AAA on speed dial...

It was a VERY good weekend...until we headed home! My battery was dead. Ratz. Well, we hustled around and got jumper cables and found someone to jump me and we were off. Then at the mini mart it stopped and wouldn't start again. Good thing I have AAA on speed dial! First I called Dena and Betsy, thankfully they weren't on the freeway yet. They came by, we got all the dogs into the air conditioning and I relaxed a bit. AAA came and we got started and headed to Sears (the only place open) so they could run a check on the battery and alternator.
New battery and $111 later, we were on our way! In retrospect, I was glad that it had happened this way and not on the way to Southern California next month!
The only bad thing about the way things worked out is that I missed my grand daughters birthday party!

Report about Yakima Shows

Friday around 1:00, Lorin, Pat and I headed off to meet Dena and Betsy in Yakima. We had a total of 10 Cairns (between the 5 of us) entered in either conformation or rally obedience. When we got there we were greeted with 90+ degrees and the prospect of the same for every day of the weekend. ... not the best, but we are experienced dog show junkies...
Dena and Betsy arrived in the motorhome about 5 and we proceeded to set up "camp". We were excited about the weekend showing and looking forward to spending time together. After dinner and relaxing a bit, Lorin, Pat and I headed to our hotel, The Cedar Inn. WHAT A JOKE!!!!
As Pat checked in and we went to get some provisions. Back at the trying to find a parking spot and 3 drunks, standing in front of our room started yelling down at Lorin. "Hey cutie, come on up...we are having a birthday party, come on and give the birthday boy a present." Needless to say, that wasn't going to work. We went to the office to get another room. We were informed that they were booked solid, there we no other options. I told the clerk that we didn't feel safe and had other options, so we would get a refund and leave. We were told we had to wait for the manager which we did. After waiting nearly 30 minutes, the manager told us she wouldn't refund, but we could call corporate on Monday. 10:45 we headed back to the fairgrounds with several things on our minds...#1 would Betsy and Dena be asleep, #2 what would Pat use for a sleeping bag
in her tent (which she just happened to bring), #3 would Dena and Betsy be asleep, #4 what would Pat use for a sleeping bag, #5 would we waken the neighbors setting up Pat's tent? We got all set up and to sleep came quickly (at least to me) after we finally got to bed.
Saturday morning ...we got a phone call, Greg was headed over. Wow, how fun. Dena tried to talk Bill into coming too........ he was filling the pool....oh well, maybe next time. After lunch, show time! Sully took Winners Dog and Best of Opposite Sex, Alex took Winners bitch and Best of Winners, Susan McAlpin took Best of Breed with Daisy. It was fun, fun, fun!!!! That means all Alex needs is her two majors, Whahoo! On to Rally....well Happy had tried Excellent earlier (enough said on that....off leash, grass....you get the picture). So, for Rally Novice we have Betsy with Oz, Dena with Hunter, Lorin with Greta and me with Hattie. Greta earned her first rally leg! Wahoo for Greta. None of the rest of us qualified. Hunter looked really good..he will have a Rally title and not to far away either. We felt very good about Saturday!
Today we didn't show in Conformation until 1:35, so we Lorin and I headed over to the Rally ring at 11:30 (we were the only ones entered today)...both of us QUALIFIED!!! Whahoo, that was fun. Hattie is 1/3rd of the way and Greta is 2/3rds of the way. Back to the set up to find that Dena had combed out Sully (going through handler withdrawal since she was pulling Alex to allow points to go to someone who can use them), we got changed and headed to the ring.
Pat's boy Tiger took Winners Dog and Best Opposite, Tipsy (aka Bug, aka Meritage, the second grape born) took Winners Bitch and Best of Winners (Wahoo!!! My first home bred with points) and Daisy took BOB.

Kula...NO RESTRICTIONS!

Friday before we left for Spokane, Kula had her final visit to the vet office for her ACL repair. She has officially been "released" from him, saying "no restrictions" .....with the exception of running and playing with the other dogs. We still have to avoid any twisting actions. We are beginning training toward her return to agility. Lots of long walks to build muscle, toughen pads and condition her aerobically....this means one happy dog and that means one happy human!

Spokane and Coeur d'Alene Shows

Betsy, Dena and I had a wonderful time last weekend. Saturday and Sunday we were in Spokane. I drove out and met them in Spokane. Dena drove her motorhome with Betsy along and Happy, Oz, Alex and Hunter. I had Kula (just released by the vet), Hattie, Merl and Sully. Merl provided fodder for his good friend Alex as well as Oz in thier search for AKC conformation, championship points. Hattie was to join Happy and Oz in rally trials. Hunter came so he could practice rally. Kula was along just cuz she is my girlie girl! Our friend Clair Pimley and her dog Scotch live near Spokane and they came out and competed in Rally and regular Obedience each day Scotch and Clair made it look so easy as they earned an RN and CD title! Alex was awarded 7 points (I think I have the count right) and Oz earned one as well! It was so much fun camping with Dena and Betsy. The weather was warm and sunny .... we are ready to do it again...This weekend. Headed to Yakima, this time Pat and Lorin will be along as well. Pictures and a report on that next Monday!

4 Legged Photo

We had this photo taken in honor of Sharon, who made the coats and bow tie from material purchased in Scotland in 1969!
The dogs are Grandma Zoe, daughter, Mary, granddaughter, Padme and grandson, Jimmy.

EARTHDOGGIN AGAIN!!!

Greg, Kona, Hattie and Merl are up on Whidbey Island tonight.
They will be Earthdoggin ...I will go after work tomorrow.
Yes, I said w.o.r.k! Gotta get some pennies to help pay for the play!
Anyway, Greg did some long line training today after he got there. Merl is learning to come from the end of the line. Hattie and Kona were already reliable with that drill.
Hopefully this weekend, Hattie will have her J.E. title. ...

Queen of The Sea

Ch. Cairndale's Sterling Affair, JE CGC, AKA, Zoe is actually a mermaid.
Here she is riding the waves at Gearhart, Oregon,

Backtracking to Sunday, April 26 in Walla Walla

Since Dena isn't going to post this I thought I should document our Sunday in Walla Walla.

First a bit of Saturday history. Dena's daughter McKenzie came to the fairgrounds Saturday with Dena's sister, Shannon, to watch the show. It was a great show, Alex got a point, Oz got a point and Happy got his first Rally Excellent leg!! I should have seen the rest of the day coming after that, huh? After the show we took care of the doggies and headed into Pendleton for a wonderfully delicious steak dinner and some poker machines. Just as in the Casino on Friday, I got bored with loosing so I moved over to the machine next to Dena. To make a real long story short, I walked out of that bar with quite a bit of money, over $150 I think. WOW!! On the way back to the fairgrounds we stopped at a Game Crazy and I spent some of it on DS games... OMG, I'm a grandma, I shouldn't be doing this sort of thing (hehehe).

Dena said that Saturday nigh while I slept we had terrible rain & wind... When I asked her why she didn't wake me she said "you were snoring". I don't know about you people, I don't snore, you're hallucinating!!
Sunday morning when we woke it was nice, not windy like Saturday, just breezy and only little fluffy clouds floating around. We packed up and headed to the ring. Happy had his Excellent run first so we ran down there to do that with the hopes we'd be back in time for Oz to go in. They let Happy honor and then do his run. He didn't pass but I didn't really care, he did alright. Off we ran to the Conformation ring. Dena's sister and her significant other had come today to watch, it was very exciting.

Now, picture this. a large grassy field surrounded by fairground roadways and fair complex buildings and a horse track on the east end sectioned off by 8 foot hedges.. In this grassy field put 5 show rings along the hedge on the east side, add 2 or 3 rings on the west side leaving a large grassy area for walking, observing and chatting in small groups. At the North end of this grassy field is about 10 "pop-up" canopies side by side with expens full of dogs of all sizes, crates, grooming tables, chairs and people. Clear blue sky, not a cloud for miles. Got that picture in your head?

I'm standing facing east, Dena and I are chatting. .There had been some kind of delay, classes hadn't started up as planned after lunch. My back was to the Pop-up canopy city, perhaps 25 feet behind me. Without missing a beat Dena's shifts her attention from my face to straight above my head and says, in a very eerie voice "OH F*&##!!. When I turned there were probably 3 canopies 5' off the ground, moving straight up in the air, people were screaming, there were papers flying straight up and swirling around n the air with the canopies. At one point there were at least 5 canopies airborne, one with it's owner holding on for dear life... it went up maybe 25 feet before he finally let go and fell to the ground. One large blue canopy flew at least 100' in the air, no kidding... 100', flew, legs askew and spinning, over the top of us and was thrown down in the racetrack 75' away. I was holding Oz in my arms and decided the best use of my body was holding the crates down so I sat on Alex's crate. Happy was in his crate watching it all. No big deal for him, he'd experienced Tornado's many times in the Wizard of Oz. My luck was holding out, after it was all done, no one was hurt... it was truly a miracle!! Oz was barking, an eerie sound for him. Marie told me to put Oz down and play with him, he was fine. I can't really tell you what Dena was doing.. holding her dog I'm sure. Vicky Montgomery's puppy, Pub, somehow got tangled in a canopy leg by the ring, it took him quite a bit of time to settle down. During it all our ring steward (wish I could remember her name) threw herself on the table to protect all the items there. The only thing that got away was the judges book. Vicky M. found it in the middle of the horse tract, quite a distance away. As things commenced and the Cairns were ready to enter the ring the judge, bless her heart, said... "Well that was appropriate, Here comes Toto!".

Newest addition to Northwest Paws

I am pleased to announce that we have a new addition to the Northwest Paws family. He is coming to us thanks to Carol Onstad of Scotch Broom Cairns. He will live at my house, owned by Carol, myself and Vicki. We are going to call him Sully. His AKC registered name is Scotch Broom Thistle the Patriot. He is a son of Goren (a Kinloch dog owned by Carol,) and grandson of Oliver. I am very excited to have him join my family pack!

By the way, Goren is littermate to Alex and look how much he looks like her in this picture!

HGTV's Alex and Hunters Groom Room

While Grandma sitting Scout and I watch the HGTV channel often. This is a result of too much "design on a dime" and while it is not "design to sell" the house owner often does the remodel keeping in mind that the viewer should know exactly what the room is used for. Or that is at least what the realtor's will tell you. LOL.
This is our conversion of the basement. Including an couple of art projects to highlight all those ribbons. A great room to groom, relax and pull some hair. Do you see it puppies? Groomers? I am a victim of DYI and Bill is my partner in crime. My dogs & I love it! It's just so happens that the grooming table was not available at the photo shoot, shoot!

Get ready for Agility!!!

Get ready for agility! All invited to Argus in the fall...we will have a party. Heidi is coming up.
Click on the title, it will take you to the Teacup Agility Website.

Earthdog Celebration

Last weekend in Oregon, we celebrated Oregon Trails End Earthdog Clubs 10th anniversary. It was a fun party with a HUGE entry (43 Introduction to Quarry dogs).
5 Masters braces
23 Junior dogs
a bunch of Senior Dogs
Vicki handled Uno (belonging to Barb McNamee) to his Senior title.
I had taken 8 dogs! Yes, I am crazy...even crazier now. Only 7 were doing anything in earthdog. 3 had never been in tests before...
There were over 30 Cairns on site on Saturday, not all involved with the tests, but an awesome turnout of Cairnites!
Because Greg was judging and apprenticing, Kona only got to run in one Senior class. He passed with flying colors and was so happy to get to play. Hattie, who needs one more Junior leg for a title decided this was not to be a title weekend.
None of the Intro dogs were ready for testing either, so we will wait awhile until they are a bit older and try again.
The best thing was that Heidi and Mike came up from Yreka with Ivy, so the entire family was together! She is really pretty and I am excited about who she is becoming. I am most excited with the family she is living with..she is one lucky girl and we are so blessed to have them in our "dog family".

Watch this blog...

for the latest addition to Northwest Paws...here are a couple of hints...
We will call him .....



and "Thank you Carol!"

Nostalgia

I got a wonderful surprise this weekend. I spoke with Val on her way down to the Oregon Trail's End Earthdog Club 10th Anniversary trial, and she said, "guess what I have for you! Stiller!" I was so happy, since I hadn't thought about him a bit since when I tried to get him down for the trial last month.

Stiller was more than my first Earthdog. Stiller was more than my first Cairn, even. He was my first "little dog." Sure, we already had Tally at the time that I met Stiller, but I thought she was just the most exemplary little dog ever, and didn't apply any of the goodness she exhibited to any other short canine. Working Stiller, and RubyTwoShoes (to be technical, Ruby would be the first little dog/Cairn that I loved, but she was around for such a shorter time than Stiller that I think more of him), on rats showed me that little dogs can have every bit of drive that I appreciate so much in dogs. Stiller added little dogs to my list of real dogs.
I also have Stiller (and again, Ruby) to thank for Tally's hunting ability. Of course some of it is natural, and a lot of it came from being raised in a barn with a big always-hunting barn dog, but a lot of it came from all the time we spent up at Pat's house, setting dens for Stiller, with Tally watching through the window, and finally getting her turn at the end. Those practices taught her that hunting happens in a wooden den, too, which prevented her from being one of those dogs that won't play the game because they hunt for real.

So Stiller was down, I ran him in Iron Dog (Master and Senior) both days, and he passed everything. Textbook, textbook runs. Saturday's Master run was of the type that should be filmed. Sunday he honored in the manner of QT- he sat, tied to the stake, still as a little statue, staring at the den opening. When Stella (his bracemate and daughter, who also passed Master today!) was removed from the hole and I unclipped the honor tie from him, Stiller leaped toward the den and said "bark bark groooowl bark!" just like the famous QT does every time.

Tally also had a pass in Master yesterday and Iron Dog today. Her finest moment was in Senior today when they removed the rats and she came out the false entrance. I looked over the tunnel at her and she at me. I said, "Tally come!" Instead of bouncing up out of the entrance and coming overground to me, she ducked her head and went right back down. I heard her scuffling through the tunnel, going over the root, and then she popped out of the entrance at my feet. "You called?" The best part of that through-the-tunnel recall is that she had to choose to make TWO turns to get out the entrance by me- in two places, following the tunnel straight would have run her into dead ends (where the rat used to be and where the bedding was), but she knew how to navigate the tunnel to come out next to me.
Also in exciting news, she earned her first bar today- in both classes, she did enough chewing that she splintered the bars and caused a need for replacement. Our friend Tom, the Masters judge, happily awarded her the broken dowels (which she proudly carried around) along with her ribbons and Iron Dog beads (which I proudly carried around).

Lots of other Paws folks were there and I'll let them post their own results/stories of the weekend.

Update on The Girls!

Mary's girls are now 4 days old.
Mama is very proud of them!

She Fed ME!

Little Spirit enjoyed her first solid meal today, although she continues to be supplemented by her sweet Mama...notice the fashion statement.
Thanks to all who encouraged Mama Vicki!

Spirit is on the Move!

Despite the arrival of 4 little girls in the household, Spirit has not allowed us to ignore her presence,
She is constantly on the go!

4 Girls for Mary!

Mary delivered 4 little girls in the early hours of May 3...exactly one year after her last litter.

Update on Lady Madonna, AKA Mary

Today's x-ray show 4 little Mary/Marty puppies in the oven.
Mary has a waistline of 15" and is weighing in at 18 lbs. 3 oz.
Further updates to follow.
Love, Nanny