Lizzie-the end of the curly split face red/white line

Well, it is official there will be no curly haired red/white border collies being generated from our home, Lizzie went in this morning for her spay. It makes me sad, because I love how Lizzie looks, I love her stable personality, I love how she attacks life and loves everyone and everything and will try anything-all qualities I would have loved to pass along. BUT, then I think about what a challenge she has been and I guess I dont want to put her through the whole puppy bearing thing, so she is off to the vets today. Funny I am a RN in my "other" life, and I worked in the open heart surgery unit, cardiac care and labor and delivery, so you wouldnt think a little thing like a spay would scare me, but I hate having my dogs have to go through something like that and of course every possible complication goes through my mind. I left her off this morning and warned them about how she will run if given a chance, I could see the tech looking at me like, oooh my gosh, just leave lady, hahahaha, so I will be very glad this evening when little Liz is back with me and all ok, and I guess I will be really glad in about a month and a half when she would have been in season and I will not have to deal with that again, I will be very glad it was done then.

CHERRY HERE SHE COMES

This is some video where I was trying to capture what the striding looks like through the weaves. It is HARD to get all 12 weaves in the shot AND still be able to see what is going on with the stride. I was worried about hitting the camera with my ball, but we all survived.

Cherry 12 weaves Jan 8,09

Cherry with the weaves open about 1/2 inch to work on the footing. The first two sessions of today I took her to the back yard and worked on my straight poles, and took her to a friends and worked in their yard on their poles. I am not giving her anything but easy entries and not a lot of movement or distraction so that she can focus on her speed and figureing out her footing. When I put her back on the straight poles this morning she did start hopping through the poles, and not looking as comfortable. Please excuse the outfit, hey, I was cleaning and had on old clothes and who knows what was happening with the hair?

things that make ya feel good....

I didn't sleep well last night because I realized that my niece had sent me a letter, it was one of those Flat Stanley things. The kids color this guy in school and then they send them out to people in different parts of the country and if Flat Stanley comes to visit you then you are supposed to take a picture of him in your area and write a little something about where you live... then you send him and the pictures back to the school so they can be shared with the class. Well, I got mine weeks ago and meant to handle it right away....but there was snow and I didnt think that really represented our place, so I finally went out today found a dang Joshua tree-and yes Flat Stanley amazingly sticks to Joshua trees, which is good because I was not sure how to get his picture and not stick anything into the tree and I didnt know how the kids would feel if I stuck a tree needle through his head to keep him in place...so we were all spared that. ANYWAY, got the pictures, got them developed, got the letter done and then headed to the post office to get it handled before anything else could happen. THERE IS NO WAY NOW TO BUY STAMPS IN OUR POST OFFICE WITHOUT STANDING IN THE HUGE LINE. There used to be a machine but no more. So I only had money for one stamp and I really needed it so I got in line and just cowgirled up and knew it was going to take at least half an hour to get through the line. So I just was starting conversation and trying to be friendly with the lady in front of me and I said wow, cant believe the stamp machine no longer works so you have to stand through the whole line to mail just one letter. She smiled and looked away. A second later she turned and said here you can have this stamp. How NICE! I had fifty cents in change and said that would be great, here is money for it and she wouldnt take it. Just funny how a little act of kindness can really just make the whole rest of the day so much brighter. So Flat Stanley, is on his way back to Galveston, and the world is a little brighter for me.