A bit of follow up on past story lines

We hoped the Lab that Gable gave blood to would live months or even years but as it was he only lived a couple of weeks. In those weeks his family had a chance to prepare for their loss and to say their good byes. It was made possible by an unselfish gift the Henderson's and Gable gave them. Hanging on the wall at the Henderson's is a certificate proclaiming Gable as a hero.

The lost sheltie that Dusk and I tried to track had been gone three weeks and I got word he was found alive and well today. His owner got a call yesterday someone had spotted a smaller black dog in the field about 5 miles from her home. She went there to look and re posted fliers. This morning a man called and had just seen him. His owner went to the field and began walking around and calling. Then she saw his little head pop up and he ran to her awaiting arms. He is thin but unharmed.

Our trip to Seattle to compete with Aim the Golden and possibly to sneak my friend's bichon to see her at Harbor View Hospital was successful on both accounts. The drive over Friday was wet and slushy in parts. We made it to Seattle about 8 PM and thankfully had a hotel room waiting for us. The next morning we headed to the show grounds too early. I was really nervous about this show. Aim is not the most reliable dog in the ring. She can be really good in practice but tends to fall apart at a show. There is an adoptive home waiting for Aim when she wraps up her title so I wanted to get it done so she could go to her new home. The other thing that made this stressful was that I have been working on a goal for the last 17 or so years to earn an obedience title on a dog from each of the 7 AKC groups. If Aim could get this last leg she would complete her title giving me a dog from the sporting group and would in fact be the last group I needed to accomplish this life time goal. As I got out of the car at the show grounds I felt almost sick to my stomach. I scouted out the obedience building and watched the judging for a few minutes. I had more than 90 minutes before my class even started and I was far from the front of the huge class. I figured I had close to 3 hours to work up to my oncoming nervous breakdown. Poor Darrin was with me and of course I was miserable company. I paced and whined until Darrin hauled me out of there and we went to the huge swap meet that was sharing the fairgrounds. We managed to find a cheap lawn chair since I didn't pack any and then we found a nice folding wire crate that we could set up in the hotel room for the bichon. I had planned to haul her crate back and forth but having one set up for her certainly would make life easier. Well that burned up about a hour and by the time we set up Aim's crate and the chair my class was starting. We waited and waited and I paced and paced. After a small delay it was our turn FINALLY. Into the ring we went. The on lead portion felt great. Our figure 8's were smooth. The stand for Exam went perfectly. I went to line up for the off lead work and that little booger Aim took a wrong turn and headed out of the ring. This is typically an automatic disqualification. I was cursing her under my breath as I called her to me. I was reaching for my leash and telling the judge "Thank You" when he said "Wait you aren't done." I turned to him with a big question mark. He said "That was between exercises so I don't judge that and she didn't go far and came right to you." I felt like the heavens opened and the angels sang! This was a miracle!! Seriously if this happened 100 times 99 of them you would have been out of luck. But I was up for taking advantage of such a gift. I lined up and we started heeling off lead. Because my nostrils had been flaring and my eyes flashing when I sweetly called Aim back from her errant ways, Aim was trying really hard to please me. Her heeling was undoubtedly her best effort. She stuck to me like glue. Then we got ready for coming when called. She came in at a trot, sat straight and was only a little crooked on her finish. With our ring work done we were still unbelievably in the running. All that was left were the stays. Aim has always been good with her stays...but of course she had never been tested at a show. When we lined up I was smack between two HUGE dogs. On one side was a 180 pound mastiff boy the other side was an equally huge New Foundland. Aim barely came up to those dogs elbows. The 1 minute sit stay went well despite a bouncy lab who was excused before the 3 minute down stays. About a minute into the down the Newf looked at Aim and his tail started to thump thump on the floor. Then his ears went up and he sat up his tail making a happy racket on the floor. Then this huge black Newf stood up and took a step to Aim. About this time his owner broke ranks and headed over to him. Instead of quietly taking her dog out of the line up and leaving she turned her dog around and picked up her leash and number then stood there with her dog wagging his mile long tail and hip swaying a merry dance all over the place while she put the leash on him and finally led him away. By now I felt light headed because I had been holding my breath for much of the last couple of minutes. After what seemed like an eternity the judge said "back to your dogs." When all was said and done Aim earned a leg and a respectable score of 189.5. We took a major point hit when she left the ring BUT I was thrilled with my green ribbon, last leg, new title and sporting group done.

The next day although we were entered I chose not to show Aim and ended up not even attending the show. I had planned to go with a friend and watch the aussies but unfortunately she woke up sick so I went to Seattle with Darrin. While he worked I hung out and read which was actually pretty great. Monday I headed to the hospital to see my neighbor and friend who has been there the last month or so. I took her the mail and we worked on catching up on her bills and doing some necessary chores together. I knew I was wearing her out but it had to be taken care of. I had managed to keep my lips sealed about her dog being with us. We decided after Darrin was done at the office he would pick me up and then we would park and bring the dog up to her room together. I had one of those great kennel bags for the dog. I had taken the bag into the hotel the night before and put her in it for a while and marched up and down the room with her in the bag and Darrin watching to see if he could see her. I learned where to put my arm so she was less visible. Just after noon Darrin called and I went and met him. We parked and I started to get the bichon out when I discovered the dang bag was miles away in our hotel room. DANG IT!!! Without much thought I dumped the mail out of the bag it had been in and shoved the dog into the bag and zipped it mostly shut. We walked into the hospital like we belonged there. The only nervous moment was when the little pup's nose came poking up out of the zipper. She was wiggling it trying to get her head out but I crammed her back in and zipped it all the way shut while the man standing next to me was bug eyed wondering what he had just seen. I just stood there ever so calmly not getting eye contact and bolted out when the door opened to our floor. Charlyn was in bed looking sad and gray because she knew we were leaving soon and we had been her first and only visitors. I sat the bag down in the chair. While she greeted Darrin, I zipped open the bag and set her little dog on the bed beside her. Charlyn absolutely lit up. She got to hold and hug her dog for about an hour before we had to leave. It was funny to me how many people overlooked the dog entirely. The food service girl came and got the lunch tray didn't even notice the dog sitting less than six inches from the tray. Nurses came and went and unless they came to do something to Charlyn they didn't even notice. Charlyn's nurses loved seeing the dog and I think they loved seeing how happy Charlyn was. By the time we left Charlyn looked several shades rosier even if she was really tired. She told me she slept better that night than she had all the other nights. She also told me the dog was big news in the hospital. Although no one ratted us out while we were there they did discuss it after we left. Everyone seemed to agree that was some of the best medicine she had gotten since she was there. It was one of those things that they can't give you permission to do because it is a hospital but they seemed to realize the value of seeing family even if it is the four legged variety.