Five Years and Still Tears

Am/Can Ch Laureate Search Party

January 25, 1989 - September 27, 2004

Fall is a beautiful season, but for us it is a bit melancholy to watch the leaves turn...it brings to mind our most treasured friends who are no longer with us. Even as I write this, I am brought to tears; the special ones in your life have a way of doing that. Hannah was from our first litter, and along with her sister Sparkle shared our lives for nearly 16 years.

Hannah had a doll face that always had a smile; her ears where always beautiful, and I don't think she had the ability to put them back. They were always alert and even if she looked skyward, they tipped perfectly. She finished both Championship titles with ease. Her Canadian championship was won in one weekend; her first shows as an adult. In the U.S. she finished quickly winning majors in tough New England circuits. We showed her only one weekend after that; we couldn't bring ourselves to have anyone judge her, because to us, she was perfect.

After Hannah and then two weeks later, her sister Sparkle's passing, Pete and I dealt with our grief by planting trees. We dug holes and planted, dug and planted until we couldn't dig another hole. When we were done we went around to look at all the trees and shrubs and we counted how many we had planted. Little did we realize that we had planted a tree for every year they were alive. One of the varieties we planted was the amur maple in memory of a wonderful photo shoot we had of the girls when they were 13 years old. This is just one of the beautiful shots. To view a few more you can see her page here.

Out Back

Early morning by the creek. Front and back are a bit confusing with our house. This is the view from the balcony at the back of the house, but it is angled towards the road.

We call this the back 40. At the far end it is 2,000 feet from the road. So it is out back too!

Today is actually the 6th anniversary of us taking possession of the house. Remember in the last posting I said they found wire? This was all buried in the weeds which was very dangerous had the dogs gotten in there. Pete brought all this to the salvage yard, a trip he's made many times in six years.

Meanwhile at the front of the house, a pesky red squirrel was helping himself to all the sunflower seeds in the bird feeder. The package this feeder came in said it was squirrel proof...don't know how it is supposed to work; maybe only big fat squirrels can't get in.

So I took down the feeder and this guy went a bit wild wondering where it went.

Down here maybe?

Hmm...this doesn't look right!

Have to pick up the seeds on the ground then...

(While red squirrels are beautiful animals, we don't encourage them around our home. They are very destructive and will chew through the wood of our house to build their nests.)

Making Hay While The Sun Shines

We were lucky to get our neighbour, Ernie to come and hay the field just behind the dog yard. Yesterday he twirled the cuttings into rows. I don't know what the technical term is for that.

Morning dew
Then this afternoon he came back with his baler to roll up the hay. It is great to get this off the field. Unfortunately, the majority of our fields were too far gone and full of goldenrod and other weeds that animals won't eat. Another neighbour, Dan is helping us out by cutting it down. Next year we'll see if we can get the fields plowed and planted.
Pete doing some trimming.
We're finding all kinds of things left behind by the former owner. Tires, rolls of wire...you name it. Dan got his tractor stuck while cutting too close to the drainage ditch. That is when he noticed the wire. There is never any lack of work to do when you live in the country!
This morning we made another trip to the Carp Farmers Market. Mayer is doing really well. He loves everyone and so far hasn't shown any fear. Barbie is another story; she doesn't care for children, large dogs, small dogs and basically anyone that wants to touch her. It is very discouraging, but we'll keep working at it. My Mom showed up, and Barbie was happy to see her and her friends that she'd met before; so at least that was positive.
Gorgeous red peppers. We bought some veggies for dinner tonight.

I love sunflowers; I must remember to grow some next year.

Long Weekend

I went two days to the show in Cornwall with young Emma (Laureate Embelish) as well as Barbie and the Paris pups along for the ride.

After 18 years of driving a minivan, we sold our Odyssey last week and this was the first show in our new car. Pete helped me pack, and it couldn't have worked out better. Two 200 size crates fit in perfectly in the back on top of the x-pen. The grooming table was behind them, and then the Poodle crate fits in sideways with my tack box, extra supplies, clothes etc. beside that. There was room for luggage on top of the crates if need be. Since this is about the maximum I ever bring to a show, the new car should work out perfectly. I'm very happy. The show grounds at Farran Park are very lovely I'm not sure how long the Cornwall show has been held there, but the last time we exhibited at that show it was at the Civic Centre which was always memorable as it was downwind from the Dupont plant (and the sulphur smell). I found a great spot with shade close to the rings. Emma took reserve WB the first day and 2 points on Monday. Monday evening we were treated with a visit from Brenda Campbell (Anamchara Shelties). We had a very nice visit. We walked puppies in town for socializing. went to a movie (Julie and Julia...loved it) and then last evening and this morning took the dogs out back in the fields for a run.
Mayer able to keep up with the rest
We have recently had the back fields mowed, so the dogs had lots more area to run. The downside was the drainage ditch between the fields was easier to access and right away they made a dash for the water (and mud).
Barbie and her new sidekick Mayer

Our "show dog"...miss Emma

Not sure if it is possible for them to have a better time, or to be dirtier...

Mayer: 17 weeks

Mayer 17 weeks; 12 1/2 inches. Still holding it together. Miley is cute too, I just didn't have time to do both. She was bathed, so I'll try to get her pictures done this weekend as well.

Third Time's A Charm?

I'm giving this another go; I so want it to work. Chilled semen; I love the concept. No shipping, no borders to cross, no long distance driving. For this breeding, the stud dog is in Ohio, and there are no flights into Columbus from Ottawa. I would have had to drive to Syracuse to ship; and there were no direct flights. If I had shipped her, I'd have to have driven back down the following week to pick her up. I have done that plenty of times in the past and it isn't my favorite thing to do. Instead, I just waited at home for the delivery.

The first two times we tried chilled semen breeding there were circumstances why it didn't work. The first time was around Christmas, and the plan was to ship the bitch to the stud dog. Weather got in the way and then the Christmas shipping embargo. While flight plans kept getting pushed back, and then seemed impossible, a plan was made to ship the semen instead. By the time that happened, the bitch was out of heat. So understandably, the breeding didn't work. The second time, I was out of town on the key day. Someone (not telling who) was left to do it by himself without instructions, and he's never done a breeding before. Unfortunately, most of the sample ended on the floor. Needless to say, that breeding never took...

So we did progesterone tests to time the breeding. Since the progesterone test results aren't available until the following day, I had to make an executive decision on Monday. I knew she was getting close, so I called the breeder and asked her to ship the semen ASAP. So the first package was sent UPS on Monday, supposed to arrive on Tuesday. A call from my Vet Tuesday said she had ovulated Monday and he felt the best day to breed her would be Wednesday.

I waited all day Tuesday for the UPS truck. Online tracking said it was en route. By 5 pm it hadn't arrived and phone calls to the company said that there was an error...that Carp was not next day service. So instead of calling me to come and pick it up, it had sat at the station. So it finally arrived Wednesday afternoon around 2:30 pm, with an $11 brokerage fee. Not too happy. I checked to see if the sample was viable and there was some life, so I did a breeding around 3pm yesterday afternoon.

After I got the progesterone results on Tuesday I had called the breeder and asked for another sample to be sent for Wednesday, so that shipment was sent FedEx. I had every faith it would arrive Wednesday. In fact, I thought it would probably arrive before the UPS delivery. Well by 5 pm yesterday, they hadn't delivered it; this is a first for me with FedEx. A phone call said it had cleared customs too late for the truck, but I could come down and pick it up at the airport. So that is what I did...and did the second breeding at 8 pm.

My lesson from this breeding is that I would have the package shipped to the station and then pick it up. It saves waiting all afternoon and saves having the package being kept needlessly overnight.

The cool pack was still very cool...even after a 24 hour delay.

Everything for the breeding is provided in the kit.

Fingers crossed this works. We'll let you know when we know...

Close Encounters

Our feeders are out the front door, hanging from branches of a blue spruce. We have a feeder with sunflower seeds and one filled with Niger seeds. I have a few days worth of pictures...

On Saturday even though it rained the feeders were incredibly busy!

The chickadees are probably the most common bird at our feeders. They are so cute and cheerful.

Experimenting with the flash. While the experts recommend 3 strobe lights to freeze the wings, I used the flash on the camera and got the opposite result! I kind of like it though!

The flash brought out her colours. The shutter speed is only 1/250 sec.

Translucent wings...

1/2000 sec...tongue sticking out!

And again...

I don't think I've ever seen a porcupine here before. I was out on the steps feeding the chipmunks when this prickly guy came right out of the center island! Luckily I had just put the dogs away.

He was in no hurry as he ambled towards the dog yard!

I'm hoping I don't see this guy again anytime soon...especially when we're out on a walk!