So Much To Tell, So Little Time . . .

Joan Murphy took this lovely picture of Penny at Chicago. Would have been better had Penny's tail been up a bit more, but she carried it perfectly when moving thank goodness. It must have been what we call "cold tail" a bruised tail that tends to hang limp for a few days. Jess says it looks much better now. Penny was such a good girl and learned so much on our trip. She showed very well for her first weekend in the ring, and worked just as nicely when Karen & Ginger took her back in for Jess. Hope the show win pictures look as good as they appeared to be from ringside.

Argus was an absolute Butthead for Jess the first day, but they got it together for the second and third shows and looked terrific, but all for naught. Judging was so weird. One judge even bragged that although he "might" have made an error or two, his dogs "all matched" at the end. ARGH! Judging is about finding the best dogs, not about finding the dogs with similar faults. It was bad enough that he did that, but worse that he actually bragged about it. To me that shows disrespect for a breed. Very weird.

Many tales from the weekend but no time expand on them. The power outage at the motel - no lights or heat at 5:00 AM when we needed to get ready for the dog show, the incredibly bad roads in Minnesota & Wisconsin, but better in Illinois which says something about the usefulness of tollways, the overcharging at the food stands in McCormick Place - I was overcharged two out of three times, how grateful we were that Purina Pro Plan had an area for exhibitors where you could get excellent coffee & sweet rolls, and sit down to rest away from the crowds, the "unclubby" luncheons in the Chicagoland Dal Club benching area - you were either part of this group, that group or no group, my frustration at not being in the ring, the outstanding quality in most of the groups (wow! did we ever love the Boxer bitch), the intense competition in the Standard Poodle ring, the gorgeous Tibetan Terrier boy (I could own one if he looked like Luigi), the incredible distance between parking & the show rings (advertised as "just a level up" from parking - hah! - they neglected all the hallways and lack of directions), all the vendors, and so it goes. Truly a fun-filled weekend, and on Thursday we can start all over again and leave for St. Louis.