I dream of Genie

Well it looked like a good title. I have a visitor here for a bit, Afanasii Belozor Surreptitious JC who is from the litter bred 3 years ago by Rebecca and Tim Neal, myself and our friend Suzanne Liggett. Genie always had a lot of lure interest got her JC, got ASFA certed but Suzanne isn't exactly thrilled with lure coursing so she never made it out. I took her this 4 day weekend I was judging to Powell TN, she got her QC on Friday, ran on Saturday got a point, ran Sunday and Monday and got 2 more SC legs. Hope to get her to some ASFA trials before she eventually goes back to Arkansas .pretty girl was pointed in the ring as a puppy showing in BBE. She is a Neechee granddaughter on her dam's side.

MO high point Taum Sauk Mt our 8th

Will have photos next week on Friday Archie and I visited Taum Sauk Mt in MO, it was our 8th state high point since we started this quest. Very pretty and scenic place ( but not like our Smokies) . We also visited elephant rocks state park in MO and Fort Davidson. We took several photos and those will be up next week. Archie and I did a bit of rock scrambling at elephant rock SP (if you are in the area it is really unique and a beautiful spot for photos.

Also went to a dogshow in Gray Summit, met with my friend Diana Embry and her husband Dwight ( they are always so delightful !) she took home her new puppy Athena and Veenus got a ride with Diana too. Her new owners are picking her up on Monday. Keelo went out to MO to hang out with Diana while his nephew Cipher is here for the next several months showing. Cipher showed like a dream today but didn't get the nod. That's OK. Tory won open class of 3 and lost to the bred by bitch whose owner spent the entire time we were in Winners class when it was time for my dogs individual exam squeaking a squeaker (of course she didn't do this while stacking her dog). Needless to say I was and am still irritated.

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

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Just heard from my friend Susan Van De Water of Del Sol Borzoi that our Tigress (Avalon Tigress in the Dark JC, FCH, GRC, CC ) won her second conformation major today at a show! Wahoo! Thought I'd inflict her photos on ya'll. She is

an open field coursing champion with three takes, a straight racing champion, an ASFA field champion and winner of the Borzoi Club of Greater Atlanta triathlon (conformation match, straight racing and lure coursing) in 2006.

Beale Street in July

I have been to Memphis several times but as often happens if you are showing dogs you don't go to the actual sites that an area may have to offer. Years of doing that have convinced me I need to wake up and do things a bit differently now. Went to Memphis area in July for the Southaven MS dogshows (actually ended up staying in West Memphis AR) so how is that for interstate commerce?

At any rate I'd never seen Beale Street so Archie and I left Tom Lee park and walked up Riverfront the few blocks to get to the Beale intersection. Poof we were there! Very interesting place with music I could stand around and listen to all day. Above you see one of the street bands that the area is famous for. Hey they were really good too. There was also a guy playing in one of the pavilions on the street doing a great job of it.

Mostly though I walked around and noticed signs. Now I LOVE neon and there are some great neon signs like the love, peace and chicken grease sign at Miss Polly's Soul City Cafe.

No bar on Beale is complete without the BIG ASS BEER sign. Hmm?


Rum Boogie Cafe has a great sign compared to the famous Hard Rock Cafe which looks pretty lame by comparison.

Wet Willies' also has a great neon sign. My friend Les I am sure has been here, he's a signmaker so I know he'd appreciate this glasswork.

Ah, the Rendezvous Memphis most famous BBQ spot! Of course Archie and I had to have lunch there. The pork shoulder is to DIE FOR!! YUM!

Archie had a chicken breast sandwich I think.

What could be better than having your photo taken with Elvis on the walk back to your vehicle? Well, a big bronze Elvis anyway. We found this handsome guy standing in a small pavilion on second street I think on our walk back to the van. Oh yeah my doggie Radi did win that day she picked up 1 pt of the 2 she needs to be a champion. Unfortunately she didn't win the next day but we still had fun, met and socialized with friends, ate well and did the tourist thing so it was ALL GOOD!!

Ocala FL

The weekend after the PBR finals I flew down to FL, spent the weekend with my mother (we went to a Vince Gill concert and had too much fun). Anyway on Saturday I judged a supported entry sweeps there at the dogshow. My mother took these photos of me while I was judging. The suit is a cross between midnight and bright navy blue with harem pants, a beaded tank and a jacket with sheer sleeves. It's one my mother picked out, we apparently share a very similar taste in clothing and some other funny quirks like loving peanut butter with coffee and not eating the yellow parts of eggs. The apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Way Cool Weekend or Going to the Dogs

to

Man where to start well first on Friday I drove up to KY and ran Vger and CJ . Vger was 1st in FCH earning a placement towards an LCM2 in case we ever get inspired to head there and CJ was 3rd of 6 to put him only 8 points from his ASFA FCH title. On Saturday I got word from my friend Shirri who was running him for me that he had been 1st of 5 to finish! Yay. His sister had finished her FCH the day before so that is 4 from that litter with the AKC FC and the ASFA FCH title .

Saturday I helped some friends work a race meet, no one with Borzoi showing up so no point in just taking my own dogs there and running against myself since I'm not trying to rank anything. However, the day wasn't wasted as I stopped at the fabulous VF Outlet mall in Calhoun GA on the way home and got some more Easy Spirit shoes AND a couple of awesome blazers and some jeans on sale. Later I got home and went to the Halloween party my vet and his wife had and spent several hours laughing and having fun.

Sunday in Nashville at the fairgrounds (also known as a raceway) I did the very rare trick of me showing a dog ie. Sailor that I coown with my friend Paula. Well he went WD for one point then BOW for a major with me tripping around the ring with him. Even better from a breeder's point of view my girl Tory was WB for her second major shown by my friend Suzanne who is her cobreeder. If that wasn't enough joy for one day I get a phone call from my friend Leonore in NM with Tory's brother Py and hear that he has gone BOB for a 5 point AKC lure coursing major to finish his AKC FC!!! WHOOP WHOOP goes I riding down the road. I am SO thrilled. He is such a good boy, truly the golden boy and not just in color. Above photo by Dan Gauss of Shot On Site is our Tory FC Avalon Victoria Cross SC, FCH in Jan of 2007. Tory has both conformation majors, is open field pointed and has all placements and 200 points towards her LCM. Yes I think she ROCKS.

Back To the Grind

OK so perhaps sometimes I overdo things. For example 10 days after my surgery out came the staples. I had the van PACKED and hit the road from the surgeon's office in Nashville heading to Arkansas, spent the night with a friend took a leisurely sort of drive to TX the next morning ( after walking my dogs that were along for either a reason or just because). So now we're up to Friday and I was headed for McKinney TX where another friend lives. Friday night spent in McKinney and Saturday we are up early for a big adventure on my route to even more adventures. A Rarities dogshow. Now 12 days after surgery I probably really didn't need to be running around a ring with a dog but I felt OK and it turned out to be a nice little sidetrip with the little dog I brought picking up half the points towards a title. That's him, me and the judge in the photo to the right here. Only once did I feel like my "innards" was coming loose.

After the show I drove on down to my friend Sherita's ( whose blog is linked here), took a little over 3 hours and the sun was going down just before I got there so I managed to capture a pretty colorful photo of the last of the light over the Santa Anna mountain which is just north of the little town of Santa Anna that Sherita lives in. Local story is that Gen. Santa Anna camped there when he invaded the US. Like Sherita says though all small TX towns have a local story, they may all have sunsets like this too.