We'll miss you, Gunny

When I started doing agility with Dax, quite a few people came up to us and said we had to meet Gunny - the only other French Bulldog most people knew doing agility.

Finally, in January of this year, we did get to meet Gunny and Andrea, his handler & "mom." It was one of those wonderful moments in life - we connected instantly and had a wonderful time getting to know each other. Dax wasn't quite sure at first, she gets a little jealous and I was so enthralled meeting this agility legend (Gunny was 11 years old!) that I forgot and made too much of a fuss over Gunny for Dax's liking. But she warmed up after a bit and we had a great time. Andrea was kind enough to give me some agility tips and Gunny was just wonderful.

I'm sure you know what's coming - Andrea lost her wonderful Gunny to some horrible stomach ailment that she did name, but I can't remember. It doesn't really matter what took him from us. It matters that he's gone, we miss him, and Andrea's heartbroken.

You can see more pictures of the amazing flying Frenchie on Andrea's Flickr stream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bullmarketshogun/

The Girls Like it Hot!

This is our fifth day of 90 degree heat here in the Chicago area. We had below-normal temperatures all spring, but but did summer start with a bang! (Literally - thunderstorms the day before summer began knocked out our power for a few hours at home.) Dax, Ceilidh and Golly all love to lie in the sun and bask! Silly girls - this is the last thing any of them should be doing. French Bulldogs are prone to heat stroke, and Ceilidh and Golly both have heart conditions that make basking kind of dangerous. So I've been carrying Dax and Ceilidh into the house - that's how I've been getting my bicep work in. Golly can be persuaded into the house most of the time with a yummy treat!

She did it!

Dax and I have missed a few weeks of Obedience training, between me having the flu, moving the shop, and then Dax eating rat poison. Yesterday evening we went for the first time in a month. I didn't really feel like going - but I knew I should, so I did. And I'm so glad I did! It's so easy to forget how much fun it is to get out and do stuff with your dog.
It helps, of course, that Dax was having fun, too. We've been working on her Retrieve on the Flat with her dumbbell and she's really getting pretty darn good at it. We still have to work on the end of the exercise - she's not crazy about coming to front and sitting while holding her dumbbell, but I'm trying to keep it fun.
She does love jumping, so I thought I'd try a Retrieve over the High Jump. And she did it! First time, every time! Who knew! We're discovering the bits of obedience that Dax loves.

The joy of moving

We're back!
And if I'm ever tempted to move again - please someone remind me that it took six days to get internet access again. I'm amazed at how much the world has changed in the last 10 years. Now, a day without the internet feels like the dark ages!
Of course, we had some literal dark ages lately, too! Two power outages at home in the last four days. The first one lasted a couple of hours and was understandable, we were in the midst of one heckuva thunderstorm. We weren't happy about it, but we understood.
This morning was just bizarre. Clear, sunny skies and all of a sudden the power goes out at 6 a.m. Weird, but at least in the daylight you can find your toothbrush.
Hiring movers was an interesting experience. They came. They dumped everything into large boxes. They hauled it to the new location. They dumped everything on the floor. (We thought ahead and actually had tarps for stuff to get dumped on.) That was 12 days ago.
Today, at last, everything is off the floor. It's nowhere near as tidy as we'd like, but we can find everything with minimal effort, and the leash spaghetti has been untangled.
It feels really good to be getting back to a semi-normal routine. And we're going to love the new space - we have room to breathe!

What should I do now?

I know there must be at least a million things I should be doing to prepare for our move on Wednesday. But I can't think of any. Either we're so well-organized that it's all been done, or we're incredibly, blissfully ignorant because of our complete lack of experience with moving. Time will tell. In about 48 hours we'll be happily ensconced at our new address, busily organizing and twirling around enjoying all room to breathe - or we'll be tearing our hair out and quietly going mad trying to unsnafu all the snafs.
Next week at this time I'll be a much calmer person.

We got the keys to our new space! How cool is that! I hired painters so that all the walls (except for the brick ones) will be nice and bright by the time we move in. Can't wait - for it all to be over! The next ten days will be crazy for us. We're moving on Wednesday and our obedience club's annual trial is on Sunday. We expect there to be many headaches and hassles - both with the move (thinking of the phone company, the movers and other stuff - don't even know what!) and the trial (the weather, lots of dogs in a confined space, the people - people complain about anything and everything). But I keep telling myself it will all be worth it. The trial will be over for another year, and I won't have to listen to water running in the apartment above our shop.

Busy, busy, busy

It's been a busy/crazy couple of weeks for me. First the French Bulldog Jamboree, back home to a two-day agility trial (video as soon as I have time to edit it!), and today I auditioned for Jeopardy!
Since claiming that I've reached the "what the hell" stage in my life, I seem to be filling my calendar to the max. I think I'm done adventuring for the moment - until we move the store on June 10. As in next Wednesday. To be followed very shortly by our Obedience Club's trial on June 14. And then I get to breathe.
I did the Jeopardy! thing just for fun - I think. I took the online test a couple of months ago and got invited to the audition today. I don't think I realized what a big deal it was until I got there and met people who had traveled from Manitoba, Texas, Iowa, Indiana and other points all over the place to be there. I felt a bit guilty about that - all I had to do was roll out of bed and hop on the "el" to go downtown.
The best part? We got to play a practise game with actual Jeopardy! clicker/button/thingies!