Skip to main content

It's been a while!

How pathetic that I've let my blog go for THIS LONG! But, it's been a wild and crazy last few months. On a personal front, I have a new occupation as a contract landman, and I just love it! The courthouse is 10 minutes from my house, and I do the vast majority of work from my home. I love having more time with my dogs.

As for the dogs, well - wow - I am down to four! I did some serious paring down of numbers and recalculated my goals for the next few years. It almost feels like I don't have any dogs at all, really.

The biggest news I have is that my little rabbit, fox and raccoon hunter, Sniper, is the #9 Rat Terrier for 2010. I am VERY proud of my boy - not only is he an amazing hunter, but his temperament is just to die for, and he's a beautiful representation of the breed!



This year we are only hitting mostly local shows, and of course we are going to hit Premier in Kalamazoo in June. I haven't been to a show since December, and I am ready to hit the show ring again this weekend. I won't be able to show my chocolate menace, Jada, but I will be showing Rooster once and Rodear three times. I am taking it slow with the Red Rooster - I have huge plans for him in the future.

Anyway - hope to see you all around more often! With just the Fab Four, I am hoping that we will be doing more hunting and performance events this year, as well as making more camping trips!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

High Toes

Sometimes I get into discussions with people about dog structure and really, really, it makes me want to beat my head against a wall. However, those always make me publish those words and pictures that have been rattling around in my head for a while. Case in point – someone posted on a board that they thought that a high toe on a dog was a “cosmetic fault.” My opinion on this is fairly solid – NO! A high toe is a STRUCTUAL fault. Someone then posted that they wanted “proof.” Ah, here we go. The boondoggle of proof! Studies! Someone, somewhere, somehow agreeing or disagreeing with my point! The unfortunate thing is that it really isn’t to be found. Our Proof wanter found a website in which a couple had a Staffordshire Terrier with a high toe, and they readily admitted that the high toe caused issues with her gait, but then concluded that it was just a cosmetic issue. Hmm, really? The document can be found here , you can look at the pictures and read it for yourself. (Don't use the ...

Brindle and the Rat Terrier

It seems like every once in a while the topic of brindle comes up in the Rat Terrier world. Teeth are gnashed and garments are rendered because brindle is not an acceptable pattern in our breed, and the standard says that brindle is a disqualification. The standard probably won’t change any time soon, and I certainly hope that it will NEVER include brindle! Why? The UKC standard says, in the very beginning, that “These terriers probably included crosses between the Smooth Fox Terrier, the Manchester Terrier and the now extinct white English Terrier… Some of these dogs were crossed with Whippets or Italian Greyhounds (for speed) and Beagles (for hunting ability).” Let’s take a look at the ancestors of the Rat Terrier and how their standards treat brindle: Smooth Fox Terrier UKC : Serious Fault AKC: Objectionable Manchester Terrier: UKC: Disqualification AKC: Disqualification Whippet: UKC: Any color/pattern accepted. AKC: Any color/pattern accepted. Italian Greyhounds: UKC: Disqualif...

Yard and other work at the Jackalope House

This post has been sitting for a while - mostly because I was more annoyed than I should have been that Blogger ate most of my post, and I didn't feel like re-doing it! Anyway, this post should have been posted on November 14th. I discovered on Wednesday evening when I came home from Bible study (the topic of which was gratitude, natch) to discover that my tub faucet running at full blast. Thankfully I am intimately familiar with the location of the water shut off valve to the house, so I shut off the water. My next thought went to my hot water heater - should I shut it off as well? A quick Yahoo search revealed that YES, I should shut off Bliss lest I burn him up. With that done, I went to bed, not feeling very grateful. The next morning, I cracked open my Home Depot book about faucets and ta-da! I figured out what it probably was, so I took apart the faucet to confirm what the book said. And I, dear readers, fixed that sucker. After a work meeting. In a dress and heels no ...