ASSA 2011

I travelled down to the ASSA National located in Gray Summit MO on Tuesday. I had a 'cowboy' pilot that flew in between two thunderstorms and had a wild landing but made it none the less.  The event was at the new Purina Farms Event center about 45 minutes from St Louis and was a super facility.  Bright and very large and with cushioned carpeting for the ring and lots of grooming space. Outdoors there was plenty of grass and a fully fenced area to exercise the dogs. 

What a nice surprise to find Can Ch Laureate Cold Play, "Player" entered at the show...he is owned by Sherrie Sparling in Manitoba and was in the Open Blue Dog class. He was shown beautifully by Becky Johnson. 

Showing his lovely profile.  Player is a litter brother to our "Eva"...the dam of our current AOAC hopefuls.

A lovely moderate dog...he placed second in the class.

His sire is Am Ch Macdega Notorious, ROM and his dam is our Louisiana daughter, Laureate Nuance.  He is going out with Becky in pursuit of his American Championship and hopefully will finish fast.

We also had our young blue girl Laureate Dominatrix, "Trix" entered in 6-9 puppy AOAC class.  She looked wonderful and though she didn't place, we were pleased with how she looked and how she behaved.  Thanks to Kim Wendling for her expert presentation!

Doing what our guys do best...

Little miss "Mokie"...aka Cocoa (Can Ch Laureate Jivara) was in the open sable bitch class handled by Julie Desy and made the cut.  She looked good, but could have stood to lose a couple of pounds before she was shown. However since she was bred, we didn't want to ration her food, so she was a bit of a pokie Mokie.  Our congratulations to Evelyn Susin (Crinan Shelties) for her girl Crinan's Diva's Reserve winners bitch win from this class!

Checking out the judge...

On the go around.

Friday night there were bad thunderstorms and tornado warnings.  I was in the building and didn't think too much about it...a lot of rain on the roof and some booming thunder.  I went back to the motel and turned on the TV to discover there were three touchdowns and the St Louis airport took a direct hit!  We saw some of the damage to homes and property as we drove our rental car back, but couldn't get photos...this photo above was taken just outside the terminal.  I felt very fortunate it didn't touch down at the show, and no one was injured despite the devastation.

The airport was closed Saturday while the broken glass was cleaned up.  Many people at the show were making other arrangements as the status of the airport was unknown.

Unbelievably 70% of flights left on Sunday...it was business (not quite) as usual.

Despite the weather, the National was wonderful...lots of beautiful dogs and deserving winners.  Lots of laughs and great gatherings with friends.  That being said, there really is no place like home!