Fallen Hero

He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog
You are his life, his love, his leader
He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart
You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion
Author Unknown

I love the above poem and always think it could've been written for my superheroBillydog.

Well, I did ...

Yesterday I was working in a garden and best mate, Billy Woof, was happily helping as usual. I was walking along a flagstone path on my way to pick up a rake when something shot in front of me like a bouncing bomb - it scudded right underfoot and suddenly the world turned sideways and I landed in a messy heap. As I lay there gently flexing and probing for snapped bits of body my faithful boy came nuzzling and wagging, all concerned, to check I was OK. My hero. Very 'Lassie Come Home'. Or so I thought ... As I uncurled he pounced in and retrieved the windfall apple he'd decided was a great ball!!! Applications for a new best mate are now being taken. ;o)

Twice the bridesmaid

Hare & Hounds up near Barnard Castle again this weekend. I felt a bit late and rushed setting off on Thursday eve, having just had a towbar fitted on 'the blue car' in the afternoon - wasn't sure how it would tow but in fact it pulled the mousehouse beautifully, good. Drove through a huge downpour on the A1 but arrived in the dry and calm, though dark, late evening. Our home went up without problems - managed it on my own with no swearing. Norrrty Tim stole and scoffed an entire loaf of bread, thankfully with no bad effects later. After a nice cup of tea and a bit of faffing it was bedtime. Snuggled into the luxury of the proper bed, read for a bit and then went to sleep. Half an hour later it sounded like all hell was breaking loose!!!!.. A strong wind had suddenly got up and the mousehouse was not coping well! I won't go though all the ups and down of the night - the trip outdoors in shorts and bare feet with bits of string in a force nine gale at 4am, the lying in bed worrying about whether the dogs would be safer in the car, the gusts so strong that the mousehouse felt like it was flapping its wings preparing for flight ... Think I managed less than an hour's sleep all night. Finally got things into better shape and drifted off about 5.30am, then at 6am other people started getting up and hammering down their surroundings too! Oh well, no sleep. Hindsight is great and I now know how to make it all secure - I sort of did anyway but the evening had been so still and calm when setting up I hadn't thought about how things might change in the wee small hours.
Anyway, I was working on a ring all day so had to be up and about and bright and breezy. The weather was really bloody awful! Cold, wet, windy, dismal. The cheerful spirit of those shows though is incredible and there were smiling - though somewhat blue and dripping! - faces all day. Maisie & Tim were entered in 2 classes each. Fisrt up was a 1-4 gr agility - decided it was too tricky for Tim so didn't run him, but perfect for the Mouse - she came second!!! Later ran them both in a 1-4 Jumping class - Maisie went clear and fastish, though it was too fast a course for her to be placed, but this time it was perfect for young Tim who did a really lovely run - going forward but also listening well. He just ducked under 2 jumps on a turn before the weaves - probably coz I was stressing slightly about the weaves - thanks to Suzanne for noticing that :) Really super pleased with him though. We managed to get our ring finished quite early so I took all three dogs for a long walk and ball session over the fields. It really is a nice venue. Steaming casserole for dinner, couple of beers with Billy (& some humans! haha) in the real ale marquee, and in bed for 9pm - big ZZZZZZZZZZZZs all night, ah bliss.
Saturday morning dawned cold but sunny. sadly Jules and the gang couldn't make it and we so missed them :(
First class was an Agility - ran Tim first and - Oh no! He'd gone into lala land!! Did some OK bits though and he did stay in the ring with me which is about the best I can say! Maisie ran clear and came third!! Had no more runs then till late aft so after getting everyone walked and fed we chilled in the mousehouse - I drank several gallons of coffee and did some reading, really nice to just kick back for once. Maisie had another Agility run in the aft - she wasn't very up for it (dunno why!). Almost got round but there was a bit where you had to do a sharp left after the weaves so I crossed to her left and she missed the entry - really need to do some work on that, though she can weave both sides really! lol. Typical - I popped her back through the weaves now on my left and she pushed out beautifully to make the turn after. Oh well! Another hour or so till Tim's Jumping class. It was a fab course for him but I was a bit unsure about running him after the morning's wayward run. After sitting in the sun and being inspired by G6-7 Jumping and supping vino with Louise & wannabee-collie-Saff ;o) I did run him and he did ever so well - just fluffing the weave entry and then I think I pulled him past one jump. Not sure if I was slightly pissed or it was the low sun, but on leaving the ring I thanked the Photographer rather than the Judge, lol!!! Saturday evening brought more beer (cannot get over the perfectness of agility and superb real ale in one location!!) and we had v funny chocolate quiz confusion!!... And so to bed.
Sunday was cold but sunny again. Worked on a ring again. Maisie came second again!! Can't even remember running the course but I'm sure it was lovely?! Tim did two runs again - first one was a bit iffy - he lost his focus a bit, but then late in the day he ran in another Jumping class and worked soooo well - at a stage in the w/e when his brain has normally exploded. He even got a fast weave entry and did some totally amazing distance work, I'm in awe of my little ginger man at times. Got a couple of ace encouraging comments about him too :o) Best run of the w/e was then Maisie in another Jumping class - screeched up to the ring at the last minute (had been busy on our ring), bowled her over the first jump and she knocked the pole on number 4 so I called it a day - no time for 5 faults!! lol! BUT it was the best run coz of the bonkers way she set off - in fact knocking the pole as she bombed round the outside of a box toooo fast!!
The friendly feel of these shows is brill. This one had six rings so really quite big, but still easily maintained that fluffy feeling. As ring party spirits were flagging mid-aft Chris tannoyed for everyone to get themselves a hot choc from the caterers - not just any hot choc but huuuuge frothy ones with cream and a flake.
Ah what a great show :) And v v pleased with Maisie cleverly managing to just about stay in G2 - but two 2nds and a 3rd - a bit too close for comfort, little Mouse! x

Wrong side of bed

The alarm went off at dark o'clock this morning to get us up for Ribble show. Unused to such an early disturbance, young Tim leapt up on the bed and instantly fell back fast asleep tightly snuggled in my arms, snoring like an angel - do angels snore?? Getting up (once 'snooze' had happened a couple of times) was then a struggle! In fact, I stumbled out of the wrong side of bed ... Perhaps this was a sign/omen/portent ...
Set off - cold and drizzly out, steamy in the car. Arrived, got out of the car into a big puddle, and splomped (cross between splooshing and stomping?) into the arena to walk our first course. Over an hour later the judge arrived, having got lost/delayed en route - not her fault, I'm sure, these things happen, but the upshot was we had 3 courses to walk one after the other, then to run at the same time - two dogs, small classes, all got a bit stressful TBH.
The reason I decided to enter this show actually was coz there was a helter-skelter class and I thought Tim would love it! Sadly a) the course was very, very tight in bits (in fact there were v few clears, which I don't think is what normally happens in HSs?) and b) it was in "that ring" the one near the overlooking spectator gallery where Maisie frrrrreaked at the same show last year! Tim, bless him, was similarly utterly horrified that people were hanging over looking down on him!!! We then dashed to the safer far end of the arena for the graded agility - again the course was tight and we struggled with bits, though he settled more and did do some good bits. Then on to the combined 1-3 agility - loved this course for him - though the space was still small, it was a much more baby-friendly course and he did very well indeed :)
Then the graded agility was closing so I had to dash and get Maisie (who had to have a hasty wee en route - what with waiting for the judge I'd not even had chance to take them out for a proper stretch.) The tight course was OK for her and she ran really well - just I rushed her dogwalk a little and as there was a jump v close after it, she just about popped her contact - good run though. And it was won by Sue & little Rosie anyway, so that was nice :) Didn't then have time to think about whether to run her in the comb 1-3 agility - v unusual for me to enter her actually - anyway it was there, the queue was short, so we did it. In that she ran a clear - the tannoy went off overhead(!) when she was in the middle of the weaves, so she stopped and looked up, but carried on for a tidy enough clear - just missed the places, they weren't generous. Then waited at least 4 hours for our only remaining run in the graded jumping. She set off surprisingly swiftly for a third run late in the day (hooray for the minced venison brunch!!) and did the hard bits - beautiful wrong end of a tunnel, then sent on round a loop and I front crossed before the weaves to be on the right side to try avoid her being spooked as Tim had been by the gallery - she never looked! lol! But that left me needing to do a rear cross at the next jump. Note to self: unless Maisie has decided to bog off in front and force me into an unplanned rear cross, then planned manouvres must not be made until she is actually in the air over the jump ... I cut across just as she gathered to take off but, being the clever little mouse she is, she heroically pulled off and came with me!! So then we came come.
The clear round rosettes were worth mentioning for their crapness!...
Oh but good results did happen: Sue & Rosie, Lou & Radlleeeeee, Steph & Lucy all won out of their grades, well done all of them!!! & Billy bummed bits of sandwich, pie, crisps, cheese and god knows what else, so he had fun :)
Home now - bathed, had shepherd's pie and a glass of wine - still feeling knackered, damp, cold and shoulda/coulda maybe stayed in the right side of bed this morning?.....
THERE!!! To the person who said I'm always positive - what a moaning git, eh!!!! ;o)
Oh and ... on the way home there was a young man wandering on the motorway - thankfully, the police had stopped to escort him safely across though. And then we got stopped at roadworks for ages, then at the level crossing for ages. And then the sun mockingly came out but as soon as I pulled the car up at home and opened the door, it joyfully pee'd it down again!!!! OK, enough already ;o)

Glorious Mud - Wigan

This weekend we went to Wigan show - which is actually near Preston. Friday was a mucky horrible day but we set off undeterred with our new home on wheels, 'The Mouse House', in tow. The Landy had a jolly old chug over the Pennines, barely noticing its new burden. We arrived about teatime and set up straight away - with a little kind help from Helen it was up and moved into within about 20 mins! Still not quite got the method by which you can put it up with the roof in place, but will keep fiddling! (Trying to put it away to facilitate this for next time resulted in a bumped head and some bad words!!! lol) The showground is in a nice location, unfortunately it's also a very very VERY badly drained location! There was a fair bit of rain but outside in the real world it was still quite normal. There, though, it was a quagmire!!! Saturday dawned wet and muddy ... The show squelshed on though. Maisie had an early running order in her first (Jumping) class - thankfully coz it was in the worst ring! She did an OK run - going well up till the tunnel where there was a very interesting sniff, and then eventually out of the tunnel into the weaves sloooowly coz she wanted to go back to investigate further! :) Still somehow managed to end up 5th though!! Luckily her Agility run was also in not too bad conditions and she did a tidy enough run to finish 4th - doing some of those lovely tight turns she can do if she has her listening ears on, haha. I ummed and ahhed about running Tim coz of safety, but decided he should be OK as it was fairly straightforward and I could make sure he was straight and steadyish for the contacts. He did a really super run actually - just nipped under one jump before the seesaw and popped out of the 12 weaves. He worked so nicely though and he had his listening ears on too! He was very funny at the start where the ground had got awful - normally he does a 'down'- or 'bow'-wait but No Way was he putting his tum in that mud so we improvised a stand-wait - which actually worked! He almost did a Jumping run too but was frrrrrrreaked by a walkie-talkie (my big brave boy!) and so I pulled him out before we started. The chap with the WT was very apologetic (not his fault) and when I took Tim straight over to seek his monster, he gave him a lovely cuddle with the WT in hand and all was well in the ginger world again. And that was the end of the Agility. It rained more overnight and then this morning we wallowed round the courses but the day was cancelled before it started - sad but totally sensible decision.

It wasn't all mud-wrestling - Helen & I had yummy hot choc with Baileys in and ginger bics. It was heaven to not be crawling in and out of the small tent in the soupy mud - amazing timing for the Mouse House to turn up in our world and it's earned its cost already, I reckon.

Terribly impractical venue, cancelled day, MUD MUD MUD, oh and more MUD. Would we go again? You betcha! :o)

AMAZING Maisie Mouse!!!

Not blogged for a while due to a wonky dongle(!) so looooads to catch up on! Here goes ...

Last weekend we went to Dog Vegas. The main reason for going to this show was to support Helen & Skip, and Sara & Tilly in the First Contact Finals!! I wasn't sure I'd be able to get there on the Friday so just entered each dog in one class on the off-chance - this just so happened to be the FC qualifier and Maisie only went and came 3rd and so qualified!!! Hadn't even walked the course! :-O Oh! And not only that, that result also gave her the last few points she needed for her Agility Warrant (Silver)!!! Crikey! :-O
Through the night on Friday both Maisie and Tim were quite restless and had slightly runny bums - the after-effect of bones I should've taken off them sooner on Thursday, bad mummy. Billy retriever guts was fine :) Maisie did one run on Saturday morning but didn't feel right so I pulled both of them from their runs that day, to give their tums chance to recover. The Finals were on the Sunday evening. I decided not to do any runs with Maisie through the day anyway to save her energy for her big moment - this proved to be a good decision. Did a couple of runs with Tim though and he did really very well, I was so pleased with him. He also had a lovely little mad gallop with sweetie-pie Pickle! The day was reaaaaaaaaaally windy! There was a flying marquee incident and all classes in the aft were run without dogwalks, for safety. Sadly Jules and Jette had to retire injured from the day, we did miss them :(

The evening came and our course was built!...... Still no dogwalk (yippee - it's our 'dodgiest' obstacle!) - instead we had 2 A-frames, one after the other - very unusual but great fun! There was supposed to be a wall for the last obstacle but bricks were flying in the 'breeze' so it was replaced by a spread jump. There was, though, a wishing well, very exciting!! I felt quite confident Maisie would jump it OK and she did - no hesistation at all! It was a bit scarey watching the audience gather with chairs and beers, eeek! Helen & Skip were first to go - Helen was amazing as she'd  had months to worry about it but just got on and did it - unfortunately big Skip just missed one of his A-frame contacts -well, 2 in a row is a lot to ask for! :) Good run though! Then next up were Sara and Tilly. Unfortunately Tilly was very spooked by the wishing well and was having none of it! Think she might've had a fault by then anyway though? Still very well done though! We were to run nearly at the end of the class. Maisie and I went for a wander and just got to the ring at the last minute. I heard there had been quite a few fast clears so decided we had absolutely nothing to lose and might as well just go for it!! As we got on the startline, ready and raring, the timing broke!! They had one of those big display timers. Whilst they were trying to fix it the commentator had the crowd doing Mexican waves, lol! Then we were off!..... Oh it was F.U.N.! Maisie soooo rose to the occasion and ran as fast as her little fluffy legs could take her! Had a couple of hairy moments - one at a top corner when she spotted a surprising number of people sat by the ringropes and actually almost stopped to grin! Then there was a seesaw which was directly followed by the back of the start jump - I so knew she'd want to jump that rather than the left turn we needed, and despite all efforts I very nearly lost her there! The crowd ooohed! Rest of it went quite smoothly - though we fumbled the approach to the weaves as she was going far faster than planned and I was totally in the wrong place! lol! The Judge's hand stayed down though! The 12 weaves were in a corner running into space - towards people - so I had to work her closely through those, and then you turned in for the home straight which was jump-spread-jump-spread - running like hell togther down that line was such a buzz!!! Loved it, loved it, loved it!!!!!!!! And to cap it all she got a lovely 9th place rosette - really super-duper excellent as there were some very fast dogs in there. That little fluffy girly dog never ceases to amaze me and I'm very, very, very proud of her. Dream come true. :D
And I accidentally bought a trailer tent! Was helped with it by such kindness from mates - towing, storing, packing, paying, mechanic-ing. Very blessed indeed with lovely mates, made me go all fluffy! :)
And then Billy flyballed at Drax on the Monday - he was as fab as ever, the team didn't do owt as little Dylan kept, uncharacteristically, running out. Very good day though, enjoyed it.
During the week the Landy got its tailgate guard made & fitted by our lovely mechanic friend Martin - it's all proper posh!!
I put up the trailer tent and it took about an hour - lol! That was with crap non-diagramatic instructions and no clue what went where though, so maybe not too bad. I think I could do it much faster already and it packed down in 5 mins flat. Mum helped with giving it a good clean - though it has been kept beautifully for its age (old!) - and she's made it some pretty new curtains, cushions, etc. Cool!
Tim & I went on a training day on Saturday - he was such a good lad. Really looking forward to next year with him, think he's starting to grow up a little - slooowly, as blokes do :)
It's feeling definately autumnal out and not in a good way - drizzley and darkening. Got to look forward though - to roaring fires and sloe gin! And to look back on a really wonderful agility season :o)

West Lakes

Not Wet Lakes this year - well, it did rain a lot but all at night, how kind! 
This may be the most amazing show location - the exercise area is the beach! And a perfect doggy beach it is too. The facilities are excellent too - great club house, great toilets, great beer, great coffee, just great!
Maisie Mouse did pretty well - 3rd, 6th and 7th place rosies! Not bad from 4 runs :) Actually the run she didn't get placed on was her best in a way as she was most speedy, though she broke her wait (& I didn't put her back - Bad Human) instead taking a weird detour round the outside of the dogwalk where the (surprised!) judge dodged out of the way, lol! In all the hilarity of this she missed the contact and then later took out a pole with a flying leap - not E'd though. So from 7/8 Es last week to none this week, haha!
Tim kept up the E quota though. He was much less focused this time and downright hard work at times. I was really encouraged by how he ran last weekend but it's two forward and one back sometimes ... Dogs are such great levellers! Anyway, the one run he set off superbly on I stoooopidly twitched a shoulder and pulled him off a tunnel, arrrg! (Bad Human again) He had fun though and did do some nice bits. He also had a super walk on the beach with a big gang of dogs - which he's not really done before - and he behaved v nicely and had a whale of a time.
Billy had several walks on the beach and one into the village. He was a bit confused by beautiful big bouncing baby Flynn but just did a bit of slightly nonplussed gentle woofing, lol :o)
It is a great show but in future I'd defo try to make at least a long weekend out of it as it felt like too far to go for just two days - v v tired driving home last night.

Big Ta to Louise McGovern and Laura Sivell for pics of Miss Mouse and The Ginger One respectively :)

Hare n Hounds

(Zebra Danio - not my pic)

Our first 4-day show - and what a superb one! The HnH shows are so brilliantly run - nothing too much bother, lots of smiling faces all the time, sweeties, real ale - lots of fantastic real ale - agility heaven!!!!!!!! Oh, & some agility :)
Friday was an awful day weather-wise but both Maisie & Tim did their best runs EVER! Tim did a paw-perfect agility run, apart from when we came round to the weaves near the end & he had to briefly gnash off to tell Auntie Karen on the startline how Clever he was being :) But he did come right back and carry on nicely, bless him! Someone said he just got embarassed coz I said "weeeaveees" in the silly high-pitched voice Maisie loves, so may try to be a little more cool & blokey for him next time, lol. I was really pleased with how he did all weekend - just did that one run on Friday then two each on Sat & Sun, and he didn't completely lose the plot as he has before a bit over multi-day shows. His focus really is getting better and he did lots of nice bits, only going under the very odd jump. His contacts were just ace, as were his startline waits - only went under one first jump, so hopefully that's almost fixed. He's tending to miss weave entries but I think it's pure excitement and him feeling a bit anxious about the change of pace required? He so can weave! Took him up on the fields last night and tried to replicate the speed he gets up in the ring by racing him into the weaves from a flat-out gallop halfway across the field - both sides, all angles, and he can soooo do them, so we shall now work harder on that happening in the ring :)
Mad Maisie Mouse ... In the cold, wet, windy weather on Friday she was Amazing. I'd walked the course with the wrong dog in mind (doh!) so wasn't sure how to run it, but I needn't have worried coz she was supersonic (for her) - specially driving through the weaves like a collie!! I had to put in unexpected rear crosses all over the place! Knew it was a v competitive run and the dogwalk was second last obstacle - I had a rush of blood to the head and just screeched her over it a bit hard and she must've just missed the contact. In the event she finished 5th anyway with a pretty rosie and fortunately she'd have not won it anyway if she'd gone clear - though I don't want her to win out anyway!.. OK so that was the good bit ................... I ddn't even realise this till we got home but over the rest of the weekend we got nothing but Es!!! SEVEN of them to be precise!! Mix of her being surprisingly speedy and going lalalala with paws in lugs whilst dashing off in random directions, and me doing some spectacularly crap handling - on one run I actually got lost between jumps 1 and 2. Oh dear!!!!!!!! No matter though, it was fab and v positive :D
Jules & Jette breezed in on Sunday and then limped home with a fantastic 3rd in g1 agility, sooooo well done!!!! & many other good runs from - well everyone but me & the mouse, hehe.
I had a ridiculous nearly v serious accident with an exploding duck egg on Tues. Now that would've been one for the Darwin Awards ...
Got some pretty new tropical fish yesterday. Not had a tank set up for ages so that's fun. Maisie has been watching them in a that's-dinner kind of way, but they are safe :)
Hopefully Mr Woof is flyball training tonight. He had an ace w/e at HnH - cheesy chips, pub dogging and tent-warming. He'll be happy to play on the beach at West Lakes this w/e too, happy doggy days.

Culture, innit!

I did manage a little culture today in a visit to our local gallery. South Square is just down in the village (Thornton) and it's an ace little place. The current exhibition is of some local images - the project focusing on the "snickets" - tiny paths between houses, fields, lanes, etc. that we have loads of round here - and where they do/don't/might lead to.
http://www.southsquarecentre.co.uk/index.php?/gallery/about-us/
As well as regular exhibitions, there are artists' "spaces", weekly art workshops for kids and grown-ups (always meant to have a go ...) and other, well ... arty things - a picture framer, good quality crafts - cool jewellery, etc. and the wonderful cafe where I had a fab cuppa and cake this aft. :o) On Fridays evenings about once a month they have an opening night for the latest exhibition: you can get a stonking 3-course meal for about a tenner, and can even take along your own wine. It's really chilled and friendly, not at all arty-farty-snotty; you could rock up in scruffy doggy clothes and no-one would bat an eyelid. Must get back into going more often.