Awakenings

More poetry ...

Awakenings

A meadow rolls in waves of green

Bowing gently in the breeze,

It whispers to the sunshine,

And tells secrets to the trees.

A body parts the tresses

of the dancing grass,

And marks a path of progress

With an homage to its past.

A time and place forgotten

This body did not know,

But sweeping through the field

A memory will grow.

Only in this great wide open,

Does instinct speak to them,

A scent, a breath upon the wind,

Born of Africa again.

Tiger by the Tail

When Weasley was a wee kitten he learned quickly that Ridgebacks have long tails which swish around and act like a play toy. Fortunately the dogs I have are of such fine constitution that his grabby paws and needling teeth didn't bother them much.

He started with Halo and the fun just went from there. Her enduring patience is writ clear on her face. At that time he could barely get his little jaws around her tail.

Now he's almost a year old and the fun never stops. Raimi's tail holds a particular fascination because it's really long unlike Halo's which is shorter and does not arc the same way when she wags it. And yes, I have thought of tying something to the end of Raimi's tail ...

GHAAAARRRGH!

The Road Warrior

This weekend I’m heading off to get Halo in Butte, Montana. Ah Butte … I can’t remember the last time I was there.

Halo has had quite a year of ups and downs. She started it off with a litter, went to live for the summer with Tanja, came home briefly, went to live with Erin, then spent two weeks with Zuli in Vegas and is now back with Erin. This is the last bit of traveling she has to do to get bred and once babies are off to new homes she’ll retire from motherhood.

It seems like such a hassle to leap frog her across the country. I could have AIed her and made life so much simpler but something in me just prefers live cover. I trust it more because the dogs know what they’re doing. Humanity is obsessed with tweaking to ‘improve’ what nature has already perfected. I call it meddling. We were also dealing with unfortunate timing with her due in heat at Christmas; this means no flights for dogs, delayed shipping for semen, reduced hours with vets and it was all a chance I didn’t want to take. Let’s hope Halo and Zuli got it right!

Raimi will be beside himself with glee to see Halo again. He’s done some growing up what with teaching Leeloo the ropes these past few weeks. I’m sure he’ll return to his smothering self once Halo is back. She appreciates smothering less when she’s in whelp so Leeloo will take some of the pressure off.

I’m changing Halo’s food to something called Orijen. I bought the non-fish kind because the fish smell makes me gag. Halo gets really itchy when she’s in whelp and I’m hoping that a grain free diet will make a difference. I think she has a mild grain allergy which is exacerbated when she’s in whelp … pregnant women the world over will probably agree that having a baby sends your body into a roiling hormonal vessel you no longer recognize. I think the same happens with Halo.

So it’s off to Montana tomorrow. Nice and early. I want to drive in the daylight. I sure hope the US Border Guard is as cheerful as always … such a pleasure you guys … always a pleasure.

A Perfect World

A quick up date on the degenerative myelopathy tests for all 19 of Halo's puppies. We had assumed that since a lot of puppies sired by Travis were testing normal that Travis had a high chance of being so himself, but it was simply speculation without the DNA test. Not anymore ...

Both Am. Ch Rivercity's Travlin Man JC and Am. Ch. Primetime Raizuli Never Say Never CD are DNA tested normal which means not only do Invictus puppies out of Halo and by Travis and Zuli never have to be tested for DM as they are normal by parentage, it also means they will never get it.

So speculation turns into fact and later I'm going to buy a lottery ticket. I hit the genetic jackpot with Halo and our choice of stud dogs for her. Not only have they passed all their health tests, they all passed with excellent hips and are DM normal ... the very best possible results you can get.

You could not deliberately start a kennel with better dogs for health, temperament and structure than I have. I owe a lot to Erin of Aegis in Utah and am eternally grateful that in 2004 with a litter out of Kinley due in just 3 weeks she took a chance and offered me a show puppy to bring to Canada ... lucky number 7 indeed.

We are not perfect, we work diligently toward our perception of perfect, but to achieve your vision of a perfect Ridgeback you better bloody start with the best that you can.

One Magic Christmas

I have finally gotten my act together and to post a picture of Karma’s win from this past weekend. This is a real moment of triumph for her after the work we’ve put in to get her to show like we knew she could. She is so pretty. She is SO Halo! Here she is pictured with me, her mom Adine and the judge Michael Woods from Newfoundland who saw past her white feet (!) and recognized her sound movement. Next show is in a few weeks and we hope to continue to improve in attitude and ring presentation. Hooray Karma!

Panic Room

Often I know I do not give Raimi the benefit of brains. It’s a failing which occassionally results in me under-estimating his ability to get into trouble. I assume he will not because it’s beyond his capacity to hatch evil plans. However, the hatching of evil plans does not really require the capacity to do so, it just requires his memory plus fortuitous happenstance.

He had escaped from the dog room two days in a row despite my attempts to prevent it in various ways. He has realized of late that he is very strong. Incredibly strong actually. Strong enough to pretty much smash his way out of or into almost anywhere he wants. So far going through a wall has not occurred to him and I hope it never does.

The third day in a row of escape resulted in something of a debacle for Leeloo. Raimi and Leeloo were in separate areas, Raimi managed to force open the door of his completely enclosed expen and in the process made a gap large enough behind the expen for Leeloo to escape through. This should have been the end of the story with some minor damage which I would have gotten over one day.

But life’s not like that. Leeloo figured out that the bag sitting in the kitchen, filled with 40 pounds of dog food and not yet safely contained in the dog proof container, was made of paper. Likely the actual act of opening the bag took no more than a couple minutes and the consumption of what I now believe to be about 9 cups of dog kibble took just a few minutes more. Chances are the reasons she stopped eating were because a) she ran out of water and b) her tummy started to really hurt.

So now I know what she’ll look like when she’s in whelp in a couple years. At first she threw up fully formed kibble but by the 5th vomit it had become partially digested mush She also drank at least 2 or 3 gallons of water. I’ll bet she was thirsty – all that food going through would have sucked the water right out of her body.

Raimi probably ate a bit of the food but no where near the same amount because he’s not really food motivated like Leeloo and Halo. Or it could be he made himself sick eating at least a pound of jujubes off my coffee table and didn’t feel like chasing it with another few pounds of dog food.

This morning, of course, they were eager to eat the 4 kibbles I gave them. Leeloo bounced around looking for more and I told her no damn way til her system had been reasonably purged. This blonde bombshell has been the most challenging, most interesting, and most fun puppy I’ve ever owned. She amazes me with her stablility, brains and personality at every turn. The Boy … well, I think I’m going to have to invest in some sort of vault …like a panic room for dog containment.

Show Boat

It's mid morning on a Sunday and I feel like I've been put through the wringer. Dog show weekends are exhausting. You stand on concrete for hours, you get up for early ring times, if you have a house guest the dogs and cats are unsettled and no one gets a good night's sleep.

Karma has improved ten-fold in her ring behaviour - she will never love it but does not obviously hate it now. Yesterday she won Winners Bitch and added to her Championship point count. Today she played up in the ring, didn't show as well and was last ... dog shows are so weird! In all it was a good weekend, low stress, good Ridgeback people to chat with and generally a good time despite the early hours!

There was another Ridgeback there named Red, really nice boy, who doesn't much like the ring either. He is a lovely dog who's biggest problem at the shows, like Karma, is in his head. He won Best of Breed yesterday and it was a nice boost for his owners who were getting discouraged and have not had the best of experiences with shows and breeding. I'm really hoping they stick with it despite some of the bad attitudes they've encountered.

It's important to remember that not all dog show people are the same but sadly it only takes one bad apple to ruin the experience for novices and experienced people alike. In fact, that's often the reason people quit going to shows. Sure we all come to win, any one who says "We're just here for fun" is a straight up liar. Winning is fun. Losing is not.

When I show Leeloo I certainly don't expect to win but I don't want to lose either. We will do as well as we do at the same time I am ensuring she is having a positive experience. Will I be happy if she does win? Sure. Will I be angry and storm around if she loses? Well, no because her puppy months are not for Championship pointing, they are for teaching her to like showing, enjoy spending time with me and having a laugh. If she gets points great but if not ... what's the damn hurry?

So slow the hell down, relax, let them be puppies, let them have fun, teach dogs like Karma and Red it's okay to enjoy themselves in the ring despite rough starts. Because a puppy who learns to hate it ... hates it for life.