Zoey, the Serial Toy Killer!!!

Zoey is known as the Serial Toy Killer or Destuffer. She will take a stuffy toy and have it destuffed in under 10 seconds. So I sent her a box of stuffies that she could enjoy all her own, and she went about doing what she now does best, destuffing. She likes to keep her "victims" close to her and won't allow any of the other dogs to play with them...lol. She reminds me of the bad neighbor boy Sid in Toy Story who did all kinds of nasty things with his toys.

Zoey really is living the life of luxury in Florida, and has really tugged at the heartstrings of her new best friend Jonathan. Zoey is a superspecial girl who deserves the best I can give her and this is the best for her, that story will come later.

My New Travel Website

I've researched this business for quite some time now and decided to take the plunge and like the Nike slogan says, "just do it". Travel is something we all do from time to time and if you are like me, you are always looking online to find the best price available. The prices on my site are very competitive and you can book all your own travel, send flowers, book flight, hotel, car and cruises, weekend trips, all inclusive trips, and your favorite golf vacation.

Please come take a peek at my new site, sign up for the weekly hot new travel deals, and I'd really appreciate if you would book your next vacation or travel on my site. http://www.dlmvacations.com/

Have fun and enjoy your spring!!!

Our Latest Dog Show

We traveled to York, PA for the March 15 & 16 shows. I had Vanna and Steeler entered, and was hoping they would behave as Vanna hadn't been at a dog show since January, and Steeler has been out of the ring since September of last year. I am happy to say that Vanna won her class both days and was RWB on Saturday, and Steeler was 2nd on Saturday and 1st in his class on Sunday. They both were very good in the ring and I was very pleased with their performances. I had a lot of nice compliments about my girl Vanna, so I think her fan base is going to be big. I just hope she continues to "behave" like she did at these shows, as she is such a goof ball.

Pictured here is Vanna in the ring, thanks for the picture Peg!!!

I had a great time visiting with old friends, seeing a very nice new litter in the ring that will likely be kicking some butt in the future, making new friends, and just relaxing back in the motorhome, thanks for letting me stay with you Pat.

Our next set of shows will be outdoors on May 3 & 4, Saturday being at the beautiful Tinicum Park in Buck County which is on Route 32 on the Delaware River, and Sunday at Mercer County Park in Trenton, NJ. So if you aren't doing anything, stop in and say hi (you can contact me FMI).

Tyler started Karate

Well, being Tyler doesn't want to wrestle, play baseball or soccer, we decided to enroll him in Karate. Along with his friend Shawn, he goes to Karate three nights a week. Being he is just starting, he is only a white belt, but he is working hard to get his yellow belt which he can try for in another 2 months (he has to be a white belt for 3 months). Tyler seems to really enjoy himself, and is starting to "get it" as at first I thought he never would.

The instructor is a very nice young man who is in the Black Belt Hall of Fame and his training goes directly back to Grandmaster Lee Won-Kuk. This Grandmaster only allowed students of the HIGHEST character to join his academy and the training was extremely strict and disciplined. Grandmaster Lee began training a young boxer by the name of Duk Sung Son, who became a Grandmaster also. While in the USA, Grandmaster Son taught Joe Trovato, who later relocated to the Pocono Mountains in PA, and taught Rich Gross. Sensei Gross then went on to be the instructor for Sensei Paul Maglionico who is head instructor at the Mountain Karate Academy where Tyler trains. Grandmaster Son is one of the top Martial Arts Masters in the world, and it's exciting to know that Tyler is being trained by this generation of apprentices.

Instructor Paul is very good with the kids, and he really enjoys teaching his skills to them. Tyler is looking forward to the day he gets his yellow belt.

Westminster KC - 2008

I have attended the Westminster Kennel Club every year for the last 15 or so years, missing only the year my son was born. I am a country girl through and through, but I LOVE to go to the Big Apple. Probably cause I don't drive, the train is the way to go. This year my niece Melissa, her friend Dana and my friend Pat came too.

Anyway, Melissa, Dana and I got to the Garden on Monday morning around 8:00 am and drug my luggage up to the 17th floor of the Pennsylvania Hotel. Pat wasn't arriving until around 10:30 am. My friend Debbie, her friend Nikki (and my new friend too), and her handler Reggie were already camped out in the room. We got Debbie's dogs, Aerly and Trent, ready for the walk over to the Garden and headed out. Aerly's ring time was 11:30 am and Trent 12:30 pm. We all found a good place in the stands to sit and watch the action take place in the Border Collie ring. There were 17 BC's entered and we screamed and clapped for the one we liked, which was Debbies of course, and the one standing in the end at the Best of Breed spot was Debbie's boy Aerly along with his handler Reggie. What a great thrill it was to watch a young up and coming dog win the Breed over seasoned winners, and Debbie was teary-eyed and elated to say the least.

There wasn't much time for celebration cause Debbie needed to get Trent ready for his ring time. Melissa, Dana, Pat and I headed up to the stands to watch our beloved Whippets in the ring. Trent has been in semi-retirement and comes out at a few select shows. He was the #1 Whippet in 2004, and he's been taking it easy the last few years. There was a total of 20 Whippets ranging in age from 2 - 7 years entered for judge Lou Guerrero. He narrowed the field down to about 8 whippets, and when he finally chose his winner, he went over took hold of Debbie's hand, pulled her out into the center of the ring and said "thank you, you're Best of Breed". It was chaos and bedlam where we were sitting as our screaming and whistling was immense. We were thrilled to watch the 7 year old Veteran, Trent, being chosen BOB over all the current winning dogs. This time tears came to my eyes. I was so happy for Debbie and Dan and Bruno. It is a dream come true to win the Breed at the Garden, but to have two breed winners the same year was beyond real. The rest of the day was a whirlwind, lunch with friends and talking to other whippet people back at the bench while waiting for the groups that night. Trent did make the cut in the Hound Group, but didn't place, and Aerly was not a very good boy in the Herding Group ring, so he didn't make the cut, but I'm sure we'll see more of Aerly in the next few years winning the breed at the Garden once again.

Tuesday was lots of fun with Pat, everyone else went home. We watched some breeds we knew nothing about, and actually Pat picked a lot of the same winners the judges did, I was impressed. We walked 11 blocks to go to dinner at Carmine's (44th Street between 7th & 8th Ave), had a few drinks, bought a bottle of wine on the snowy walk back to the Hotel Penn, drank some wine and headed over to watch the groups and Best In Show. The Beagle ended up winning Best In Show and is a very nice dog, but I was routing for the Australian Shepherd to win it all.

If you've never been to the Westminster Kennel Club, it is something you must do once in your life. I'm already anxious to go next year, but that is a long way away. But for now, I have these memories, and memories from "Westminster Past", I'll tell you about them sometime.

Watching Aerly Win BOB - PRICELESS
Watching Trent Win BOB - PRICELESS
Just Being at Westminster - PRICELESS

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Room 220 - Trenton, NJ

When it was decided to once again go to the Westminster Kennel Club show in NYC, my niece Melissa, her friend Dana and I decided we didn't want to get up at 3:00 am on Monday morning to get the 6:00 am train in Trenton, so we had the great idea to get a hotel room near the train station on Sunday night. So I researched the area online and found a hotel about a mile from the train station. Now I've stayed in a lot of hotels in my day, some good, some bad, but I knew we were in trouble when I went to check in and there was a sign stating "TV Remote Control $5.00". I thought to myself this must be a rough place, but paid for the room anyway.

The winds were howling outside and the temp was around 15 degrees with a wind chill of -10 degrees, very cold to say the least. We were all looking forward to getting inside, locking the door and being nice and cozy warm. Upon entering the room we turned up the heat and had a look around. We waited for the room to get warm, and we waited, and we waited, and we waited. The heat finally turned on, blew through the vent for about 2 minutes then shut off and all that blew out was cold air. We just about froze off our tuckus' that night, but we stayed bundled up in the blankets for warmth, even though we weren't sure what may have been lurking in that room.

The room looked like it went through WW2 with all the repair spots on the walls. The bathroom toilet had cigarette burns on it. I did take a shower before bed and was surprised to find there was actually HOT water. Off we drifted to sleep and in the middle of the night someone decided to blow their horn, over and over and over and over again...bout scared me to death!!! Then there was a pounding on a door down the corridor about 15 times. Lord knows what that was all about. Needless to say, I won't be staying in that hotel anymore.

Trip To Trenton - NICE BUT WINDY
Stay In Hotel - AWFUL & COLD
Getting On The 6 am Train - PRICELESS

The Almighty Vanna

I really didn't have any intentions of buying a show dog from anyone else, as I have a bunch of my own that need showing, but when I saw the pics of the "Roux 12", my eye was immediately drawn to Puppy #12, the last pup in a very large litter. As the breeders kept posting stacked pics since around 5 weeks old, I watched this puppy get better and better each week. Upon meeting P-12 (as she was called for a very long time) I saw this beautiful dark eyed girl who was just the sweetest looking thing. Sitting down in the kitchen with Kari, she told me all about P-12.

Vanna, as she is now called certainly does have a mind of her own. If she wants to come to you when you call her she will, if she doesn't then good luck trying to get her. If you forget to close the bathroom door, she'll come up with devious plan to get the toilet paper off the roll, or used tissues from the bathroom trash. If you go out of the room for a split second, she'll find one of Tyler's toy figures or a pen or pencil to chew up. She will play with the squeaky toys for a while, then decide to kill it, and we have fluffy stuffing all over the floor. She is learning to catch bits of food that I throw to her, cause if she don't catch it, Paco will most likely get it. She once snapped a martingale hound collar that was made with mountain climbing strength plastic parts, she wanted that bunny BAD, that's how she got the name "The Almighty Vanna".

All in all, she is a wonderful dog who loves to be under the covers at night, just wish she'd stay there instead of in and out, in and out, in and out.....well you get the picture. I wouldn't trade her for the world. I thank her breeders Linda, Kari & Erin Day for all the love and care they put into this litter of 12.

I'm looking forward to getting Vanna out to the shows and races this spring and summer. Hope she'll kick some butt!!!