Ziggy

Ziggy ran today and was 2nd of 4 so he has 2 of his placements now and 54 of the required 100 points. The photo was taken by Umarapiti. Ziggy is in the blue blanket at the top. The red dog is Fox who managed to behave and qualify although he didn't get points on Friday, and at the bottom is Cholla who ran well enough on Sunday and behaved thank goodness and qualified for his first 4 ASFA points. All went well

Last weekend

went well, Ziggy ran alone got 4 more ASFA pts and experience on the lure alone last Saturday,

Yesterday, 11/27 he ran at the MAWA trial that was the day before the regional (91 dogs ran) and was 3rd of 5 after 2 runoffs so now he is up to 42 pts and one first. His prelim today was only so so but he ran hard and clean which is always a worry with young Borzoi. Fox got his first field trial experience yesterday too and ran clean so for that we are very very thankful!

Just discovered a truly dreadful website. People of Walmart , oh MY GOD like a train wreck you don't want to look but you can't look away.

Headed Out This Morning

Hoping for good weather, headed to Cartersville for an ASFA trial with Ziggy dog. Hope he behaves. I always worry until they get out of open and then sometimes after that. Had a pleasant surprise last weekend when he picked up 28 points and a first at his first trial.

Two New Horse Paintings

Some of those fancy Gypsy

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More new paintings

The only thing to do when everyone is going crazy is what relaxes you which is painting for me. Here are four new ones. One I call Old Town Pueblo, Sorrel in the morning ( maybe I'll paint some more horses), and two on 5x 7 inch panels, Big Bend TX and spring in NM

Such Furor

My God you would think we were sacrificing virgins on Main Street to read the heated posts that have erupted since ASFA accepted Silken Windhounds to run in Limited Stakes ( an exhibition only status stake) . Sure they did start out as Borzoi crossed to small lurchers but 5 generations later of DNA typing and breeding one to the other you would think that this would be a moot point. No one is trying to replace any breed with them, no one is saying they are an ancient breed, only that hey we'd like to bring them out and pay the money and let them run and then go home with them. Other than breeding type to type and DNAing every single dog used in breeding, I cannot imagine what other requirements would really be needed to insure a registry is "secure". If I were a drinker, I think I'd be doing that.

Two New Paintings

A "lone bull" and my interpretation of White Sands, NM

Wahoo! Stryx wins a major!

Heard that Stryx (Avalon Valkyrie Stryx O' Pendragon JC, FCH) pictured here won her first major yesterday in Springfield MO under sighthound breeder judge Charles Trotter owner handled by her breeder Debb Meyer. I am SO proud of both of them. Stryx' sire is our DC Avalon Kilimanjaro Delsol SC,RN,LCM3,SGRC and her dam is CH Avalon Irkalla of Davidoff. She is a cute little (28 inch) self mahogany brindle and now needs a 3 pt major and 2 singles to finish. Her brother Syrus finished in the ring about a month ago and is ASFA pointed as well. Thanks to Rebecca Neal for this lovely photo

Make Lemons of Lemonade

Well my PBR weekend got blown out of the water but instead of being glum, I decided to make the best of it. Went to work Thursday got a lot accomplished and scheduled new projects for November and December. Friday I groomed some of the critters, cleaned house some, took off my trash, the usual array of fun. Had a great pork tenderloin ( marinated with garlic and pepper) in the freezer so thawed it and invited Archie over for dinner. Tasty O.

Saturday morning we got up took a 2 mile walk with Zee dog and Vger in preparation for my upcoming trip to NM the first week in January (hopefully) .Then we thought we'd go shopping and did. Found some cool bargains, and actually got to climb a mobile rock wall around 25 feet high that was in front of a store having a promotion ( it had a self belayer) then came home found one of my critters (Cholla) had an injury on inside of his right front leg so cleaned it and gave him a shot of long acting penicillin hoping to set him right.

We will be doing the rock wall thing again, that was way fun. The people there seemed pretty excited to see two middle aged people do it as the only ones previously in line were small children and college kids.

Unfortunately this morning (Sunday) I got ready for church headed out the door and found Cholla hopping around on three legs so the leg isn't better looks like he goes to the vet tomorrow, will have to leave work early.

Jon Daily rocks!

Oh my God this is SPOT ON satire. Would love to see Glen Beck's response

The Decisions of a Dog Breeder

As you progress through any hobby, hopefully if you stay involved you get "better" in some way at your hobby. For me the consuming hobby since 1985 has been Borzoi. When I first got one that year, I didn't think about breeding the breed but in 1991, I bred my first litter of one puppy. Well, you only need one if its a good one. Barney was that. He was my first homebred champion and field champion, a Best in Field winner and winner of the Borzoi Club of America triathlon in 1995. He set the bar pretty high both for any dogs that would follow and for me I think as a breeder. Wrong pedigree he shouldn't have run, it shouldn't have been a good combination,I shouldn't have been able to do the things that I (a perpetual peon in the dog fancy)did with him. He was the one that taught me a lot, like YOU CAN TOO do that but YOU WILL NEVER DO IT if you don't show up and try.

The longer you live the more you realize you don't know about some things, and the more you realize you don't have to know everything, you just have to know the difference. There is very seldom only one "right" way to do things although many people want to believe that and not only believe it but they want to sell that bill of goods as a fact. Not me, I am nothing if not a believer in a good bit of laissez se faire in others day to day lives. Mother Theresa had a great quote, I believe it goes something like this, "Judging others makes you too busy to love them." I think the second option is the better one.