I Ran Away...

Hi all, I hope everyone is doing well. 

Sorry, I've not been around much lately. 

Not much has been happening. 

Just more therapy & doc appointments. I have two more therapy sessions this week & a doc appointment on Wednesday to see where we go from there. Not healing so fast this time around & it's bringing on other complications to my poor beaten body! Good news though, nothing life threatening. My heart goes out to those that really have serious ailments. Life can be hard. 

But with not being able to get out much & such, it still works on your mind & puts you in a black space. A space that I fight from time to time not to go visit! Depression isn't fun. 

So, I thought I'd test myself & enter a dog show! I've not been to one since March of this year. At that show, I decided I could not run anymore until I had my surgery. It was just too painful & difficult. So had the surgery & decided I'd test myself in the ring this weekend. Actually, the ring wasn't bad. But I'm showing Birdie who is easy to show & the ring was not big, so it was no challenge. When I'm showing, I don't focus on anything except presenting my dogs to the best of our abilities. So any pain or anything goes on the wayside of my mind anyhow. Having said that, I experienced no pain. In the ring. 

Outside the ring, at the RV, walking all the dogs, walking to the building, doing all the RV related stuff, etc, I had pain. And bad pain. The kind that doesn't let you sleep. Last night was much better as I had nothing pending today, so I was able to take my strong pain med & sleep with a heating pad, so that helped. I actually got some good sleep for a change! 

I left on Friday, the show was only about an hour away. It hurt to drive, but I managed. Pushing that pedal is still a bit hard on the foot. I feel a difference in vehicles too. Fords hurt me more as I have to push the pedal harder & it's placed differently. On my Dodge van, it's easier to drive. But the motorhome is a Ford & that's what I took. Us fulltime  RVers don't leave our houses at home y'know! 

We won 2  second placements, so no championship for Birdie at this show. Oh well, she'll get it. She only needs one more point to finish. 

Weather wasn't the best either. Hot & humid on Friday & Saturday. I ran my generator a lot for the a/c. Saturday night, the cold front came through, so it was much better! Even though it rained for awhile, it stopped & turned very pleasant. 

Downside, the dogs picked up some bug, so now some of them are under the weather :-(  Hope it passes quickly! 

OK, now to try to catch up with ya'll! I've missed everyone. 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~ 

Ft Worth Texas, Dog shows & Friendship

Welcome Greytlady11 -- glad to have you along! Does your name suggest you have greyhounds?

I've not really had much time to blog the past several days. Have been very busy with friends, this is the first time I've been able to boot up my computer since I left Southeast Texas! 

Now I'm in North Texas, but I plan on returning back to the Southeast Texas area tomorrow. 

I'm at my friend Pam's. 

She has a wonderful place in Euless, Tx on 5 acres of land. It's great here! 

Pam also has & exhibits Saluki dogs, so we have a lot in common. It was years ago when she got her first show dog, a beautiful black & tan colored female Afghan Hound was when we met.

We've been friends since. I'm parked in her driveway while we did errands (including the last post on laundry!). We did 3 days of dog shows, it was a nice time.

My sick friend, Linda that I came to visit with has had it pretty rough. I had a really nice visit with her on Thursday, we took her in for her radiation treatments. While she was getting her treatments, Pam & I had lunch in the hospital cafeteria. I had no idea that they could actually have good food there! Had roasted salmon, mac&cheese & green beans. It was good. 

One of the valet parkers is an artist. He did this amazing painting on the whiteboard. He changes it out each month with a new painting. Seems a shame that it gets erased monthly! 

Linda also has Salukis & also shows them. She hasn't been able to show herself the past few years, but others have been able to show her dogs for her. She used to have a lovely girl from one of my breedings of the past. She's a great home & gave her a wonderful life into Micah's old age.
Linda has cancer, but we're all hoping & praying she can beat this! This is her 4th bout of this dreaded disease. Her's in in her neck. It just doesn't seem fair does it?

She was released from the hospital last Tuesday. I got here on Wednesday & was able to visit with her on Thursday & she came out to the dog show on Friday. Her puppy, Manitou was being exhibited by a handler, he's such a cutie! The puppy that is ;-) 

 This is Manitou, he's in the 9-12 puppy male class. 

Below are typical grooming areas at indoor shows. You can see the show rings on the bottom picture, where the white fencing is. We show the dogs on non-slip mats in the rings. 

 The shows were held in Fort Worth, Texas. What a fascinating city Ft Worth is, but I didn't have my camera in hand when we drove around the city looking for certain places. But I did manage a cell phone pic of the court house as we were driving up the road that actually passes by it. But it looks like you are going to drive directly in it when approaching! 

 Isn't it cool how the camera caught the sky colors?

Birdie was exhibited two of the days. She won her class, which was bred by exhibitor both days, but didn't get the ultimate win for the points! Oh well, at least she won Best Bred By at the specialty! 

Unfortunately, a damper was place upon us on Saturday & Sunday as Linda was admitted back into the hospital. We were really scared, as she was placed in ICU. Fortunately, she is improving & may go home tomorrow! So we plan on visiting her tonight & if she is improving, then I need to head back to Houston. I'm so very glad I made this trip. It's always good to reconnect with good friends. Treasure those you love,  you never know. 

And I got to make a new friend, so that's always good too! 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~
 

Dog gone weekend

Hi, I Hope all is well with everyone.

I took Birdie out to a local dog show this weekend. Normally, I'd load everyone in the RV and off we'd go.

But the show was only about 20 mins away so we jumped in the van and off we went.

Yesterday wasn't great. She was just too full of herself and was just too silly, so only a 2nd place for her.

Today, she showed MUCH better. She won her class, but did  not bring home the points. Oh well, at least she performed well.

Below are pix of her relaxing ringside.

Blogger and my phone are having issues tonight..grrrr

so I'll cut tonights post short.

I should have walked around to take some pics of the amazing rigs at the show, but I tried to curtail my walking to a minium due to my foot and wearing the foot brace.

I'll have to do that in a future post.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels and respect your neighbor.~

Dog Match + Sunset

Hi, hope all is well with everyone.

Today, I've not done much of anything. But I did have a fridge scare!

My fridge is fairly new. It's a Norcold N641.

I got a drink out this morning & noticed that it had a lot of condensation on it.

Checked the freezer, the back of it was totally frosted over with a heavy sheet of ice.

Uh oh, my bad.

So I took stuff out of the freezer & took it into the freezer in my friend's house.

Put the ice packs that I keep in my freezer & placed them in the fridge.

Fridge was around 42 degrees. Fortunately, I really don't have anything in it that it would ruin, but still, we all need a good running fridge at proper temps!

So I defrosted the freezer, then switched the fridge over to LP to be sure it wasn't some electrical issue. Started the fridge back up. Freezer is now back to the proper temps, the fridge is still running  a little warm, but I've not given it enough hours yet. So hopefully, it's only because I let the freezer build up too much for the fridge to function properly. I hope that's all it is!!

To clarify from the last post, I do not have any new leaks. The wall damages are from an old leak. But I did leave the windows open the other day & it poured rain. I didn't know because I wasn't at the RV at the time, so the rain getting in, combined with the old damage, probably caused my eye to see the mess it all made. Always something! I hate it when I leave windows open, then the skies break loose.
:-( 

Yesterday, I mowed about an acre & half at my friends house -- riding mower of course.
Then took an allergy pill to be on the safe side.

Then my faux daughter & I went to a dog match. She was judging. We pretend we're mother & daughter sometimes because  a judge thought she was my daughter at a real dog show. So we joke about it. In fact, someone asked us yesterday if we were related, so we got a laugh out of it. I'm glad she's not because she's in college right now & I don't want to foot that bill!! Ha!

So here's some pics of her judging at the match:

 

2 Basenjis in their class

A little black & tan longhaired Dachshund...note that the little legs dissapear in the grass!

 

And without further adieu, last nights sunset - beautiful!!

 

 

 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Wasted but some good news!

I am wasted.

Got up this morning after about 4 hours of sleep.

I's tired. I's real tired.

But I have some fun news! I am going on a road trip. FINALLY, a real road trip! Yipeeeeeeeeeee Yay Yo!! Me. All by myselfs with my doggies & kitties. Yay!

Talked to the docs office yesterday. I'm still pending. I'm like a file in the government file cabinet. They put me there. To forget about for 30 days at a time. The docs office staff pokes them. Wakes them up. They yawn & go back to sleep. Leaving me pending in that file. Oh fun. So, I told my doctors office I've not been anywhere in ages. I'm going nuts here. Sitting in the same old driveway day after day. Taking care of other people & their animals. Along with mine of course, but for awhile, I just want life to be for me & my little 4 legged kiddos.

I feel like this right now....

So? What did I do?

I entered the Saluki Nationals! That's a big fat specialty specifically for Salukis. I've even won it before!
That was fun. So it's in Missouri. I'm giving myself a week to get there. Normally, I'd be there in 2.5 days, but with the foot, I'm taking it easy along the way. Plan to enjoy some state parks & mentally detoxing. Will do the same on the return trip as well. Pooey on everything else for now! I'll get to Pa eventually, but can't go that far till all this medical mess is over.

I plan on leaving on the 25th, which will be here before I know it. I have a lot to do. Still have to find a place to do a tune up on Ellie & do something about her starter too. She likes to tease me now, by not starting, not starting, not starting, then she starts! But I have fears that she won't want to wake up while I'm traveling. That would not be a good thing.
Today, I was cleaning out my van, then decided to run over the the optomitrist to get new eyeballs. I'm glad I got that over. What's with procrastination anyhow? I'm really bad good at that. I still need to find a place with climate controlled storage too so I can get all my stuff out of my van & into there instead. I'll feel better about that.

Soooo soon, I will be like this again!

This is a typical dog show set up. At the nationals though, we are there for a week, so we prepare with more stuff to keep the dogs comfortable. This photo was just for a 2 day show.

 I can't wait!

Too bad I'll have to turn around & return back here though. But I have to still follow protocol. Geez, I'm so tired, I fell asleep while posting this. I think I need a little nap. Later ya'll! Hope your day is going well.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

A Feather through my screen door & Bird of a Feather

Hi everyone, hope ya'll had a really good weekend. I went to a dog show - yay - more about that in a bit.


First of all, yes, a Feather DID go through my screen door!


And ripped out the Screen!


Yep, you read that right.

And the Feather also broke a part of the frame.


But I was able to fix it.


Fortunately.


Now that you think I've gone over the edge, the cliff, the wall, the fence...whatever it is that one goes over.


Well I have.

But that's not what happened.


Here is the Feather:

::::sigh::::

Here is a video on how to fix your screen door if she ever decides to enter your rig upon the same manner too:

Now for Bird of a Feather -- that's her daughter!! Who did the same thing last fall...what's with these girls!?  Actually, it's ReignBeau's Bird of a Feather, SC

This is a picture of Birdie from last year. She has longer ears now & looks more like an adult now. But my current pics of her aren't very good.

What we did this weekend:

Ellie ate up the dogs & myself & we went to a dog show! Yipee, a trip out! Finally! Our first trip out camping since the damages in November. 4.5 months later. Sure felt good to be out. And although Ellie ate us, she let us escape.  Sometimes. But then she'd eat us back up again. In fact, we're back in her right now! I digress.

This is also my first trip out as an exhibitor (hey, not that kind of exhibitor!) since my surgery four months ago! It felt so good to be back out in the ring again with a dog! I only showed Birdie in the Bred By Exhibitor class. First day, she won 3rd place out of 3 in her class. Oh well, that day didn't go so well. She did not show very well & actually deserved that placement.

Next day was way better! She won BEST OF BREED!! Yay! So that gave her another necessary major towards her championship, so she has what she needs major wise now. I think I'll hold off on showing her now till I get up east & show her some there at their great outdoor shows.

She beat 4 Champions for that win, including the Best Of Breed Westminster Saluki winner in this years Westminster event. I'm very proud of her! Ellie ate her back up.

I wish I had some ring pictures to share of us in the ring or any dogs in the ring. I did not take my camera inside, so I don't have any pics to share. But I do have pics to share of RV's & such out in the parking lot.

Where we parked, it was in the 2nd parking lot in the back 40's. I always park back there. It's much more private & quiet. I don't like parking really close to the other rigs in the first parking lot. It's crowded  & fumy. Too many generators running in a close vacinity. I like it when I can park where I still get the camping experience for myself & my dogs. So I park near the grass so we can take a lot of walks in the grass & exercise.

Here are some of the other rigs in the parking lot. Most of our shows here are total boondocking, so generators are a must. Especially in Texas. It was warm enough to run the gennys & a/c's here.

**click on each photo for larger images**

You will see rigs of every type at a dog show. The travel trailer belongs to a friend that is a professional handler. She lives in her TT fulltime & travels everywhere each weekend for shows.

I think the dog logo in this van is an Irish Setter. Not positive, but it looks enough like one to be one.

I used my zoom on my camera to catch these cute little Lhasa Apsos at play.

So there's your outdoor tour of RVing at a dog show!

Hope everyone enjoyed it.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~