Oh what a busy night!

UPDATE at 11:15
The last tri boy just arrived!! we now have 9 (thats right, NINE puppies)!
If you saw the picture of Abba last week, you will realise why she looked so big - she had 8 puppies in her tummy! We have 5 Tri boys, 1 red boy and one Tri girl and one red girl. David wanted a Tri boy to choose from - well he got his wish! After my sleep deprived weekend, I headed to bed around 9pm, as it was obvious Abba was getting ready to have puppies, and I wanted some sleep. At 1:30am, a puppy cry woke me and when I went to check, she had 2 puppies. She leisurely produced the litter, with nary a pant or a grunt and the last one arrived at 10:30 this morning.
Now whilst this all sound easy on me, I had a few other dramas going on at the same time (in the middle of the night) I could hear a smoke alarm chirping, so in between puppy arrivals, I changed out the battery, but that did not fix it, and the cheeps were getting closer together, meaning the full blown alarm would go off soon. So in order to avoid this is disconnected the alarm from the electricity, still it continued, so I disconnected its neighbor an that solved the problem after about an hour. Meanwhile I realised our whippet Lily was missing - then I remembered that at the end of last year, while we were in Australia the same thing happened with the smoke alarms and she refused to come in the house at all. My house sitter was worried then, (as a geriatric whippet does not do well outside in snow) So outside I go and find Lily, and bring her back inside and put her in a crate, which stressed her more as the alarm was still cheeping at this time, an she could not get away from it. Eventually, all was quiet and this situation was over. I have to get an electrician out here this week and have everything looked at, to prevent it happening again.

Sunday was also good.

Thomas won another 3 points today. So another early drive was worth it, and I got home to see that Abba is seriously thinking about having puppies today - so I may not need all those good "April Fool" names that I had stored, as these will probably be March babies.

Thomas has a good day

Despite an early start (5am departure) to drive to the show, it was worth it, as Thomas won a 3 point major and BOV. I came home again as Abba is close to having puppies - and will drive down and back again tomorrow,for a similar early start - why do beagles always show at 8am?

We have puppies due next week....

Pictured here is Abba who is due next week - how many? I am guessing 5.

A new Start

This is Thomas - our Danish Dog - more formally known as Gold Line's Global Dark Horse he had his first show today in the USA, and it was not too great - so things can only improve! Thanks to Janet for the photos - she is always great to have around when you need pictures of your dogs.

New Champion

We have a new champion today. "Bob" or more formally, Starbuck Torbay Spellbound won his final point today. His owner Jo was on hand to see the victory and I am sure that between her and her friend Janet they have lots of great pictures of the day.

"New Champion" Bob and his owner , Jo exploring in the Puget Sound area, with the olympic range in the background.

Just amazing!!

What can you do with a couple of very well trained Border Collies, a few hundred sheep .........they took to the hills of Wales armed to the teeth with sheep, LEDs and a camera, to create a huge amazing LED display.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

A Word of Advice

Do not attempt 2000 piece jigsaws on the average dining room table - they are just too big! We have been struggling with this one for the last 2 months and had to separate the colors out into separate boxes. The castle was easy, the rest was devilishly difficult.

Judging Trip to San Diego

This past Friday saw me leaving the Pacific Northwest and heading to a judging assignment in San Diego. The club held the show in Del Mar, an upscale community about 25 miles north of San Diego. We were staying at a resort and each evening the balloons could be seen in the sky over the golf course.

We had dinner Saturday evening at an ocean side restaurant and watched the sun set...
We had good company and good dogs, so it was a pleasant weekend.
I then stayed at a hotel near the airport on Sunday night and awoke to a lovely California Monday. However when I did an online check-in for my flight the pass showed possible delays in San Fransisco, due to fog. So I left the hotel at 9am to get to the airport early (my original flight was scheduled for 11:30 departure) I got on an earlier flight - which was also delayed (and finally departed at 11:45, instead of 10:05) I got into San Fransisco with just enough time to walk from one end of the airport to the other and get on my original scheduled connecting flight. We pushed back from the gate (just 1/2 hour late) and then stopped - we had only one engine...after about 1 hour and a trip back to the gate and "re-booting" the engine a few times, we took off and I got back into Portland just around 5pm.
A long travel day....

Some other pictures from the trip

There were lots of vendors at the show, selling everything dog related (and non dog related) this one had some interesting things for sale!

This crate and color co-ordinated grooming table, is for the person who loves pink (thats you, Alice!) and below is a Swarovski crystal Flexi lead for about $180.
We also did some sightseeing, and so we explored Warwick Castle, which is close by to the NEC

and this was one of the displays. We also climbed the ramparts and walked the walls of the castle - who needs a stairmaster, when you have a castle!

Cruft's and home again

As most of you will have seen elsewhere the Sealyham form the US (bred in Canada) was BIS. There were a lot of foreign dogs who won at this show this year. This is a huge change from previous years and its making the show much more international.
The Sporting group was won by an Australian Vizsla and 4th a dutch bred German Wirehaired pointer.;
The Hound group by a Pharoah Hound, Swedish owned (bred in Finland), 4th was a Canadian bred Mini smooth Dachsund.
The Herding Group was won by an American Old English (Swedish owned), 2nd was an an American Pembroke and 3rd a Danish Puli an an Irish Border collie was 4th - so not an English dog here!
Terrier Group - the BIS winner was 1st, followed an American Scottish Terrier.
The Toy Group was won by a Japanese Papillon, 3rd was a Swedish Chinese Crested an 4th a Danish Pomeranian.
Utility Group, the only foreign place getter was the 4th placed Tibetan Terrier from Germany.
Working Group - I think from looking at the catalog that the 2rd place Rottweiller and 3rd place are American bred but British owned.

In Beagles there were quite a few foreign dogs entered - Danish, German, Italian, Dutch and one from Argentina. Several dogs were sired by an American dog Ch Willkeeps Co Hocus Pocus. But basically the type is too different for any American dog to be very competitive.

We flew home through San Francisco an then onto Portland, a long day, but a daytime flight, so its much easier to get back on schedule - but somehow we missed the fact that Daylight saving kicked in while we were away!

Recent pictures

This is the hotel we are staying at, in Meriden (supposed to be the center of England)
It has strange signs - no idea what the one above means!

It has some interesting wildlife

This is where we were yesterday - at the show.

Friday in England

Well after a REALLY good nights sleep, we awoke to a wonderful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky and woke refreshed and ready to go and spend a day of leisure, perhaps doing a bit of sightseeing and shopping (now that the $ & € and not at such a bad conversion rate)
Yesterday was a very long day - up at 5 to get ready to catch the train to go to Cruft's (just one stop) but saves the chaos in the car park at the NEC. Judging started at 8:30 but you could not get into the site until 8:15, so a bit of a wait to get in, then a mad dash to the ring (at the furthest point from the entrance) however we managed to get really good seats and the corner of the ring, just where the judge was moving all the dogs towards us. There was a good entry - 225 - and I am sure that full results are available on line, but I just wanted to mention the 2 main winners - Dog CC was from the Netherlands - IntCh Imagine me Ike of Elly's Pack he is only the second foreign dog, to win at Cruft's and then the bitch CC was a lemon bitch Ch. Newlin Una of Lowyck, who was also BOB. As usual there were some nice dogs and some mediocre ones - there are still some VERY big beagles in England, the dog CC winner is about 16" but in the Open dog class he looked quite small!.
We stayed and watched the groups and in Terriers 1st and 2nd were from the USA and the Hound winning Pharoah Hound was from Sweden. So The British are hoping for greater success in the next couple of days, I am sure.
We are staying at a lovely Marriott resort and Golf club, great beds and a quiet location, and I got a very good price.
Well had better go now and enjoy the day.

England

We have arrived and got to experience the NEW truly 180 degree lie flat seats on the flight from Chicago. It was a different experience though, as we were in the rear facing seats, never flown backwards before! The weather here is just like home - clear, cool and sunny. Off for an early dinner and an early night, so that we are ready for an early start tomorrow for Beagle day at Crufts.

Today is the day I do all the organizing to get ready for our trip to England. Notes for the dog sitter, filling dog food containers (so she does not run out while we are away), that last minute washing and finally the packing. Hopefully, as we don't leave until tomorrow the snowstorm on the East coast will have blown through and airline schedules will be back on time, fortunately we go through Chicago, not Dulles (but that's no guarantee, there will not be problems). Looking forward to meeting up with all our friends again and seeing some great dogs.