June 29, 2006

Humvee, the Travelin' Man

It was a fun weekend for the Humvee. Thursday evening saw him being bundled up into a 500 crate (a virtual palace of a crate!) and loaded onto an Alaska Airlines jet for a quick hop up to Portland for the Lower Columbia Siberian Husky Club Specialty and the two days of shows following it.

While Humvee didn't do anything outstanding at the show, his sister, Roxie did get her Championship on Friday. That was pretty exciting since I got to take her into the Winners Bitch class and be handed the purple ribbon!

Humvee got to hang out with his sister and baby brother, Tazo, as well as get 100% of Mom's attention. It's not often that I only travel with one dog. He amazed everyone with his behavior in a soft crate (good) and was Mr. Mellow the entire weekend. We did discover that he does have protective tendencies; anyone knocking on my hotel room got a good growl from Humvee. And he's got a big boy growl!

Upon arrival at LAX and release from his crate, he informed me that he was DONE riding in the crate for a while and rode home on the floor of the van, where I could reach down and pet him. I rarely ever let the dogs ride loose, but he'd been such a good boy all weekend and didn't fuss about the whole flying thing that I bent the rules, just this once.

Now Tinks and Humvee have both successfully flown (Tinks moved to California from Texas, via American Airlines) and I'm ready to take them both to Rockford, IL for the SHCA National Specialty.

Speaking of adorable, here's the next little darling who may come live at Kaos. Dixie, as she's being called, was born 5/17/06 and we're eagerly waiting a few more weeks of growing to learn if she's going to be the newest Kaos resident.


We've got a long weekend at home, a weekend at the shows in Ventura and then I get to fly up to Sacramento to visit Dixie and her brothers, Toby & Trace. I can hardly wait!!!

June 20, 2006

Best Brace in Show

What a fun weekend! In the sweltering, humid heat of Chula Vista, Satinka and Katie played at being a trained brace and...pulled it off! Beating a brace of Golden Retrievers and a brace of Mini Schnauzers, the girls were awared Best Brace in Show on Saturday. What a rush!!! It made staying outside all day and the resultant sunburn more than worth it. And then, on Sunday, Satinka won Winners Bitch for her third point.

What a great weekend!!! This weekend it's off to Canby, Oregon with Humvee for the Lower Columbia Siberian Husky Club specialty. It's also Humvee's first plane flight. Should be entertaining!

June 13, 2006

Welcoming the newest member of the Kaos pack!!!

We all know and love him.....Humvee! Humvee is staying at Kaos. He'll be loved and shown by me, his Momma instead of heading out into the big bad world with his other Mom.

I'm so excited to have him and hope that we make both Tony & Adele and his breeders proud of us in the ring.

And I feel like a huge dark cloud has been lifted. My baby boy is staying home :-)

Welcome home, Dorkboy Jr.

Love, Momma

June 08, 2006

The Case of the Missing Pork Roast

It began like any other evening, getting home from work with a "to do" list longer than the remaining awake hours of the day allowed. But there was a difference; from the kitchen counter the smells of the pork roast in the crock pot wafted through the house, encouraging the residents to get some of the "to do" list deeds accomplished to sit down and eat.

One by one, the residents of the home grabbed some dinner and headed off for bed. The house guest, the first one to go, pronounced the roast "splended" and "perfect for my lunch sandwich tomorrow." Dad, heading to bed early, grabbed his dinner and went upstairs to watch some TV in peace (somehow he doesn't consider 17 Siberians conducive to "peace").
Mom and Grandma continued to toil, one by one crossing off the items on their lists and looking forward, with great delight, to consuming some of the roast that had been tantalizing their senses for hours.

Finally, the time had come. Mom and Grandma pronounced themselves "done for the day." Mom went upstairs to kiss Dad goodnight and Grandma let the canine crew in for some evening quality time.

The peace of the evening was shattered with Grandma's shriek of "RYYYYDDEERRR" echoing through the house. As Mom jumped up to run downstairs she analzyed the vocal qualities of the shreiking. After concluding that it wasn't a dog fight kind of yell, she slowed enough to take the stairs one at a time. By the time she arrived downstairs, all was quiet. There were no tell tail yellow stains indicating Ryder had lifted his leg inappropriately; there were no destroyed pieces of clothing or furniture....what was that shriek for?

Grandma recounted Ryder's offense: He ATE the remaining pork roast! Ryder, the Master Counter Surfer, waited until Grandma was distracted by the 12 other dogs in the house (including the three very accomplished distracting puppies) and snagged three pounds of pork roast off the counter with out making a single sound. His mad dash for the crates gave him away as the primary suspect in the case of the missing dinner.

Grandma and Mom settled down for their dinner of brussel sprouts, the scent of pork roast tantalizing them with their loss. Then Mom uttered those fateful words: "I hope that gives you the sh*ts, Ryder."

P.S. It didn't.

June 05, 2006

Saying Goodbye....

How do you say goodbye to a puppy who's stolen a piece of your heart? Humvee, who I knew from the beginning wasn't a permanent Kaos resident, is going home next week. This little puppy has wrapped my heart around his little paw. We've done a LOT in our 6 months together. Humvee went to his first puppy match with me (he won Best of Opposite Sex!). Humvee won Winners Dog the first time with me (he beat Ryder). Humvee won his first Major Reserve Winners Dog with me handling him. And, last weekend, Humvee won Winners Dog for his very first point with me on the end of the leash. And, the milestone of all puppy boys, Humvee started lifting his leg and peeing like a big dog with me (not on my...at my house!) I've leash trained him, crate trained him, house trained him and given him, I hope, the best possible foundation for his career in the show ring I could. He's confident and happy, well socialized and yet, fairly well behaved. I know that I couldn't have loved him more if he'd been my own dog for more than just the last six months.

In my heart, he'll always be my baby boy. But now it's time for him to leave the nest, move in with his new parents and make his mark in the world. And, I expect, it'll be quite a big mark!

Take good care of my baby.