Well I’ve been waiting until I had the pictures in order to do a post, but most of you have probably already heard that LIZZIE IS FINISHED! Yay! And I thought it was a really lovely way to do it, too. She was Winners Bitch and Best of Opposite Sex over 2 specials. It was either 4 or 5 points, but need to count to know for sure. The judge, Melanie Williams, had some really lovely things to say about her. I mentioned to her that she had seen Lizzie before, and she got a slightly worried look on her face and asked…”Did I do anything for her then?” I told her that she had put her up over a special for BOB and she laughed, saying “Well at least I’m consistent!”. Indeed.

Melanie put a relatively unknown dog up for BOB, a Harry P son that Sherri Hurst bred. Sherri herself was showing Powell for Lisa, and much to Sherri and Lisa’s horror, Powell hadn’t been exercised before the ring and, well…couldn’t hold it! He peed a river right during his go-around. He did get a Group 2 on Friday though, in front of all the Animal Planet cameras. So look for that to air in October, he looked great and I understand that they interviewed Sherri about him too so there might be some extra features.

Here are some photos that Heidi (thank you!!) snapped while we were in the ring on Saturday. No, my legs aren’t really that splotchy or weird looking…I am going to believe that it was simply the low lighting.

Look at that front
Some other Open Bitches
Winners Dog & Winners Bitch

Her finishing picture. Sigh. I don’t think I’m going to like it that well…we’ll see.

Heidi and I have been in Houston for 2 days. Man is it HOT here…but at least it’s not raining like it did last year! Yesterday was the regional specialty, with supported entries the rest of the days.

Heidi has done quite well with pretty boy Rush, winning Reserve 2 days in a row. She pushed hard for WD today, too. Not too bad for a baby puppy! Even the sweeps judge who for some reason put Rush 3rd of 3 yesterday, came over today and was giving many compliments to Heidi about him. *scratches head* I’m trying to decide if she just didn’t remember him, or…? Heidi however wussed out and didn’t say anything to the judge along the lines of, “Well you did see him yesterday!” LOL

Lizzard has been 2nd in her class of 6 both days. Yesterday the bitch who was 1st ended up going WB. Maybe tomorrow will be our day.

I don’t have software to resize pictures on this computer, but here’s a couple that Heidi snapped in the ring today:

I’d like to wish a slightly belated 10th birthday to our pain-in-the-ass, somehow lovable, barky, opinionated, alpha, brindle boy who started it all. I thought Brady was a one-of-a-kind, until I met his father (Addy, BIS/BISS Am/Can Ch McLea’s Admiral) who was still pulling his owner around at age 12 in the veteran’s ring. If Brady had been a show dog, I have no doubt he’d have done it HIS way too.

I like to think that I’ve learned a lot since Brady came into our lives…some of it good, some of it I’m not so sure. LOL He is still the hardest dog we’ve ever had to train, although others have required work and learning to train in different ways. And he’s still too stubborn and excitable to run agility. Brady is a dog that doesn’t know the meaning of the word “quit”. He would literally work until he dropped, I have no doubt. If any dog exemplifies what I consider to be the heart of a working Cardigan, this dog is it.

Brady is getting pretty grey now, and his coat is getting crazy curly. He’s also blowing undercoat like mad, so he looks a little ragamuffin LOL.

We are dog sitting for Heidi this week, and Jenna has been here to play. I thought it would be nice for Brady to have a new friend to play with, because the house has been pretty quiet since Leo went to live with Julie & family.

Brady and Jenna have played some…but the surprise to me has been how much LIZZIE and Jenna have played. They seriously love each other and have a good frap around the house (thundering herd) at least a couple of times a day. Usually when the kids are trying to go to sleep, of course. Maybe Lizzie misses her pillow more than I thought. Or maybe she’s just a racist and prefers dogs that are the same color she is? LOL

Wednesday, while Dave and I were driving home from lunch, there were many cops and traffic cones set up around what was obviously a spilled load from a semi truck. There were inmates around (one thing I love about Alabama, they never hesitate to use inmate labor for EVERYTHING) picking up boxes and boxes of spilled…girl scout cookies. They were loading them on to a new truck.

I didn’t think much about it until the next day, when I noticed a photo of it in the local paper. The caption on the photo? “A truck dumped a load of expired girl scout cookies that was on the way to a pet food plant…”

Really? Pet food?? Eeeesh. I mean, I guess there probably isn’t anything toxic about stale girl scout cookies. But somehow that still seems…questionable at best. I mean, I don’t give my daughter a pile of cookies for dinner. Why would I give it to my dog? And no, they didn’t specify what pet food plant, of course. I don’t know if it was here locally or if it was on the way out of town. Interesting.

Regarding why you don’t want to wear a short skirt while showing your own dogs.

But just in case one was needed….here you go…

(and no. That is not me. I don’t know who it is!)

Your dog is Madonna! Come on, let’s just face it: We are living in a material world, and Lizzie is a material girl. So go ahead and thank your lucky stars—Lizzie is the one and only Madonna! Always desperately seeking attention, Lizzie is multi-talented and savvy, not afraid to get her paws dirty and experiment with new methods of getting into the groove in order to reach her peeps. She commands respect everywhere she goes, a sophisticated traveler who insists upon the best—and more often than not, she gets what she wants. Appearance is everything for your true-blue diva and while her look may change as often as the Pellegrino in her water bowl does, her commitment to exercise is unwavering. Lizzie’s in tip-top shape, which makes her age in pet years a non-issue. Despite the hard fur and the no-nonsense approach, she’s a softy when it comes to her devoted owner. It’s fair to say that Lizzie is, yes, crazy for you.

All sounds true except the commitment to exercise and being in tip-top shape. ROFL

Lizzie says, “why did you fence me out?? I just want to lick the children to death, as they learn to crawl on the floor.” *sniff*sniff*

And here it is. I’m so thrilled that it’s a great picture! You can see that she’s still not in full coat, as her pants are rather…thin…but still.

Interesting thing is that I think she looks better this year than last year, when she won the class! LOL