doing anything about it.

Once again, Baby and I arrived at the show grounds.

This show we had to arrive at a later time than our last trial, which was nice. Novice B was to start at 11:20.

I can’t say I got a warm, fuzzy feeling when I snapped this picture. I figured Baby was in one of “those” moods again.

And she was. She wanted to be loved by everybody. She is such a socializer, unlike her mom. She poked people, and prodded, and many just weren’t amused. When Baby finally figured I was it, she settled down and annoyed me to no end. If I stood by her ex-pen, though I was trying to watch the goings-on in our ring, she insisted I pet her. Loud and louder barks were her way of demanding, er … communicating.

These were some of the vehicles we saw in the parking lot, and I have to say this first one gives me the willies. It’s too much like an animal control vehicle rather than a dog show vehicle.

The person who owns this van has the neatest windows. Her dogs are on either side of the rear windows. This is Star.

And this is Ringo!

Corgis are really cute little rascals.

This van was full of crated Akitas, as I remember. There’s quite an ordeal to groom them for a show.

This is a Rottweiler Rescue vehicle. I can’t imagine fitting too many of those characters in that little mutt of a vehicle. Now chihuahuas? Perfecto!

Of course, this was my favorite. You know why.

Well, here’s the moment I’d been waiting for. Would she come or would she run? Baby, the Recall Specialist, came. She came straight at me, full speed, and right by my left side into a half-assed finish. She didn’t think stopping in front of me and sitting, looking up adoringly at me, was the thing to do, so she tried a new twist. When I told her to heel, she looked at me and moved about a half-inch with an “I already did!” look. Uh huh.

Well, here we are. Baby looks smashing in this picture. The photographer was another exhibitor in the same class with us, so I have to thank her for the great Baby picture.

We got a 188. We lost 5 points on the recall, and the rest on the heeling exercises. Puh-leez. Baby was not in the mood to do anything but socialize, and I asked her to “just get the leg,” and that’s what she did. No bells and whistles. Not my DoberDiva. And she was rewarded heavily for doing as little as possible with plenty of chicken tenders. That was our deal. So whoopie! Now we have one more leg to get and Baby will have a CD to put after her name…besides all her other titles…like QM (Queen Mother), FDSP, RS (Recall Specialist), RN (Rally Novice) and such. Ewwkay.

One unusual turn of events in our Novice group is that everyone qualified. That’s highly unusual. It is. We had ten total. Several, three to be exact, were absent from our group.

There were plenty of beautiful dogs at the show grounds today. Here are three beautiful collies.

The most beautiful Dobermann…oh wait! It’s Baby! She went on a shopping spree after she got her qualifying ribbon.

Baby was a little teeny weeny jealous of this gal’s hair. I mean, it is the cutest hairdo.

Then we saw another Dobe…oh wait! It’s Baby again. Still shopping.

Here is Karyn. She has done magnificently with her Dobies in the confirmation ring. Last year, I met her Doberboy, also red, who was first Doberboy in the nation. This is Karyn with her Dobergirl, who is not 2 years old yet.

Here’s a good look at Karyn’s sweetie pie with her beautiful green jacket on.

Even show dogs drool.

Here is what some people do when they don’t want their dogs to know they’re watching while they are performing in the ring. Mommy has gone outside the ring with a sibling.

Here is a high-ranking Great Dane, who is owner handled. He’s so cute.

There’s a lot of grooming going on behind the grandstands.

Here we have several more shots of Baby in the parking lot as we are packing up. First is her ever-generous raspberry. She started out with it and is ending with it. She’s consistent.

This is an unusual look for the Diva.

This is why she’s a Diva. She has so many looks and in seconds can change from one to the other right in front of the camera.

She’s a model at heart.

When we got home, the most beautiful sky was waiting for us.

After the sun set, well, Baby need to catch up on her beauty Zzz’s and got right to work at it.

I wonder what she’s dreaming about. I hope it’s a dream about getting high in trial at her next trail, which is Friday! If she passes then, well, she will get that CD title.

Until then…I will need more Rescue Remedy.

Helen