Puppy Fix Soon . . .

Whew, just spend an hour on line making reservations to fly to Florida the first weekend in November. Want to see the Argus/Sugar pups "in person. Two bitches and one dog puppy really catch my eye. I'll add some pictures of them soon, as a photographer visited Janey and the babies last weekend.

Argus & I have an appointment at IGHAH in an hour, as it is finally time to send a "shipment" off for Tess C. Hope the repeat breeding produces something as nice as it did last time. Little Tia is a beauty. Can't wait to see her at the National next year.

No updates from Paula about Tess P. who is due in 3 weeks. She should be showing now, but is very hard-bodied and fit. The last 3 weeks is when the unborn pups really start to grow. Hoping for black girls, but I suppose we will get liver boys and I will fall in love with one.

Jess & Penny flew off to Atlanta for the Specialty, without a hitch. Strange isn't it, that a crate that was not large enough to fly Delta Dash a month ago, is perfectly OK for flying as excess baggage? The AR people must not have infiltrated the ticket counters yet! Flying with dogs is really a crap shoot.

Curly

Ah, the smell of a new perm.  Nothing quite like it.  Thank goodness!  I remember getting home perms as a child.  Rods so tight they made my eyes bug out, nasty stinging perm solution that ran down my forehead and into my eyes that  couldn't close, and the resulting mass of kinky gummy curls that no one could even get a comb through.  The smell that lingered for days. . .

Having been born with super fine, amazingly straight, and overly defiant hair, and not very much of it, I've had more than my share of perms over the years.  Unfortunately, I inherited my mother's hair, what I refer to as "crappy hair".  Thin, fine & difficult.  I remember HER mother having the same hair, although being confined in those little pin curls every night, it's understandable that her hair was in rebellion.  Mom's father had very little of the stuff, so it's hard to say what his was like.

Dad's family had wonderful hair, thick, wavy, but the kind that grays early.  Dad wore crew cuts for many years and hated it when his hair got long enough to even touch his ears.  Although the pictures in my album show him as a teen with wonderful wavy hair, sometime in his early working life he decide to make a change to ultra short.  Later in life he grew it out again, and until his death he took pride in his thick, wavy beautiful gray hair - just like his parents who passed on the good hair genes.

So dad got two doses of "good hair genes", but how did my daughter Jess inherit Grandpa's hair?  Her father has a minimal amount of hair (although his brother once had a fabulous mane of thick red hair, so there was some good hair in the family).  Jess ended up with hair so thick that it needs to be "thinned" when it is cut.  Outrageous!  Not fair!

And now my computer has been highjacked by Trend Antivirus and it won't let me do anything else with this blog.  Who owns the damned computer anyway?   I sometimes wonder if it's controlled by aliens.

Dog Show Fix

Argus is smiling - he got to go to a dog show!

Nope not fixed dog show, but dog show fix.  Argus & I have been sitting home for six weeks while he recovers from an injury, or injuries.  We've done four vet visits, x-rays and exams, controlled walking, some treadmilling, Theraball work, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, and Arthisoothe Gold.  We've also changed Argie's routine so that Ron no longer sends Argus out - he has trouble controlling the dogs when they see a squirrel in the yard so they tend to race across the deck slipping and sliding, and fling themselves off the deck.  We've had some minor injuries in the past, so we've made some changes here.  I also installed a "baffle" at the bottom of the deck steps so the dogs have to slow down before racing to the dog yard.

After the last vet visit which included acupuncture, Argus was no longer lifting up his right rear leg when he stopped.  He's been doing that occasionally all summer, but it got much worse in late August, and we could not find the reason.  Finally Dr. A tried acupuncture down his spine and in certain places on that hip.  He has not held that foot up since then, and his topline looks better too.  Whatever it takes!  Magic, even!

So yesterday we gave it a try and drove down to Mason City to show to a judge we have never even seen before.  Not sure what made me enter the show a month ago, wishful thinking I guess.  I take this seriously and try to think positive.  I KNOW my dog is good, and I just hoped that his issues were treatable.   Even after 6 weeks off he was still ranked #6 in Group points and #3 in breed points, despite being shown far less than most of the others, who are with professional handlers and often shown every weekend.  I spent a lot of time "loosening" him up before we showed and he felt great in the breed and wagged his tail furiously as the judge - he was obviously glad to be back.  Another good performance in the group, and when we were "pulled" I was pleased to have made the cut.  When she pointed to us for FIRST, I knew all the work had paid off.