In Albuquerque today’s high was scheduled to be only 90 degrees — down from the 100 and 101 last weekend while I was in Seattle, and the 96-97 enjoyed(?) during the week. We were out of town by 9:00 with glorious weather the entire trip — well, almost. It started raining as I arrived at the Garden of the Gods La Quinta, it was hailing hard, big balls of ice when I arrived at the convention center, and then a tornado was sighted. Wow! What a welcome! Nonetheless, I handed off the lab I had transported and got my crates and grooming table to our space — a little damp, but not too bad.
So, we’re settled in.
This is how the chores were broken down. I am going to sleep. Chase is going to lounge on the bed, and Leidy plans to guard the door. You might ask about Holmes — he’s in the car. I’ve never had him in a motel before and hope to never do it again. He is ON GUARD. You see, there are people right outside our door and through the wall, and strange dogs. One of the things Holmes inherited from his mother is an exceptionally annoying alarm bark. So — he’s out in the car. He’s loose in the back and has a trachea on which to gnaw. You’ve no idea how guilty I feel. On the other hand, I don’t want the management ousting us at 2:00 AM.
Chase is with me instead of with Wendy so we could do some quick obedience work — it’s been a month and I really want Chase to get that third green ribbon this weekend. Our practice started with him watching me and forgetting to sit — a quick pop and the light bulb flashed. He remembers. So, cross fingers for tomorrow.
Wendy also brought me a bag of prizes — pottery from Durango, a big white rosette, the new pale blue/white select ribbons, the BOB ribbons. Some of the items are a bit fragile, but we will get them home safely and love displaying them.
Inca is at Adrienne’s; I had dinner with my son who is coaching the Air Force Academy’s volleyball team. All in all, we’ve had a pretty nice day.
Today was Adrienne’s last full day of 3rd Grade. There was an assembly for award-giving and doting grandmothers were welcome.
Adrienne receives the Stephen Foster Award for her musical composing talent
She’s getting some teeth in — finally
Adrienne came over with her Dad. While he got my swamp cooler fired up, she took the Nikon in hand. We did some stacked photos, but mostly she just took pictures (170-some). Here is part of the collection. Although Holmes is not stretched well, I put in his stacked photo because he is suddenly filling out. I hadn’t noticed.
Holmes getting to be such a big boy
Leidy Chase and Holmes on the lookout
Our Chase — smiling as usual
Leidy – patio lounging
Holmes Stalking Chase
No photos of Inca-Dink. Unless she is causing the bedlam, she doesn’t care to participate. We’ll catch her next time.
Yesterday I made up 27 days of meals for Chase’s World Tour (well, Colorado and Wyoming). I sent this information to my very tolerant handler:
Meals on Wheels
FOR breakfast he always gets a serving of chicken necks (because they are easy). The necks are in individual zip bags, each with a “B” on them, packed into two 2-gallon zip bags that say “Breakfast” on them.
THE Monday and Friday meals are ground beef/vegetables so are marked “Mon or Fri” and are in a bag marked “Monday or Friday”.
TUESDAY and Saturday are ground turkey/vegetables, so the individual bags are marked “Tues or Sat” and are all packed in one zip bag marked “Tues or Sat”
WEDNESDAY is organ meat day. So, the Wednesday bags of liver are marked “Wed.” and in a zip bag marked “Wednesday”
THURSDAY is a bone-meat day. There are four bags containing duck necks marked “Thurs.” in a zip bag also marked “Thurs.”
SUNDAY is always chicken dinner day, so the four bags containing chicken backs are marked “Sun” in a zip bag marked “Sun”
All supplements are already in each bag. Each day Chase gets 4 tablets brewers’ yeast/garlic, 1-1/2 tsp. Missing Link Plus, 500 mg Vitamin C, and 50 mg of powdered zinc. He is on a monthly dose of Interceptor (heart worm/parasites). He will have had his dose on May 15th, so won’t be due again until June 15th by which date he will be home.
I didn’t pack any tripe – thought I would spare you the smelliest of all meals!
One box containing all the meals is now in the chest freezer. Do you want me to get some dry ice to put in the box for your trip home?
Chase will be happy with care packages from home
Adrienne wrote the days on all the bags while reading one of the books from the “Seekers” series. I put everything in the large cooler with ice packs and then transferred it all to a freezer box in the chest freezer. The dogs laid underfoot hoping beyond hope that yesterday was a bonus day and more food would be served.
First, I just learned that Chase’s half sister the beautiful Dolly (CAN BIS/CAN CH/AM CH* Yasashiikuma Smoky Mountn Maid) was Winners Bitch for the second year in a row at the CWCCA Nationals to finish her AKC Championship with three 5-point majors (two of them at the Nationals — wow). How Amazing is that? We may have to send a construction crew up to Ontario to extricate Shelley’s head from the ceiling.
I got up at 4:30, left the house at 5:30, got to Las Vegas a 7:55, testified at 9:00, left the courthouse at 9:30, and made my noon appointment, which just finished up. I have a 6:30 appointment, a 7:00 dog club meeting, and am picking Leidy up at the airport at 11:00 (yes — PM) — oh, and Adrienne is spending the night! Tomorrow we are going to pack up Chase’s TV dinners.
A word about being a witness. When you are the lawyer, you know how all the little pieces of evidence should fit. When you are the witness, you just know the part you know. Everything else is a mystery. I have no idea whether the puzzle piece I provided fit with all the other puzzle pieces. I expect my client will call me with a result though that will probably not be until Monday.
I took two pictures between 7:55 and 8:00 when the courthouse door was unlocked. The first is of the courthouse — it’s new and boring. The second is of the older church across the street. I didn’t have time to go explore it and take more photos. Las Vegas was a big railroad town at the turn of the century and has a very large section of Victorian homes. I need to go up, visit my sister, and wander around with my camera.
Holmes 7 month birthday is actually Monday, but Adrienne is here today — and I figured the Homeboy wouldn’t change all that much in two days. (However, Chase is exactly 2-1/2 years old today.) So, here is what the baby looks like this morning.
Hi, Cute Face!
Still has fat, freckled, front feet
Leaving so soon?
Stacked (with a hair out of place)
For Easter, Adrienne brought me a bunch of deep purple tulips. They deserved a photograph before they expired. (Laura – that’s the candle from my secret Santa. Thank you)
With just a touch of poster edging
A little closer look
When Adrienne was at the house on Saturday, in addition to taking photos of Holmes, she painted the flap of a book bag. I thought she did a wonderful job (and so did she!).
Adrienne is here this afternoon, so we thought we’d better try for some photos. I dragged everything out in the back yard. Here’s how the cute boy looked today.
Holmes turned six months old yesterday. So, in honor of that event, here are some photos that Adrienne took this morning.
The Judge’s Side
The Off-Side
The front — note fat freckled feet
. . . and bringing up the rear
Happy half-birthday, baby puppy!
. . . the behinder I get. I talked with one of the 48 Hours producers for nearly two hours today. The story behind the murder case is so compelling — you may be seeing it on television. These long phone conversations, and one of their people flying in for a meeting, sound like down time for my practice. Whether we sign on truly depends only on the value to my client. Regardless of that time out of my day, I promised other things that will get done.
This weekend is the final proofing for the CWCCA Handbook — a paper copy will be here in the morning with my FedEx man. Adrienne will be here in the morning and since today is Holmes half-birthday (6 months old), we must take some photos. I’m spending a few minutes every day working Chase in Novice Obedience. Tonight at run-throughs he was just super — he would have Q’ed in the high 180s or low 190s. He sits in a chair waiting for his turn and watching all the other dogs put through their paces. I think he’s critiquing. We have two months before he must have it all put together — I think we’ll be ready.
I want to stop by to see Kip this weekend and lend moral support. Kip’s showing a little movement in his tail as well as in his rear legs. Sarah said when that tail’s awaggin’ we’ll know he’s recovered.
Once again I-40 east of Albuquerque is closed due to another winter storm. I’m so ready for spring — this has been a long, long winter, but our farmers should have plenty of water for the growing season.
Photos tomorrow.
Kip came through his surgery well. He has a little movement in his back legs which is a great sign. Three fenestrations — one for the ruptured disk and two bulging disks. It is definitely IVDD. I had sent Kip’s DNA to Dr. Neff at UC Davis for his research into finding a genetic marker for IVDD. Tomorrow I’ll let them know to move his sample to the “other” pile. So, Kip still has a long recovery road, but he’s started out on it.
Meanwhile, here is Adrienne sharing the door to her room with a 6′ poster of Louie the Lobo. When you are a fan, all things Lobo can be accommodated.
As some of you know, Chase has his own web site. I put it together so folks who wanted to know more about him could visit the web site — they didn’t have to call and listen to me babble on about what a nifty dog he is, and so healthy, etc. After someone looks at his pedigree and health results and show record, and photos of Chase and his family, if they want to talk to me, I’m available.
One of the best parts of his site is his Journal. He’s such a busy dog that he only gets a chance to write every four to six months. When he does, he brings everyone up to date, throws in some photos for good measure. Today he posted a Journal entry that covers the past six months. My eight-year old granddaughter has read all his entries and tells me he is really a funny dog 
G-Ma Carolyn adds the entry and the photos for him — thank you G-Ma!
This has been the week from Hades. Nothing bad has happened. I’d just spent so much time on my murder case and dinking around with the contractors, that finally all my other clients caught up with me. This week I have run around with a water can putting out fires. Sometimes it happens like that. The result? No time to blog, no photos, no training the dogs. I plan to put in some hours this weekend to get rid of the paper piles on my desk. Perhaps next week will be a bit more sane.
I did take Chase to his show obedience class on Wednesday night. He wants so much to please me, but when I don’t spend any training time in between classes, it’s asking a lot of him to do the entire set of Novice exercises flawlessly. He sure tries though. Holmes — well, his Puppy Foundations I class has been a complete waste of time. The class is good, but we missed three of the eight classes and I’ve done no training. Poor little man — another dog that really wants to please, but has not a clue what I’m asking. I am a rotten dog mom!
Yesterday “Tim” was at the house finishing off some of the miscellaneous construction projects. I’ve also engaged “Poop Busters”. It’s a company that sends an employee once a week to police the yard. My person is Sherry who also does the duty at Kip’s house. She was so excited to meet another group of Cardis — and I’m happy because I will get more Kip reports. Yesterday Sherry said that she was so happy Kip was at Jim and Sarah’s because he was good for them. Of course, we knew that. My two boys were completely wound up by the company. Inca decided she needed a safe place from which to watch the chaos — I found her perched in a large flower pot. Hopefully we’ll get some photos of her in her pot.
One of my friends is a pastry chef/chocolatier. This weekend is the “Chocolate Fantasy” competition. He’s been making wonderful chocolate confections for the past week, and a while ago dropped off a sample for me. So, this is being typed while I enjoy a sugar/chocolate high. He should win the top prize. I wonder if he’ll have left overs?
Adrienne will be at the house tomorrow so we’ll take some Holmes photos to post. He’ll be 6 months old on March 19th. He is a delightful brat. I so love baddogs!
We are on pregnancy watch for the bitch in Washington State. Her puppies are due April 19th — I’ll tell you more when we are sure she’s pregnant. Chase will be bred to another delightful girl at the end of next week. I’m going to love being a dog Grandma.
I promise a better post tomorrow.
Holmes’ official photographer hasn’t been here for a while, but Adrienne and I are going to Holmes’ puppy class and then to a basketball game, so we stole a few minutes to snap a couple of Holmes photos. I still love this baby. What do you think?
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