Yasashiikuma

This is going to be a pretty picture heavy post as a little bit of a catch up.

Last week before I left for Raleigh, I had a photo session done with Jonathan Cowper to get a photo for an ad I want to do.  As is usual I had a very hard time selecting the picture I want to use – it was a hot and sunny day (85F in March is NOT normal for us!!), so Dragoon was proudly showing off his tongue.   These are the ones I finally ended up with:

The other pictures I wanted to share were those of my winners when I judged last weekend.  These aren’t the official photos, obviously, but I did have some wonderful dogs to select from.

Best in Sweepstakes - Foothill's Handy Man

Best of Opposite in Sweeps - CADNOCLUN'S MAGNOLIA AFTER DARK

Best in Veteran Sweeps - GCH Telltail T for Two

Today’s post is all news about red dogs.

Rachel and Draco

Over in Holland, Draco has started his show career with a bang! On March 3, at the International Dog Show in Groningen he earned his first full CC. On March 18 he won Best of Breed at the International show in Hazerswoude Dorp, and on the 26th, at the French Corgi club show he was best male and best Junior under UK judge Fran Fricker.   A very nice start for Rachel and Draco!  I love his expression, he looks so much like his mama Dolly, in the face.

As hard as it was to place her anywhere, the perfect home came along for Jaime.   She has gone to live with Rolf and Karen in Gravenhurst.   She is somewhere where she can be loved and spoiled and have 24/7/365 attention, as she is home with Karen during the day, and will travel with them on vacations.   Her new companion is a cat that she has already bonded with, and she will have grandchildren to play with.   A perfect situation for her, even if he absence leaves a hole here.  Hopefully, there will be lots of visits since she isn’t too far away!

Tomorrow I get to judge puppy and veteran sweepstakes in Raleigh.   Since I hadn’t been to visit Lynn & Ward in North Carolina, I decided to add a couple of extra days and add a little bit of vacation to the trip.

So, true to form, there had to a challenge to the travel plans.  The original plan:

10:24 – 11:37 – Buffalo to Washington, Dulles

12:12 – 1:17  – Washington to Raleigh

Care to guess what happened?

The flight out of Buffalo was delayed because the ground crew had a problem with hydro power, delaying the boarding.    The de-planing was delayed because they needed to get a ramp for a wheel-chair bound passenger, instead of the regular stairs.   So even though I was first off the plane, and bolted for the connection, I was too late (along with all of the other Raleigh bound passengers) and they would not let us on board.

So, United booked us all onto the next Raleigh bound flight at 3:17, in another terminal which required multiple elevators, lots of walking and a train to get to.  All of us who were delayed congregated to commisserate and wait for the flight….which was delayed till 5:15, then 5:25, then 5:45….and eventually we were boarded and had an uneventful flight to Raleigh.   Honestly, these air travel delays are starting to get a little old!!

So we arrived in Raleigh without incident and I actually managed to find Lynn & Ward without trouble.  We had a very nice Mexican dinner (down here there never seems to be a problem with quantities!!) and cam back to the house to crash.

Today we headed out on a driving tour of the area.  Turns out the “big river” I thought I saw from the air, is actually a big lake.  We went up to Lexington to a highly rated barbecue place.   I thought this sign on the door was hilarious – we would NEVER see something like this in Canada:

The lunch, we all agreed, was “okay” – it was definitely edible, and plentiful, but not worth the drive.  It was still a nice drive and I got to see the area and lots of plants.  I learned what wisteria actually looks like, saw my first mstletoe, and kudzu.  After lunch we went on the hunt for ice cream.   A trip to where they expected to find a good ice cream place didn’t end up in the anticipated ice cream, but I got a shot of this neat wall around a construction site:

I thought that was much nicer than the hand-bill plastered “POST NO BILLS” construction walls I am used to seeing    The plaza also had some beautiful trees and this smelling flowering crabapple apple had the nicest scent - it would have been nice to bottle it.

Shortly afterwards we managed to find a wonderful smelling chocolate and ice cream store where we could get our much anticipated treat.

And this is the sign of good ice cream!!

He’s a little greyer, a little slower, but Hunter is still doing very well at 16!   I’m glad spring has been early this year, so there is less worry about him dealing with the snow and ice.   His birthday present should also be arriving today or tomorrow – a ramp so he can get on and off the back deck by himself without doing what I call his “leap of faith”- jumping blindly into mid-air and hoping the ground isn’t too far away.  I won’t have to worry about him doing himself an injury when I’m not there to watch him.

Happy birthday old man from me and all of your kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids.