Something Earth Shattering...

Scottish Deerhound Club of America, National Specialty Show.. Veteran Dogs, 9 yrs and over. This is the lineup. (5 were originally entered, so I thought, "OK, you're going to win something.")

At 10 years, 8 1/2 months old, Randir was the oldest dog in the lineup by 2 months. He still moves great. We had a lot of supporters ringside... when I trotted him down and back there was a lot of cheering.

The judge said, "You've got a lot of friends." I said, "I guess so." She then moved him up to second! My boy's having a hell of a specialty! Now I have to give money to another photographer!

These images by Margaret.

Scary Image of the Day

Fontana Dam. Part of the TVA system, and the highest dam east of the Mississippi. This is the view from our campsite!

First Brag...

Not a lot of time, but in Monday's LGRA race meet at the SDCA specialty, my old boy managed to win the Turtle! (For the uninitiated, that's the dog with the lowest score who finishes - in a racing manner- all three of their races. It's a very coveted award). He also won the award for being the oldest (10 years, 8 months) to do the same. Cool!

Hiatus.

Posting has been light lately. No particular reason, other than we've been cursed over the last couple of weeks with poor internet signals, which is the case today. We're at the Escapees Racoon Valley RV park north of Knoxville. We'll continue on our way to the deerhound specialty on Sunday. That will be a week-long event, and if anything earth shattering happens we'll be able to post on it, from our location on the southern edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. (Earth shattering to be defined by how well Randir does in the show ring in veterans!)

Might as well show the schedule for the next couple of weeks. Following the specialty, (and a trip to Wheeling to have Rally's hock repaired), we will be at...

May 5-6 OKIGO AKC trial Fairborn, OH
May 12-13 MGA ASFA trial Gibralter, MI
May 20 Silken Windhound Purina Farms
May 26-28 INBC AKC trials Shawnee, OK
June 2-3 ASFA II Farmington, MN
June 5-8 SCOA specialty Lexington, KY
June 16-17 Open weekend
June 23-24 LCLC ASFA trial Youngstown, NY
June 30 July 1 MGA ASFA trial Metamora, MI
July 7-8 BGCC ASFA trial Columbia, KY
July 21-22 Open weekend
July 27-29 Ridgeback Rodeo Conneautville, PA

Updates to follow...

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 1922-2007

The passing of an American literary icon. And iconoclast. Time to dig out the old books from storage. And get a Vonnegut film festival together from Netflix; don't think I've ever seen Mother Night.

Of all places, the best memorial I've read today, is by that dancing, globetrotting, madcap blogger, Matt Harding, (from Where the Hell is Matt? fame). Powerful stuff. And true. (but I'm still not removing the semicolon in the first paragraph!)

If you're Sirius radio subscribers, (or want to try it out online free for three days), you can catch a rebroadcast on Sunday evening, of today's "Vin Scelsa's Idiot's Delight" show, which was, in turn, a replaying of his 1996 interview with Vonnegut Jr. on his WNEW broadcast radio show. Well worth looking up.. I think it's on at either 7 or 8 PM Eastern time, Sunday April 15.

Galgos Revisited

With the end of the Galgo poll, I suppose you want to know the answer: The top image is Tuxedo. The bottom image is Queenie. Queenie is a Loomis, Nebraska staghound. Congratulations to those two-thirds of respondents who figured that out.

Comments- and A New Poll

Maybe you noticed I let a couple of weeks go without any posts. I was simmering... a little pissed, even. I try to make this blog informative, and to an even greater extent: entertaining. Other than a couple of comments that I actively solicited, I got no feedback on my April Fools Day post.

I realized part of the problem was that comments on this blog are moderated.. and you have to create an identity (even if it's "anonymous"). Maybe more work than you're willing to put in to it. (Or maybe you really believe "Bubba's" ancestors were created by Georgia hillbillies!)

So, I'm thinking of unmoderating the comments section. I originally did it because I got spam comments. I've created a new poll.. over on the sidebar. If the numbers support it, I'll remove the hard parts...