We made it!

Tonight was our usual Tuesday night madness. It started when I left work late and everyone and their mother was on Frantz Rd. No joke, it took me over 20 minutes to go to miles - I felt like I was back in California. Anyway, I literally walked in the door, changed, fed the girl and off we went.

Tonight, we made it all the way down the hall and where there for over 90 minutes. We actually probably left the last room before they were ready for us to go, but it was 8:10 and we had class in Gahanna at 8:30. She was fantastic tonight, as usual.

Our first room was a lady we had seen last week - her son was there this week and last week and remembered both our names. She was glad to see us. Her roommate was also very nice, had a large cast on one of her feet and had muscular dystrophy. She was so glad to see Chel - her husband has been bringing their dog and she has been going to see it outside. My reminder of not to guess which patients may or may not want to see her was right after that, as there was this big burly Harley looking dude in the next room who loved her. I said hi, he barely acknowledged me and when I asked him if he wanted to see the dog, he immediately perked up. He was a dog person, and she knew it and loved it. She shook his hand and he found her second favorite spot - her ears. She just sat there and leaned her head into his hand, in pure heaven - of course, no one - not mom, grandma, grand paw or the staff at Dodd - pay any attention to her.

The patient that will stick with me from tonight is a lady named Angel. I was visiting the patient in the other room and they were trying to move Angel back into bed. She was making what I thought were groaning sounds, but it was really just about the only sound she was capable of making. While they were trying to move her, her mom petted Chel - and then asked Chel if she was ready to go see an Angel. Angel had a stroke - her movement was rapidly improving, she moved her arms pretty well and stood on her own for 20 minutes today but her speech is still not up to par. Her family was really neat - her husband was a complete redneck and was great. You could tell he loved his wife - he was upbeat and positive and trying to make her laugh and punch him. I told him to watch it, one day he was going to get knocked out when he was not ready. He said it would not be the first time and he was in acceptance of "his place". Angel was very much responsive when you spoke to her, she just had a hard time getting the words out. They were a great family and I hope she makes a lot of progress.

The last room was an older lady that had brain surgery. Her husband and son were with her, and when we walked by, she was practically getting out of bed to come at us (she was a bigger woman) She said, bring me that dog - and immediately found Chelsie's other favorite spot, her back end. She loved Chelsie - loved petting her and loving on her. I felt bad we needed to go, but we did. I am thinking that if it rains on Thursday and we cannot play softball, I may take her back to Dodd. She was good for a lot of people there tonight.

She did really well at class, I was very proud of her. We practiced some skills that are hard for us, and she did them well. Now, she and kitty are in bed, which is where mom will be in a minute.

We hope this finds everyone well!

One of you out there needs to have a girl baby

..so I can buy a gift and wrap it in this pink camo wrapping paper I saw at Target today. I was looking for wrapping paper and the selection just sucked - I walked up to the the baby section and saw this pink camo stuff and it was SOO cute. I was acutally looking for something to wrap my mom's mothers day present in, but I had a hard time giving Mags something in pink camo. I settled on pink with big flowers on it for mom.

Soo, do we have any takers??? Candace? Kelli? Meaghan? Natalie??? (haha, Nat)

DPS and Prozac

As today is Monday, my parents take care of Chelsie. They were up in Columbus, so they let her out a couple of times. About 3PM, I got a call asking if it was too early for her to eat. I said fine, give her 1/2 cup food and 1/2 cup green beans. Five minutes later I got another call, asking what kind of mother I was, there were no green beans in the freezer. She still got her food, sans the green beans.

For those of that don't know, grapes are fatal to dogs - they damage the kidneys irreversibly if not caught immediately. I had some old grapes in the refrigerator that needed to go, so I pitched them. I keep the trash can on a chair and to date, she has never pulled it off the chair...however, there is a first time for everything. Paranoia took over and I put the grapes outside. Prozac anyone?

And finally, on the way home from class, I stopped at Kroger and got 4 bags of green beans. The guy in the checkout gave me a really weird look, but I just smiled and went on my way. The baby angel got the rest of her dinner when I got home, complete with her veggies.

Two tired puppies...

Well, it was another fun and exciting agility weekend. Chelsie got 8 qualifying scores toward her NADAC titles and about 4 first places. She ran better yesterday than she did today - she knocked bars in a few of her runs where she should have cleared them easily. That was really the only thing I was not too happy about. She was pretty wiped out today, and in her 4th run, ran really slow. We had 2 more runs after that, both of which I thought I could control the pace. I successfully controlled the pace on one, but not on the last one - it was a course of all tunnels, and based on how she had run earlier in the day, I thought I would have no problem keeping up with her. Well, I stuck her in front of the first tunnel and took off with her - usually I make her stay and work ahead of her, but since she was so tired, I thought she needed me a little closer. Wrong - she took off like a shot and for the first three tunnels, I ran as fast as I had all weekend. Finally, we came to a tunnel with a curve in it (which slows the dogs down) and I caught up. I was looking for oxygen when I was done.

After I ran Chelsie, I ran one of the best border collies that has ever been in our club on that same course - it is the dog of the lady that tells me Chelsie is too fat. Many people dream of having an agility dog like Zesta - not only is fast, but she is smooth. At 10 years old, she was still competitive nationally - Sue retired her from heavy compeition after Nationals in March, but Zesta still loves to play, and Sue is generous in giving novice handlers such as myself opportunities to run Zesta in courses where she cannot keep up with the dog. On the right course, you can stand in the middle and point and she goes. I was looking around for more oxygen when I was done. I did not qualify with Zesta - I tried to send her left to a tunnel and go right to keep up with her - not having run with me before, she came with me and went into the wrong end of the tunnel. We made a good recovery and finished strong.

This weekend has wiped the both of us out. I am finishing up laundry, as the competitions are on mulch and it gets everywhere. My dad is very generous and offers to pull the trailer with all the equipment in it with the truck they use to haul their camper, so we had a long day and then had to load all the equipment and take it back to the building. I am worn out...and have an 8AM meeting tomorrow morning. Fabulous. Chelsie is done...crawled into the front seat of the care on the way home to be near mom and is resting in bed. She was somewhat restless all day and I am trying to stay in one place so she can settle down, poor thing. She is breathing heavy next to me on the bed, all worn out. But she and her mom had fun.

We hope this finds everyone well. Have a great week!

I love Paris....

If I could speak a lick of French, I would have written the title in French...my wild, adventurous Friday night included watching House Hunters International, which was in Paris. I have been to many wonderful European cities, but for some reason, Paris has stolen my heart...City of Lights, City of Love. I have walked along the Seine, been to the top of the Notre Dame, top of the Arc de Triumphe, overlooked the city at Sacre Coeur (Church of the Sacred Heart) and of course, the Eiffel tower. The most unfortunate thing about my visits to Paris is that they have been with my work homies and not with Mr. Right. Kudos to Tom Cruise for asking Katie to marry him at the top of the Eiffel Tower. The ultimate? To visit Paris one day with Mr. Right (Mr. Right Right, not Mr. Right now - which by the way has ended)

Off to bed, dreaming of Paris..reality will hit early enough when the alarm goes off at something ridiculous like 5:30. I mean, come on, I have to be pretty when we compete.....

The "Chelsonator" in Action

Here are a few pictures from our competition in April. We have trials this weekend and next weekend. Our trial this weekend is a warm up for next weekend - we get to run 6 runs per day this weekend!! It also means mom has 18 course changes per day - there are elite, open and novice runs in each class (the things I do for my child) These trials are neat because they tend to have young handlers just learning agility, and it is fun to see them with their dogs. All the fans are very supportive of the young handlers, which is really neat as well.



This is one of my favorite pictures ever of her - this is actually a fantastic form picture for agility. She is jumping over a triple jump, meaning the jump has three bars that get successively higher. The dogs have to be able to see the triple jump and adjust their stride so that they get up and over the jump. You can see this picture caught her in full extension, meaning that she had a good approach and good stride to the jump. Dogs that miss this take AWFUL looking spills into the bars and the dirt - we have only done that once and thankfully not at a compeition. This form makes mom very, very happy.



I had to get these 2 pictures to remind myself that she ABSOLUTELY knows what "spot" means. She is usually very, very good about it on the teeter (the bottom picture is the teeter) and the dog walk (not pictured here) but not so good about it on the A frame (middle picture) What you don't see is me in the photo screaming at her "YOU SPOT, YOU SPOT, YOU SPOT". Obviously she got it - this time.

She is mom's baby angel...and she told me this morning she will rest up to prepare for her competition tomorrow. She also told me that she is very glad our third trialing partner, her grammie, will be with her this weekend. Unfortunately, she does not know that grammie will not be with her next weekend, as the Paloney parents are hitting the road next week. Where to you ask? EUROPE - AGAIN!! This itinerary will include Italy, Turkey, France, Spain and Greece. One of the Italian stops is in Venice, where they will go on a Gondola ride through the canals...maybe one day.....

In the news...

Which Free Agents Will Be Signed?

After a lackluster performance with the bats last week, the Free Agents redeemed themselves this evening at Coffey Fields on the campus of The Ohio State University, obliterating the competition tonight in 5 innings. The top of the 5th inning proved to be too much for the competition, as the Free Agents batted around 3 times and scored 15 runs to go ahead 25-6. The competition was unable to come back in the bottom of the 5th inning and went down in order again Free Agent ace Kristin Miller. The Free Agents offense was lead by second baseman Natalie Monroe and first baseman Nicole Paloney, each of whom had 4 hits.

The Free Agents showed spunk and determination this week after losing to the Bomber's last week. Last year, the Free Agents were 2-0 against the Bombers in the regular season and eventually beat them to win the league championship. Last week's struggles at the plate were long forgotten tonight, as the game ended in the 5th inning tonight due to the 15 run mercy rule. In addition to their bats being on fire tonight, the Free Agent's gloves were on fire as well, as solid defense was the name of the game tonight.

It is still too early in the season to see which, if any teams, express an interest in signing any players. Meanwhile, according to manager Kristin Miller, the team will attempt to continue down the same road they were on tonight. Stay tuned to see if this story is continued next week!!!