blame that on puppy induced sleep deprivation. I passed my exit this
morning and made a costly 15min detour over a long and traffic
congested bridge this morning. Duh.
It is all worth it though!
Xander and I spent our last puppy-free weekend together at the
Palmetto AKC trial. We left Friday after work and drove to our friend
Terri’s house where she lives in Tampa. Terri very graciously lent us
her spare room and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her and
her dogs rather than staying in a skuzzy motel somewhere. (or sleeping
in a tiny tent on the ground. Although that was kind of fun the last
time we were in Palmetto almost a year ago).
We hadn’t been to an ACK, I mean AKC trial since February, and I have
to admit my mind wasn’t really in the game. For one thing, I knew I
would be driving home on Sunday and passing through Deland to pick up
our new little bundle of fun. For another thing, my mom came to visit
on Saturday and I spent the day catching up with her. And for another
thing, it is AKC, and AKC just tends to be boring. Long days, lame
courses filled with pinwheels and tiny tables and millions of dogs.
Hours spent waiting for a few runs. But it was agility, and we enjoyed
being there in spite of it all.
In addition to spending time with my mom, I got to hang out with a
number of cool people over the weekend, see lots of cute puppies (some
newer, some older), which made me long for Sunday afternoon again, and
play some Frisbee with Xander. We had a goofy FAST run on Saturday
morning, but were one of the few to get the send, so we Q’d. Although
I think I did the weaves in the wrong direction, and he knocked the
triple, so our points were not impressive. Oh well, I expected some
rust considering we hadn’t been to any trials at all since the
beginning of June. Standard was actually gorgeous except for one minor
problem. My formerly flawless table has been replaced with “gee mom,
do I really have to get on the table? And do I really have to stay on
the table?” Ugh. BUT our summer-long effort in practicing contacts has
paid off. His A-frames were GLORIOUS all weekend. Stuck. Held. Not
affected by my position or movement until verbal release. SO happy
about that. Hope I can manage not to break it again this season.
Jumpers on Saturday was just a train wreck. We pulled it together for
the second half of the run, but good god that was hilarious. It was
ENTRIRELY my fault though, since I was chatting with mom and one of my
former students and didn’t warm him up and barely made it to the line
as the were telling me “you are in the ring, NOW!” Ooops. Bad
distracted handler. Sorry Xan.
After leaving the trial, I took my mom home to their fishing village
in Bradenton, so that she didn’t have to ride the bus for another
hour. I was given a little tour of the area and made the return drive
to Tampa. My delightful GPS screwed me over on the way back and first
sent me into the Tampa airport, and then sent me back over the 7 miles
of bridge on 275. We drove over that damn bridge three times before
finally making it back to Terri’s house. Nothing a little girl’s night
our complete with an Artisian Cooler (super yummy drink) couldn’t fix.
Sunday morning I regrouped and gave Xander the focus he deserved. We
had an awesome Time 2 Beat run with a stellar A-frame again, and
earned 9pts toward that extraneous title. Standard was awesome again
with one minor flaw. A little too much momentum led to an off course,
BUT he had a beautiful table while I showered him with praise, and
another gorgeous A-frame. Love that boy.
Since jumpers wasn’t going to run for hours, and I had lots of driving
and a puppy to pick up before bed, I decided to leave early. My
friends Chris and Carol couldn’t believe I had waited that long. So we
departed at 1:30, finding out later from Terri that our class didn’t
run until 3:30 at which time it was pouring down rain. So glad I made
that decision!
By just short of 5pm, I had Trudy secured in her car
seat/backpack/rolling carrier in the front seat and was heading back
to Jacksonville. She screamed bloody murder for the first 30mins, took
a power nap, and screamed for a bit more until I pulled over for a pit
stop. She pottied quickly (good girl) and was not quite so dramatic
the rest of the way home.
Buster met us in the garage when we pulled up and was greeted
enthusiastically first by Xander. I took Trudy out to meet her new dad
and get reacquainted with Xander before subjecting her to any corgis.
Once outside of her little prison, she wagged her tail fiercely and
greeted us all enthusiastically. Xander was very patiently tolerant of
her. Finally we scooped her up and went out to the backyard with two
curious corgis in tow.
Everyone was very appropriate but intensely interested in this new
little creature. Buster was kind enough to bring out the camera as we
admired how adorable she was. Soon enough, we had pics loaded on
facebook to formally announce the newest member of the Pruett
household.
Although the first couple of nights sleeping in her new crate with her
new family have been a little rough, she is very quickly settling into
the routine and getting the hang of things. As she has gotten more
comfortable, her personality has continued to emerge. She is
confident, bold, fearless, thoughtful, brave, funny, playful, loving
and smart. She has good sense, except when it comes to heights, but is
respectful of the dogs. She has been using her potty patch in the
ex-pen during the day with great success, and we have only had one
accident so far which was my fault. She had no problem walking on
leash for the first time, made easy friends with the neighbor,
retrieved a ball several times, tugged fiercely in the face of
distractions and new locations, barked and screamed for meals before
devouring them ravenously, and overall been precociously adorable.
Buster and I are completely smitten. She has woken me every time she
needs to potty at night, and has gone from screaming like a Harry
Potter mandrake to crying softly. I have not had to clean up her crate
or her ex-pen, and she potties quickly once outside. Little Ally
McSqueal (as Buster dubbed her) does NOT like to be locked up out of
sight, but is getting better every day. She really prefers to be
directly underfoot or in your arms or lap, but she is beginning to
gain some independence and started exploring more last night.
After watching her climb like a monkey and find all the power cords
and tug on the doormat last night, we have a feeling she will be a
little terror very soon. She couldn’t be more perfect.
I am loving all of the puppy training and being sleep deprived and
looking forward to socializing her and doing clicker training and all
the wonderful things that come along with a new puppy. It will also be
exciting to see what she turns out to be. At eight weeks and only 5ish
lbs, I am thinking she will not be very big at all. Regardless, as she
gazes up at me with one soft brown eye and one intense blue eye, I am
hopelessly in love with my little pocket collie.
Welcome to the family Trudy!
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