Under the weather..is "Stretch"ing it...

Personal talk about the hill field in Zamora, and well "the lack of performance"!

Suede (aka: Stretchy noodle) is one of our special boys!! This photo is one of his normal poses! (hands are on this dog all the time) Not only is he great on the sheep, he is the sweetest most laid back boy in the group. Sunday morning at the big field down the road he was what I would call absolute perfection. I was complaining to Ron GEE I WISH HE WAS QUALIFIED...He didn't make the cut for the nurseries this year, was born bad date wise, but is going to be a hell - of  - a - dog! Sunday afternoon we were on a walk with the dogs..when Ron noticed a HUGE (grapefruit) sized lump on his side. Of course immediately we think he is dying. All those weird thoughts go through your head like "was that why he was so good on the field this morning", is "this why he is such a love" ...anyway..trying not to hyper-ventilate, I simply say that feels weird, I am taking him in.

Well long story short...of course I cannot get into my "regular" vet, so I have to see a new one in the 8 doctor practice. We didn't hit it off that well with her, however clinically she seemed to  be doing the right things. We agreed that this needed checking, both cellular and surgically. The cytology showed just some bacteria and white blood cells. So the chances of him dying of cancer were slimming. I decided to leave him there for the afternoon and they would do the surgery. It was apparent this needed draining.

side view of his LUMP-Removal

Close up of the pretty stitching job!

Numerous calls later to the vet..at 8:00 pm she still hadn't done the surgery. I was quite frank on the phone..stating I would have brought the dog back the next day had I known she couldn't do it...anyway I was annoyed to say the least. At 11 pm she called to say she had done everything, he was awake and fine. The mass was an abscess that was surrounded by granulated tissue (hence the hardness of the lump) no foxtail, no foreign body, just an abscess.

Stretchy is now laying around in my office and is being put on house arrest for a few weeks. I guess things work in mysterious ways..had he been qualified for the nurseries he couldn't have run...aren't things bizarre?

Son of a Gun and Jules little Mint..

Captured for crate time!!

Our newest addition'(s) have arrived from Georgia...These 2 pups are grand babies of our lines. We were privileged to have sold K9znewe"Gunner" (Sweep x Jesse) to Matt Cook in Georgia. These pups are out of Matt's good bitch Jules and sired by Gunner. When Matt told us of the new litter we had to have them. This is a repeat breeding  of our little Kori. Kori is very keen, has a great temperament and has been a lot of fun to raise. We are really happy to have had a shot at getting these cute little one's. For now we are calling the little girl "Mint" she was brought over for someone else (HOWEVER...I am hoping I can keep her!) Name still pending on our boy!!!

Our Boy!! 

The two-some!!!

Ewers Last Chance to wrap it up....

We had a nice quaint trial at the house over the weekend. 60 dogs a day ran (30 in Open, 20 in Pro-Novice, and 11 in Nursery) We got fairly lucky with the weather, we had heavy cloud cover so it made the high humidity bearable (or well almost). We furnished lots of shade and cold drinks for the handlers. Seemed like everyone had a great time.

Handlers enjoying a "potluck" handler's dinner!!!

Some of the standouts of the trial that come to mind was our own K9znewe"Lace" who won the nurseries both days. Lace is a young nursery dog that will be running at the National Finals.

K9znewe"Lace"

Another stand out team this weekend was Jesse (Mom to Lace) and Ron. Wining both days of the pro-novice!!

Ron and Jesse!!! WINNERS Sat and Sun. at "Ewers Last Chance SDT"

After all this little girl has been through, she felt good enough to to run at the trial. (she hasn't been worked in 6 months) She has battled to stay alive on more than one occasion. Being that the trial was at home I thought  I'd give her a shot at running!! Callie ran a nice course on the first day settling in the middle of the pack. Day 2 Nursery Callie had a nice run only bobbling at the first drive gate. She ended with a score of 78 good enough to qualify for the National Finals Nursery!

Callie...Gets qualified!!! 

We have not decided whether she will run at Carbondale or not, we are not certain her damaged lungs can handle the elevation and or whether we can get her schooled enough to be competitive...but none the less just getting her this far is both a goal and a miracle!

Sly was another standout of the weekend, with a strong 3rd. place finish in Open on day #2.  A bobble on the the outrun (so much for home field advantage) kept her from winning!! I am happy to have gathered the last few point we would need to put us in a more solid slot in the finals list of entries. I will be competing with her in the Open at Carbondale, along with Soot..(who did not trial this  weekend!)

A few other standouts of the weekend were Bob Dias with his veteran dog McCloud winning the Open on Day 1, he had a nice clean run, and a well deserved win for he and his partner! Sara Goodman had a good weekend coming in 3rd. in Open 1 and 2nd in Open 2..surely there is a good partnership forming with this young pair. Day 2 open was won my Mike Meredith with his good dog "Gus". Mike and Gus are a winning combination! Some other good runs this weekend were Tricia Guidry and her 2 good girls "Tipper and Tara" , Jeff Blackstone and Dusk,  and Terry Parrish with Zula. The Nursery had a strong roster as well, and the Nursery dogs had to be on their best behavior, and like I mentioned above they were!! Pro-Novice had a strong group running also. Ron to win both days with Jesse and 4th. with Sweep on day #1. Others in the pro-novice included, Karen smith with a nice run, Albion Urdank with a nice solid run and many others!

A big thanks to Angela Akers who was an outstanding Judge! The sheep were really really nice, not as easy as everyone thought. There was a different spin on the word "farm flock" when many of us failed to pen and single in the open on day #1!! The Open class ran on rambouillet's and the Pro-novice/ Nursery ran on dorpers.

It was a really fun weekend, very few whiners (YEAH!!!!) no complainers! A nice relaxed atmosphere!Thank you to everyone who came and helped out, we really appreciate the volunteers!