Sara's Journal

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Apr. 6th, 2008

Beans, Books and Barks Paw Patio opening. AKA, my Saturday

mood: awake

Yesterday was spent over at BBB drinking foo foo coffee drinks and eating chocolate & vanilla sheet cake while I took pictures of the fun for them. Several of my coffee drinking friends have mentioned that BBB coffee is better than Starbucks, but I wouldn't know, as I'm not a coffee girl. A rare find, I know. G and I are a pair, as he's not a coffee drinking guy either. However, for us, their tea is just fine and I enjoy the black and white they make for me, sans any coffee product. One of the neatest things about BBB besides that they are good dog people with a good product, is that they support alot of non profit dog organizations through their tip jar. I know what you are thinking, tip jar, please, that can't be alot. Well, let me tell you since they opened in September of last year, they've given over $3000 to area dog charities. That is just simply amazing! Usually they do a charity per quarter, but because of Duncan and Holly (another dog they know w/Cancer), they did a one month collection of their tip jar for the National Canine Cancer Foundation and raised $689.00!!!! It was just awesome to receive that.

OK, on to yesterday's opening...

There were a ton of dogs there to celebrate the opening and several vendors and rescues came and set up booths as well. They had some fun dogs game, pinata luring, bobbing for hot dogs, pop corn catching and a costume contest. They also had a cool demo by PHADD - that's Phoenix Area Disc Dogs - It's not a PHADD, it's a Lifestyle. I just love their catch phrase! On with the pictures, or as Jack would say "Sweet, Cake!" (stargate reference for you non sg blog readers)

Marilee and Ronnie race to cut the big a$$ cake!

Kelly serving up some drinks and fun!

Ok, now here's my favorite pic of the day, because I love action shots and Hope grabbed some big air here:

This is Brian of PHADD with his very talented girl Hope. She did a chest vault. Yes, she actually jumped up on his chest and bounced off to get this disc! Just awesome!

I want to paws here to say THANK YOU too to Brian and the PHADD crew as over the month of March they collected over $200 in memory of Duncan for the National Canine Cancer Foundation! That just so rocked! They presented me with it at BBB yesterday, which was the two week mark of us losing sweet Duncan Dog.
( See the progression of her jump here: )
There were also some owls there too:

After I took the first picture, he turned and looked at me for this one.

I took tons of pictures of the dogs in attendance yesterday, but I think this one takes the cake for the best face. Apparently it's a Rottweiler, Sharpee, Lab mix. (I'm sure I spelled the breeds wrong)

And we will leave you with the wonderful ladies of BBB, Marilee and Ronnie! Congrats on such a cool coffee hangout!

Off to go swim with the dogs, well, actually, I'll be throwing balls, they will be swimming. I can hear Emma barking for my return right now... ;)

Tags: beans books and barks, coffee, disc dogs, dogs, phoenix area disc dogs

Nov. 14th, 2007

Holiday Photo Sessions

mood:

amused

music: Apple Tech Support on hold

Yes, it’s that time again. Time to find the perfect portrait of the family to send out to all those people on your holiday list. It’s ruff - you have to decided when to do it, what you are going to wear and IF the kids (furry or otherwise) will cooperate during the pictures.

Well, I did the first round of holiday pictures and I have to say that everyone did pretty good! We had our moments, but everyone got a good picture in the end.

Here are the out takes of our first holiday portrait party:

From Top to bottom, left to right:
This is Maggie Rose and her Santa outfit. Then Tessie lets us know what she thinks of posing for Christmas pictures! Woody, Zanni and Maggie Rose are all waiting for the photographer to get in gear. Finally, it's Miss Tessie and Mr. Duncan doing their brother and sister pictures, Duncan is obviously bored, not enough cookies.

Tis the Season
It’s Holiday season now and we are all starting to get very busy. Don’t forget to take time to embarrass your kids with portraits like this of London. He normally takes very handsome pictures but today, it just seemed like something was bothering him. He didn’t want to have much to do with the whole portrait scene. Of course, the antlers didn’t help I’m sure! ;)

Let's not forget our little elf, Noble, who fell asleep while we dressed him up!
S

Tags: christmas, dog holiday pictures, dogs, pets

Sep. 18th, 2007

mood:

amused

music: hubs on the phone

When you think of vacationing in AZ, you don't often think of doing it in Prescott, but it is 15 degrees cooler there than here. Normally by this time of the year we are in Alaska for our annual vacation which takes care of the feeling you get this time of the year in AZ. The feeling that you are just melting day by day as the 100+ degree heat just keeps coming. So, even though Prescott is not Alaska nor is it the vacation get away I was craving, it got me out of the heat, was more scenic than I thought and we had a great time with some friends.

Doing what you ask? Going to a dog show of course....that would be the only reason one might find me in Prescott, AZ. We hardly ever go to this show because it is usually in between the Alaska trip and the Golden Retriever National. Many Golden people skip this show in favor of the national. Many non National goers skipped it this year due to a Parvo outbreak. So, in the end we had just enough dogs/bitches to create a 1 point show. (it takes 15 points to get a conformation championship).

However, this has been one of the most fun shows that we've been to in awhile. Not only because I won back to back BEST OF BREEDS!!! But because it was like the shows from way back when, when our group of dogs friends was a tight knit bunch. Allow me to explain myself just a bit further - When we first started showing the boys, Ashby and Bailey, we met some great friends who were all showing their dogs. We'd set up together, visit, get the dogs ready, show and visit some more, shop the vendors and then plan where we were going out to dinner that night. And when the National came around we'd all plan to go, stay in the host hotel, go to the dinners and in general have a great time. But somewhere over the past few years, that feeling seems to have faded from our dog show life. So, it hasn't been as fun as of late. So, it was good to get back into that swing.

I got really picture happy this weekend so I will continue the story below the cut (I finally learned how!) complete with tons of pictures! But before the cut, I'll give you a little idea about what kind of hotel we were in and a picture of my Best of Breed boy, Wrigley

He really is alot like his Dad, Bailey.
He LOVES to get ready for the show.
Somewhat of a pre madonna too.

This should give you an idea of the caliber of our MOtel

( Read more... )

Some how I ended up on the up side of chores when it comes to dog shows. I pack, but hubs packs and unpacks the truck. Hubs hauls all the stuff from truck to site for set up. I move things around a bit and tend to the dogs. So, while he was setting us up, I ran over to my clients set up to offer help that I had been asked to provide to her friend. These ladies couldn't be nicer people and they couldn't be more new at this if they tried. I have to just smile, knowing I was exactly like them 10 years ago (I can hardly believe that it's been that long!) and I so enjoy answering their questions and helping out. As Linda said...I'm giving back. This time they brought their husbands along, which they said proved to be a bit of an experience over the course of the weekend. (Except for me, most of our friends who show leave their hubs at home) So, as I came over they were trying to get pictures of their wiggly puppy in a show stack, with a FILM camera! LOL - sometimes I have to laugh that people are still using film, even though I still own a film camera too. In any case, I set her dog up and then her friend asked me to do the same for her puppy. So, here I am, so dressed like a slob because I had given dogs a bath in the a.m. and packed and stuff....so I hope I'm really not in the pictures as much as I think I might be...but I'm sure I am...

In any case, I digress. Linda and Amy set up right next to us, so we all planned to go out for dinner, and as luck would have it, right across the pasture was a delightful steak house, so we were told. As hubs talked to L&A he asked if we should make some reservations for said steak house. And I ran to the suitcase in our truck to at least put on a shirt with a collar so that I might look less like I came from the gym and more like I wandered in off the street. LOL. The map showed it to be to right turns away on straight streets. In reality, you have to WANT to get to this place and KNOW that it's there because after that second right turn, there are NO street lights, you are in a residential neighborhood that has 3 to 5 acre lots on a very windy street. If we hadn't caught a glimpse of the neon sign through the pasture we never would have made it.

And a glorious steak house it was. In an effort to get in, we passed the horse shoe pits and through the bar/pool hall to find that we needed to seat ourselves anywhere we wanted. I'm pretty sure the "matrie'd" was quite offended by our dress, seeing as non of us had on over-all's, a cowboy hat or a wife beater t-shirt. We had a great time though with L&A! We told old dog show stories about our first National with Linda and found out alot about Amy, as we have never had a chance to hang out with her before. After quite a few rounds, we were off to the famous Motel the Prescott Sierra Inn:

Years ago I stopped making reservations for our stays because hubs in kinda high maintenance in this category, so I let him do all the stuff. I know perfectly well how to do it and usually pick good places. However, this time, our friends called us and said they would be staying here and we should all make reservations there. So, I did. Does the sign give you any clues of how miserable a night our first night was? You see, what my friends neglected to mention was there is a good side and a bad side to this hotel. They have kitchenettes which is the good side or they have rooms, which was our side.

We got in and found we had a living room and bedroom, but only the living room had the in wall a/c unit. And laying down on the bed you could see up into the light fixtures to the cobwebs, as there was no light. However, our remote worked and L&A's didn't. Which worked out well, because hubs was up most of the night itching from something he was allergic to in the room. He was thinking, cat. And here's the bathroom, with tile straight out of my grandmother's old bathroom:

And of course this was the first time in a long time I was counting on the hotel to have a dryer, iron and shampoo, no such luck. Thank goodness I brought toothpaste!

However, I did bring Casey's favorite toy and I think she felt right at home and was a very happy camper:

Yes, she did sleep on our double bed all night....

So, we were up the next morning and right into the routine of showing. I showed a 9-12 puppy dog, Rizin. Wrigley in open dog and Emma in 12 to 18 bitches. Rizin showed well, Emma showed well and got a Reserve Winner's Bitch ribbon (which to veteran showers mean's - YOU DIDN'T get the points) and Wrigley got Winner's Dog (he beat all of the boy dogs for a point), then he went on to take Best of Breed! (meaning he beat out all of the goldens for a chance to get into the group ring! ) Then if he were to win a Group 1 (first place) in the Sporting Group he would go on to Best In Show competing with 6 other dogs for that title. But alas, that part is the dream, for an owner/handler to get a Group placement, let alone a BIS. You have to have an excellent dog to do it and a bit of politics on your side too. But this weekend marks my second and third BOB win, but only my first and second time in the Group ring and let me tell you I was so excited just to be there! Our friend Linda took Winner's Bitch on Saturday (she beat all the girls out for the point)!

After a FUN day at the show we decided to all go back to the hotel and crack open more beers and enjoy an appetizer and the view from the hotel deck:

Looking across the street to our room And from LtoR: Amy, Sara, Gary and Linda

Then Dunc tried to swipe my beer:

Again, we talked about the day and some more good stories and just in general had a ball! This is the part of the showing that we have lost. It became about dinner time, so we headed out to our restaurant:

There is a bar by the same name...if they spelled it Girly....I don't think anyone would go....

In any case we had some more beer and some good food and stories:

We made it back to the hotel around 8:30 and I was just exhausted. You'd think after running around in circles 6 or 7 times wouldn't make you that tired, but it got me. It also told me just how out of shape I was and I was feeling it ALL over. So, I collapsed in bed and asked hubs to take care of the dogs. I got a good night's sleep this night. I don't feel guilty about foisting the dogs off on Gary because that's another one of our agreements. I'm the morning person, so there fore, I take the dogs out in the early a.m. prior to us leaving for the show grounds and tend to the morning rituals. So, he's the night guy!

In any case, we were back in the ring the next day and it was just beautiful out there:

There were mountain views all around and it was pretty cool (temp wise).

Sunday was pretty much the same stuff, but I came out of it with a great story, at least I think so. If you don't know the world of conformation dog showing is full of politics. Usually professional handlers are on the right side of those politics and have the better hand. After them comes the owner/handler/breeders who have been in it for 15- 20+years. It's not just that you have the best dog, as it's supposed to be, but what is exactly as it supposed to be these days? In any case - a handler that we've known for a long time - Rick, the handler, has been hired on a 12-18 mo old dog and he comes by me and whispers "You're going down." He's also said this to hubs. He was teasing me of course and my first retort was that I had a good dog. In any case, I came up with a better one as he exited the ring with his blue ribbon. "I've got two words for you: Breeder, Judge" and then I walked into the ring. You see, I had a momentary light come on because today, Gloria Kerr was judging. Gloria has been an owner/handler/breeder for 20+ years, so she'll look at the Goldens carefully, knows them inside and out and will pick what she likes, not who she likes or who needs to make money. So, I figured I had a pretty good chance and I won my class. Then Rick and I get in the ring together and I walked off with the purple ribbon and the points! He congratulated me and thanked him. Then he blew me away in the group ring later! ;)

So, that was the weekend...as long winded as it was. I had a great time! Now I wish we were going to the National, but since I didn't have the good showing feeling....I didn't think much of going. In any case, I'll leave you with shots from the Group Ring!

Tags: conformation showing, dog showing, dogs, golden retrievers, prescott arizona

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Aug. 15th, 2007

Casey was spaded today...

mood:

sad

music: Law and Order is on tv...

Well, our Champion, supposed to be foundation bitch was spaded today at 7 years old. Poor Casey, I felt so bad for her today when I took her in. That is perhaps why I waited so long to schedule her for spay surgery. You see I've known since the first of the year that I needed to do it, because she was older, but also because of her history of pyo (uterus infection). However, I just couldn't bring myself to set the silly appointment because I was traumatized by watching her come out of anesthia (sp?) at one of her other surgeries. And of course I just hate for my babies to be in pain.

So, I was on pins and needles today, waiting for the all clear. And hubs is out of town on a business trip too. When I dropped Missy Case off this morning, they all asked where he was. Because when she had pyo and was going through that treatment, we both took her up there every day for her treatment and walked her around after her shot before she had to spend the day with them. So, it's not very often that when we do vet visits that we both aren't there. I've missed him...

But she came home and is just fine...but of course very loopy from the drugs. I set her up on a bed and she fell asleep, but then she didn't want to settle, because she wanted to be by me, so I took my computer to the floor to type the blog... She just looks so miserable...but I know it was the right choice...