2009 in review

JANUARY

I can’t remember what happened in January, except we had record cold. It was -29 one morning. That was air temp, not wind chill. I probably spent the month thawing pipes in the basement, which I’ve gotten really good at. Practice makes perfect. At least our toilet doesn’t freeze, like Gotsyzygy’s. Lay-offs started at work. Three of our papers closed.

FEBRUARY

February was basically a waste of time. Took my first week of unpaid furlough from work as the newspaper industry began a downward spiral.

MARCH

I launched “Exercise Finished” and spent a lot of time obsessing about Phoenix’s obedience debut. 'Nix earned his OAJ.

APRIL

Phoenix and I went into the obedience ring for the first time and got his first two CD legs. Three days later I was in an ambulance headed for the cardiac unit at St. Luke’s. I don’t think there was any connection between the two. Took the National Weather Service’s storm spotter training, which resulted in a nearly non-existent severe weather season. Sigh. I should probably be careful what I wish for. Phoenix finished his CD.

MAY

Took my second week of upaid furlough from work. Had a lot of doctors’ appointments and took a lot of tests. Passed them all, followed by the declaration, “You have a strong and healthy heart but you have heart disease.” Bought a pill organizer to keep track of all the meds. Got decaffeinated. Did a lot of gardening. Did a lot of training. Went with Michele and the cougars to a Linda Koutsky obedience seminar in KC. What fun! Went with Marsha to O’Hare to pick up Vinnie. More fun! More lay-offs at work. My job got reorganized. Wet field conditions delayed the planting season. Farmer was impatient. Cardiologist mentioned I should avoid stress. Phoenix finished his U-CD.

JUNE

Made my first (and only of ‘09) phone call to the National Weather Service to report flash flooding after we got 3.5” of rain in about an hour. Spotted my first rotating wall cloud to the west of our house. Didn’t get to call it in to NWS because Williamsburg Emergency Management beat me to it . . . they were parked at the end of our lane, watching MY cloud. Katie and Beau came to visit for a weekend, bringing the dog total at our house to five: three Shelties and two Belgians. A good time was had by all.

JULY

I baked zucchini bread. Lots of zucchini bread. Lots and lots of zucchini bread. Jamie turned 10. Dad went into hospice care. The first cherry tomatoes ripened on the vine and the dogs ate them. Phoenix caught a ground squirrel. I obsessed about finding the ideal dumbbell for Phoenix after he broke his perfect Joe Fiest dumbbell. I finally spent the money and ordered a custom-size Invince-a-Bell from J&J. July set a month for record cold temps.

AUGUST

Showed Phoenix in UKC Open. Obsessed about heeling with my left arm up or down. Finally decided on up. Rilda threatened to "help" my decision with duct tape. Poweshiek Water trenched a line to our house and we hooked up to rural water. No more orange well water! The Belgians continued to eat tomatoes off the vine as fast as they ripened. August set rainfall records for the month. Connor turned 15, then passed away a week later. He gave me so many wonderful things. I miss my Skunk Dog.

SEPTEMBER

I did nothing but show dogs and camp this month: obedience at the Amana and Des Moines clusters, agility at Granger and Scott County. Took some actual paid vacation time off work. Wow, what a wonderful, FUN FUN FUN month! 'Nix finished his GN on my birthday. Can it be September forever?

OCTOBER

Big transition at work, as our press room and mail room closed and all printing and distribution was moved to Des Moines. My job changed. Again. Many new procedures to learn. Many irate subscribers who did not get their papers to deal with. Cardiologist reminds me to avoid stress. Hauled in flowers to winter-over before the first frost. Took cuttings from others. Bought a remote control rat and had too much fun with it. Record rainfall delayed harvest. Farmer not happy.

NOVEMBER

Phoenix finished his U-CDX and AXJ. He celebrated by chasing a cat into the rotary hoe. Eight stitches sewed his side back together. The cat was fine. Weather finally dried out enough for the Farmer to continue harvest. The combine went up in flames. Stress? What stress?

DECEMBER

Snow. Snow. Snow. Ice. Fog. Rain. Snow. Ice. Dad died after five months in hospice. Thank doG he is finally at peace. Gannett announced more furloughs in the first quarter of next year. Christmas came and went with very little fanfare. Phoenix turned 3. He wanted a cat. Santa brought him a Big Mean Kitty. He loves it and is trying to dismember it. Life is good.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s a toast to our dogs, our friendships, love, laughter, joy and optimism in 2010!

Decembrrr

I took this picture as I drove up our lane last night on the way home from work. The sun was setting and everything was very quiet and very cold. I was lazy, didn't even get out of the van, just rolled down the window.

This picture represents one of the best things about winter: coming home at the end of the day. I know at the end of the lane is our warm (relatively speaking), comfortable house with two dogs who will be crazy happy to see me (because I'll fix their supper) and the Farmer, who will be crazy happy to see me (because I'll fix his supper . . . hmmm . . . I'm seeing a pattern.)

Today, I am thankful for creature comforts.

Happy birthday, Phoenix!

Yep, two posts today. It's Phoenix's birthday! He is three. Happy birthday, Wild litter!

Here's his bad little self at 10 weeks, in March 2007.
(Thanks Sheryl, for these pics.)

And last fall at the Des Moines cluster
when he finished his Graduate Novice title.
Where does the time go?

Remembering Kay

Anyone who showed in AKC or UKC obedience around the Midwest during the last 20 years will remember Kay Lowe. She passed away Dec. 25, 2009, and the sport lost a great supporter and tireless worker, as well as a kind and gentle woman who was a friend to all.

Kay shared her life with a variety of breeds, including goldens, shelties, pomeranians, samoyeds, American eskimos, border collies, a labrador, a brittany, a greyhound, an Australian shepherd and others. Many she trained and showed in the obedience ring. Some just hung out at home. All were beloved pets.

Most of Kay’s dogs came from rescue groups or animal shelters. She adopted dogs that had been thrown away by other people. Many times, these dogs went on to excel in obedience. That ability to see a diamond in the rough and turn it into reality was one of the things I admired about her most.

I met Kay in the early 1990s, when I was showing my first sheltie. We soon began traveling to matches, trials and seminars together, which provided no end of funny stories. Traveling with Kay was always an adventure.

Kay had absolutely no sense of direction and she freely admitted it. Of course, I had to learn that the hard way. The first time we traveled together, we were going to the UKC trials at Fort Dodge. I drove to her house and we loaded her van. When we were ready to leave, she told me I could drive. I soon found out why.

I had a pretty good idea of how to get to Fort Dodge from Springville, about a 3 hour trip, but Kay started giving directions (rather vague ones, but who was I to argue). An hour later, I realized we were still in Linn County. That’s when I got out a map and started ignoring her suggestions to “Turn here” and “Why don’t we see where this road goes?”

After that initial learning experience, we enjoyed many years of traveling together. I always drove, no matter whose vehicle we took. And I always plotted the route ahead of time. Our trips took us across Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota. Yeah, we got lost a few times but we always ended up in the right place eventually.

Kay was not into packing light. She brought everything you might need for a show weekend and more. We joked endlessly about her “subsidiary bags.” I teased her about taking so much stuff but if I ever needed any obscure item during the weekend she always had it.

Kay had one sheltie, Dreamer, who bore a striking resemblance to my Jess. He was a shaded sable with the same blazed face as Jess. He was a very pretty dog to look at. At one show, Kay was showing multiple dogs and asked me to take Dreamer in for Novice sits and downs. Of course I said yes. Dreamer reminded me so much of Jess. What could go wrong? We got through the sit just fine. When the judge told us to down our dogs, Dreamer looked at me with that beautiful, friendly, intelligent face and totally refused to lie down. I stood there, sweating buckets, giving every down command I could think of while the rest of the class waited, the judge stood there impatiently and Dreamer gazed at me and swished his tail and totally ignored me. It was a classic example of “IT’S NOT MY DOG!”

Kay was plagued with knee problems that reduced her mobility but never limited her enthusiasm for training, showing and teaching classes. She was a wonderful instructor and gave many newcomers to the sport an introduction to gentle, humane training methods. She taught for ICDOC, CRKA and 4RK9s. Kay used food liberally in her training and you could always count on her to have cheese to share. Her favorite line was “I suppose you want a piece that hasn’t been in my mouth.” She was one of the kindest, most patient trainers I have ever met.

I was so lucky to call her my friend. She was willing to help with whatever training problem you might be having and she would never give up on a dog or say it can't be done. When Connor and I were struggling with his jumping issues in Open, she offered constant encouragement and support.

Kay had a great sense of humor. On days when her dogs did not perform well in the ring, she would ask me, very seriously, “Is your van unlocked?” If I had a dollar for every time she threatened to put one of her dogs in my van, I would be rich. She also threatened routinely to put her misbehaving dogs on the raffle at a trial if one was offered.

Kay’s husband Kenny was a saint. Back in the good old days, Kenny drove Kay to all the local dog events. You could always see him carrying crates, pottying dogs and going to get whatever Kay needed. We were all so jealous and wanted our own “Kenny.”

I will miss Kay’s smile, her off-beat sense of humor and above all, her friendship.

Exercise finished.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

It's a rainy, windy day here. The predicted drop in temps and accompanying snow have not arrived. Yet. 

The threat of bad roads is keeping Mom at home. I think Sunday is Plan B for our family Christmas. We had Christmas with the Farmer's family last night. Today I'm going to be lazy: bake, read and play with the dogs. I have a recipe for chocolate covered cherry cookies I'm going to try.

Hope you are all able to enjoy the day with your loved ones. Phoenix is bringing me socks so I think we are going to work some retrieves now. What? Doesn't everyone train their dog on Christmas Day?

The official Christmas card pic

Merry Christmas, everyone!

And thanks again to Marsha for designing the card.

Phoenix was really disappointed there wasn't a cat in the package.
Maybe next year, buddy.

A malinois Christmas

Phoenix got his Christmas present early. It's one of those toys that have more little toys stuffed inside it. I got him a jack-o-lantern last fall that had a ghost and two bones stuffed in it. He was CRAZY about that thing but it seemed a little wrong to be playing with pumpkins and ghosts at Christmastime so I got him this gingerbread house.

Phoenix is a good boy with his toys. Seriously. You don't see a picture of Jamie playing with plush toys here, do you? There's a reason. He won't just squeak them and run around, throwing them in the air and pouncing on them and bringing them back to me to throw again like Phoenix. Oh no. The minute Jamie gets his teeth on a fuzzy toy, it's all over. He goes off in a corner and field dresses it. End of story. End of toy.


Phoenix occasionally does a little field dressing, too, but generally he is very careful with his "skeeks" and enjoys bringing them to me and shoving them at me to play.

Nix' birthday is Dec. 28. Of course he'll get another present then. Really, how could I NOT keep giving this dog presents?

Don't worry, Jamie will get a Christmas present, too. It will be something that's meant to be eaten in the first place.