Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Peace and (almost) Quiet

The Puppies have almost all gone to their new homes! We hosted a very successful Puppy Party on May 17th, and every new owner got to meet us, and their new fur kids, and each other! Then everyone went off in new directions to begin their new little lives together as new Cardi-families!

We still have the two we are keeping here: Polly, who is now Carrie, and who will be registered as Xtacee Lessons Learned- and Bobby, who is now FES, and who will be registered as Xtacee Foreign Exchange Student. We are also taking care of Wanda, who is now being called Tovah, for her new owners, for a few weeks, as one of her new owners just had foot surgery and is not up for a new, rambunctious baby in the house just yet.

It's very quiet in the house (despite the contractors and the 7 adult Cardigans and 2 adult Danes~ and Achilles) with the rest of the puppies gone, and I am enjoying it!

Lisa and I took off for a Memorial Day Weekend visit in Pittsburgh with her mother and three days of dog shows! Sera was BOB two out of the three days- even dead out of coat-and brought home a healthy Group III one day- so I was very happy with that! We showed the Dragoon all three days, and each day he was better on the table and on lead- by Monday he actually looked like a little show dog- so I do think, with weight and conditioning, he will do very well. He has a lot of breed type and such a beautiful head: he just needs to grow into himself! Oh-0 and learn to move forward with some degree of grace and purpose!

We don't have any dog shows planned for a few weeks; it seems so strange to not be running off every weekend! But I am certainly busy enough! Bugsy goes to Advanced Rally Training class every Tuesday night; Jitterbug goes to the Performance Puppy Training class on Wednesday nights, and then Thursday nights Sera and Bugsy head to New Jersey for our Agility classes! I am hoping to start Herding Training with Bugsy and Sera soon- Janet has Saturday classes, and since we are not showing very much, I think we can start the classes now.

And work on the new kennel room and den continues- albeit at a snails pace, since we have had so much rain! I am overly anxious to get this all done! I have waited so long to have 'my space' and now I want it finished!!

Till next time...

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Leaving On A Jet Plane

I love to travel- and love to Fly to my destination (although I don't LOVE the airline restrictions post 9/11) I am really looking forward to flying to Nebraska tomorrow morning-

Of course, the #1 reason I am excited is that I get to see my daughter, Jessica, and my darling grandaughter, Amera-- who I have not seen in over a year! It really is horrible having someone that important in my life, that far away!

And, I am really looking forward to getting away-- from the construction; the day-to-day routine- yes- even the puppies!

Hubby dearest just came back from 7 days in Myrtle Beach playing golf- while I stayed home and prepped the new kennel for the contractors, and took care of the 17 dogs! Of couse, because of the upcoming construction- everyone is out of their normal "houses" and back into crates and in unusual places and out of their routines- so "running dogs" has become a part time job in itself!

The babies are now 7 weeks old- and 7 Cardi puppies at 7 weeks is-- well-- a lot of puppy poop- and a lot of noise- and a lot of feedings- and a lot of time!

Bugsy, Sera and Jitterbug are going full bore with training these days- Rally, Agility, Herding and Obedience; on top of a few dogs shows on the weekend and a judging assignment thrown in -- JUST to keep me out of trouble!

Add to that, the regular house work... I haven't had any time to moun the loss of my employment all that much-- or look for anything else while Gus was out of town.

As I said to my mother the other day, I think it was Gods Will that I was laid off before Gus took his golfing vacation- if I had tried to get through that week, and worked full time- I probably would have lost my sanity!

Although there are those that would argue...

Anyway-- to tomorrow I board a west bound flight for Denver, then a 4 hour drive to North Platte, NE, where I get to spend 5 days with Jessica, Amera and my sons, James and Rich, my Mom and my husband-- Oh-- and my Ex-- who I haven't seen since the kids were in junior high. And I get to RELAX

I can't wait!

But- in the meantime- I have to pack