When we were packing everything up at the end of the day, after most people had started their long drives home to Oregon and Utah and Washington and all the other far corners they were driving to, Gustavo got stung in the face by a bee.
Poor little fella. He's kind of a sissy, but I know how much a bee sting hurts. You can shake it off, eventually, but it sure hurts like a sunnuvagun for a while. Goddamn. I yanked the stinger out from his chin, and then proceeded to watch it puff up. Luckily, many dog vets at agility and a couple of my friends patched him up right away. Thanks JD and Holly!
Our last day of the show was pretty ouchy. Some real stingers that I had to walk away from to shake it off. I sure was happy for so many of my friends who were real winners! They done good. Too many wins and championships to keep track of, my agility pals are a talented bunch!
Otterpop, in probably her last Grand Prix final ever, ran great off the start then decided to shut down to zero as she got into the weave poles. It was a nice, flowy course with some challenges, a very Otterpop type course. Weave poles are generally her happy place. So why she stood there, looking so sad when she hit them, I don't know. She just does that and there's never no splaining when she does.
I put my hands on her, which is illegal, but just wanted her to be happy again, like she'd been as we left the start. She was sad. Boy is it heartbreaking to see your dog, all of a sudden, go sad and flat, like they just got some real bad news that stops them in their tracks. She just trickled out of the poles, and I let her, and decided to see if she'd get into gear on the rest of the course.
She did. She ran great. But with an E because of the uncompleted poles.
So I E'd with each dog in each final. If nothing else, I'm consistent.
Gustavo in steeplechase finals. Exciting off course tunnel!
It sure is painful when stuff like that happens. Just smarts like the stinger's still in there, sending the bee juice into your nerves. It took a few minutes to shake that Grand Prix final off, but we did. Pretty much. It just wasn't in our cards to be champions. That thing I sure do want, but sure seems to be squarely out of my reach.
Otterpop in a Standard run where she looks happy so I wanted to put this one here.
The rest of the day, kind of mmmphhh. Made an error with Otterpop in Standard. Goodbye, number 1 in Top Ten. Made a mistake with Gustavo in Snookers, then a different mistake on the same course with the hard to make a mistake with, super trained and super cute Vic. Although it sure was fun to run a big dog again.
Gustavo did have a very fast and very lovely Jumpers run. And we watched so many of our friends succeed. Some of them had things go wrong. Everybody shook it off, at least that I could see. We get back up, get the monkey off our backs, we try again. Because, what else can we do?
7 comments:
I can't take any credit for the chicken in the horse shoe. Rachel made the horse shoe and JD was the chicken stringer! They are the photo op geniuses.
That is a nice way of looking at disapointment Mary and I will think about it that way. But still try to get better.
I think Otterpop is looking at a nice future goal of just running gamblers to see if she can get the MOST. And maybe Gustavo will slowly build up to a little bit more agility! He sure is fun to run with when he is not communing with aliens and ghosties.
I'll get up north for a normal show next year and you can give Vic another go. He had a great time! mia
Mia, I will do BETTER! Especially if it's a course I can walk first! Thanks for letting me run Vic and I hope your leg feels better quickly. Ouch.
Chin up, Sista! You and your dogs are awesome! We aspire to be like you!
Amy and Spur, and two little old black dogs, on the other side of the country.
....from the other side of North America, you and TSD keep us in awe with your heartfelt journeys, epic tales and truly passionate drawings and photos. I know a ribbon would have felt grand but it wouldn't have told as good a story and that would have read like a regular All American Story....
Stingers. I ran my lovely jumpers dog right off course and didn't even know about it until the end of the day. Damn.
Two pinwheels on the jumpers course? I'm sure I did both. Ah. Nope.
Stole my dog's Q, did I. Is sad.
Standard/Steeplechase? Yeah, we're still working on that one.
Oops. Standard is Grand Prix. Sorry.
Post a Comment