Soggy.

 

What a soggy weekend in Oklahoma. Lots of great roostertail images yesterday, but today it started raining about 4am, and was still raining during the JC rollcall, while the organizers scrambled around to shorten the course so that it could be run without bogging down and burning up the motors. Didn't happen. Trial and Tests cancelled.

Presidential Comedy..

Some would say the whole Presidential process is comedy, but far be it from me...

Anyway, saw this this morning on George Stephanopoulos. George thinks it's the best ad of the early campaign. I can't disagree. Fairly compelling case for the candidate as well.

Immediate Schedule...

...plan accordingly. ;)

Memorial Day Wknd: INBC, Shawnee, OK (incl. Friday practices)
June 2-3: ASFA II, Farmington, MN (10 of last 11 II's!)
June 5-8: SCOA Nat Specialty, Lexington, KY
June 10: LARC LGRA, Oberlin, OH (and maybe the 9th, too!)
June 16-17: Open
June 23-24: LCLC, Youngstown, NY
June 30-July 1: MGA, Metamora, MI (no rooftop storage this year!!)
July 4-8: BGCC, ASFA & AKC, Columbia, KY.
July 14-15: Open

Frankly, I Never Would Have Gone Beyond the Clay Model Phase.

Dog Breeders Issue Massive Recall Of '07 Pugs

LUNCH So Good It'll Make You Weep...

OK... We gotta stop eating like this.

We're resting up after Silkenfest. Spending a couple of nights at the Pin Oak Creek RV Park in Villa Ridge, MO. Several of the Silken folk had somehow discovered The Hawthorne Inn during their specialty. They didn't say it was good or bad, just that it had a bar, and when the specialty was over, many of them needed a drink.

Well, this place is in Union, about 5 miles from the campground. Margaret needed to go to the post office, so we decided to have lunch there. What can I say? We keep bumbling into just the very best places. (So far, we've been lucky enough not to stumble into a place so bad I need to blog it... but believe me, I'll do it when it happens!).

Just plain outrageous presentation for lunch- (I'll have to start taking the camera to meals.. again, almost too pretty to eat). I had Grouper Diablo... a large grouper filet broiled and topped with a delicious scallion sauce. Margaret had Macadamia Mahi... yeah a Macadamia Nut crusted Mahi Mahi, smothered with a pineapple mango chutney. Both had shells in a creamy sauce on the side, and a really good dinner salad. Atmosphere was quiet, with dark wood, belying the fact that it was in a brand new strip plaza, in a very brand new commercial area of what was obviously not too long ago a quiet country village. Even the college across the road looks brand new. A well stocked bar, which we'll have to try the next trip.. (Margaret always talks me out of booze or wine at lunchtime.)

Tonight we'll be eating at Super Smokers,because the road goes on forever, and the party never ends!

Wake Up America.

I don't live in California, and I don't ever intend to visit there again if this piece of excrement bill passes. Thanks to George Bell for creating this film, and HT to Margory Cohen for alerting us to its existence.

Rally Update.

I mentioned in a previous post I'd update Rally's progress. I can't recall if I posted about her original injury, but for the record, it was late February, and we were out in a small field near Roswell. I just had Rally, and David Hise had a new Saluki x Greyhound he was trying out. Rally was out of position when the hare jumped, but soon caught up with the Saluki. They turned the hare hard left..

...and within another 2-3 strides Rally pulled up. And slowly came back to me on three legs. Within a few minutes, the area below the hock swelled significantly...


We were going to be in Texas within a week, and I planned on getting X-Rays done by a country vet we'd gone to previously, in Santa Anna. So I just iced the area several times a day, and alternated Bigel Oil wraps, with DMSO/Dexamethasone treatment. It took a long time- almost 10 days- for the swelling to abate.

The good news is that the X-Rays showed no fractures. We sent them off to Dr. Radcliffe in West Virginia to be sure we weren't missing anything. Unfortunately, Dr. Jim was unable to see the X-Rays when they arrived. He couldn't see anything when they arrived, and it would be more than a month before he could see anything... but that's another story.

Without a fracture, I decided we could wait on treatment until we could go to WV in person. That would be after the Deerhound Specialty in late April, or two months hence.

So wait we did. Dr. Radcliffe diagnosed a torn.. ("shredded" was his exact word).. plantar ligament. Too short to repair, so it was replaced, with a length of stainless steel wire.


The Doctor said they've got dogs running at Wheeling Downs with this repair, so she should be as good as new in 4-6 weeks. You know, that calcaneous bone is a handy attachment point; I'm thinking of having mudflaps installed when we go back for Rally's follow up! I'm tired of getting dirt-spattered on starts.