STOP!!!

Can the world please stop just for a minute so I can catch my breath……PLEASE?

Life has been hitting me hard lately, and just when I think I can deal with and handle one situation, something else comes along to knock me on my ass.

This is one of those times that I need to sit back and realize that things aren’t really that bad in my life. No war or famine to deal with here, so I just need to put things in perspective.

Yeah, cancer sucks and it sometimes takes away people we love, but I really believe I’ll see them again.

And a current health issue with one of my dogs can be dealt with. I don’t want to see any of my animals sick, but I have the resources to take them to professionals who can hopefully make them better. (ummm…..Hello God?…..those resources, i.e. money, moola, credit cards…..are getting a little tight so can you please keep the rest of us healthy for right now?)

Oliver

Oliver says "Hello, I want to rub your face please".

I'll get back to writing more next week. For now, the animals all say hey.

Jeff

Jeff Pursell - 6/21/49 - 8/8/08. Rest in peace my beautiful brother.

His last email to me in June ended this way;

"Read your blog, it looks and reads great!! Keep it up.
Jeff"

I'm glad he liked it - I will keep it up for him.......

My Brother

I love you Jeff.

ipod for dummies

I just bought this - me who barely uses a cell phone, and have never figured out how to get my messages off of it! My current job is testing software and I was a programmer for 20 years but the last few years I've become an old fogey when it comes to new gadgets and being "connected". So this is my first IPOD and I get the latest fancy one for some reason (Ipod Touch). Now I need to find someone to help me figure it out. My first question - how do you adjust the volume?????

Blue Debut

Last weekend was Blue’s first trial. It was a novice trial that had 2 trials/runs each day for each class, but we only entered on Saturday since I was leaving for my WV trip on Sunday. And for his very first run, HE GOT A SCORE. Only a 52, but it was a very respectable run for a very novice dog. He went up the middle on his outrun and I gave him some flanks to help him go around the sheep, so we lost ½ our outrun points. He got a 7 on his lift. The fetch was off line so we lost ½ our points there too. The rest was okay but he was getting pushy and wouldn’t take a lie down so we weaved on the wear a bit, losing points there. I like that he was pushy because that is something to work with. (I have another youngster that I am always having to encourage to stay into her sheep. That’s another story though….. ) The sheep were very nice for the beginner dogs and forgiving when a dog was too tight or a little too pushy. So we got around the course and even penned the sheep.

On his second run, he again went up the middle and because the set out had been moved back he was very tight coming into the sheep and pushed them off to towards the exhaust. I left the post and went to help him because he looked a little stressed about pulling them off the fence at the exhaust gate with someone standing there. I got closer and he gathered the sheep, brought them to me and then we stopped there.

I was very happy with both of his runs and I know he’ll be lots of fun to bring up. I haven’t worked him much up to this point because of some of his issues with being sensitive, but he now takes corrections without getting stressed and so now he needs more time on sheep! I know he’ll progress very quickly from this point on. He’ll be a good sheepdog (even though he looks like a hound dog!).