The year in review, according to ME, Sam.

Hello Pals,

As I take paws to keyboard, I am thinking of all the experiences that my sisters and I have had this year.

This has been a great year of change for all three of us, not to mention Mother. Zorra competed at the CPE Nationals (Agility) in Kissimmee, FL. She took a long trip with Mother and the Supreme Commander through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida to go compete for 3 days. Katherine and I were forced to stay home with Auntie, and we did not have as much fun as Zorra.

We've all competed in agility trials closer to home. We have all done very well and have had fun. We've all gained a couple titles or so in the past year as we go toward the ultimate goals of the top titles.

Katherine has started a new sport that Mother says is just for her. Hurmph. I am going to try it one of these days when Mother isn't looking. It is called lure coursing and Katherine loves it. She would rather do that then anything else.


Most of our time and adventures have been gained through Flyball. When we go to flyball tournaments, we tend to go with the Supreme Commander and stay in her RV trailer. It is usually Spirit and Yippee, who are in charge of the Supreme Commander, and all of us. We like traveling with the trailer, as it is:

• airconditioned
• has a bathroom
• roomy
• has a kitchenette

Mother says that at some point, we may have to sleep in our tent like we used to, but she can stay in that leaky tent. We want to stay in the cushy surroundings!

Although, at times I do wonder about Mother's mental state. Earlier this summer, she managed to lock the Supreme Commander and all of us..... (wait for it) INSIDE the trailer. Yes, you read that right, pals. We were locked inside. At some point when Mother walked inside, she managed to somehow break the door mechanics and we were imprisoned! Luckily, The Supreme Commander got on her cellphone and called our teammates Boogie and her mom, Gloria. They came over right away (ten feet) to release us. It was the worst 10 minutes of my life. Seriously, there's something wrong with my Mother sometimes. It is a good thing that she was with me, and I was able to bring a calmness to the situation.


Of course, now for me. This year I took up the fast and exciting team sport of Flyball. Oh my goodness pals, it is the best thing. I can run as fast as I can, retrieve a tennis ball (which I love to do) and bring it back to the Platoon Sargent. I started in March, and now I am the top Wire Fox Terrier in U-Fly and the #8 in NAFA. I can't tell you how much fun it is, and I wish everyone could play with us.

I've met lots of interesting friends on our SWAT team. They are from Ohio and we don't see them often, but when we do it is a grand time.



Our own team is Extreme Insanity Flyball team and we have a grand time together. We competed in the NAFA nationals where I received one of my flyball titles this year.

We lost our beloved kitty brother, Harley, who we all still miss terribly. Out of respect, we have given DaKota (our kitty sister) a pass for a while before we start chasing her again.

We're ending this year and beginning the new one at an agility trial with our cousin Cal. Some of our friends are going to be there as well, and we can't wait.


Katherine, Zorra, mother (Platoon Sargent) and I are wishing all our pup pals a very happy new year with many treats, pats and hugs.

Dreaded Day

Well, everydoggie....

It's here. The most dreaded day of the year for our Mom. She is, shall we say, a bit irritated. It is TAX DAY. She hates tax day because no matter what she does, she always seems to owe taxes.

What does that have to do with us, I bet you are thinking. Well, our mom goes on tirades around tax day. She says that WE NEED TO CUT BACK SO I CAN PAY THIS STUPID #$#$#$#$ TAX BILL. She rants and raves about cutting back on things.

So, we have a discussion.

She says WE ARE CUTTING BACK ON AGILITY LESSONS AND FLYBALL LESSONS.

I say



No.

She says WE ARE NOT GOING TO DO AS MANY AGILITY TRIALS.


I say Look at me. Does this face look like I think that is a good idea?



No

She says... WE ARE GOING TO CUT DOWN ON NEW TOYS

I say Ummmm let me think about that.



OH, definitely not.

She says... WE ARE GOING TO CUT DOWN ON EXTRA TREATS




I say.. Get a hold of yourself! Wake me up when you come to your senses.



So, my mom says... WEll, Miss Smartie Pants. What do you suggest we get rid of....

I only had to think for a nano-second. The sacrifice would be hard (well, not for me but I can put on a brave front)..... I looked at my Mom and said.......

..

..

..




Oh, just kidding.... BOL.

Rain and Drama

Oh brother, we are having some drama right now. It has been raining all day and Sammie is just SURE it is going to storm really bad. He is getting himself all worked up over it and is pleading with mommi to build us some sort of a bomb shelter... underground.. right now. She tried to explain to him that it wasn't something that we could go build at night, in the rain. He wasn't really taking "NO" for an answer. He kept going back and forth, trying to find his own personal bomb shelter, but none seemed safe.

He really started pleading with her and giving her the sad, sad eyes. But, mommi was pretty firm. She said we would have to dig a HUGE hole in the yard, much bigger than any we already had started construction on. And, all of us would have to fit, not just mommi and Sammie. (Sammie was trying to ditch us!!) So, Sammie continued trying to find the perfect place to hide. He got under the desk for a while when mommi was working, but she did not like that AT ALL. She kept accidentally kicking him while she was working. Of course, Sammie was telling her that we should all take cover.

THAT is when mommi lost her cool exterior. She told Sammie to go to weather.com and look at the radar.



We live where the big, red dot is on the map. We aren't even in the storm box near to bottom of the radar, but that didn't calm Sammie down at all. It really just made it worse. He's gone to hide in the closet, in the back, and dig a bomb shelter out through there.

Meanwhile, Katie and I are gonna catch some shut-eye......



You can look at our mommi's ABC Wednesday photos here, if you want to.

Award - Cool Site of the Day.

Hi Kids,

We're going to be busy this weekend, but we did want to tell you one thing. We got to be the cool dog site of the day for March 1!



You can check it out here. And, if you remember, you can vote for us to have the cool site of the month here (once they have updated to March).

WE had agility practice yesterday and flyball practice last night. Not only that, I am going to an agility trial on Sunday! Our mom is TIRED, but we are still ready to go!

Serious

I don't like to write about serious things, because I am a happy kinda girl, but I have to tell you about something that happened to one of my very favorite people, Sherry. She is my two friends Willow's and Simba's mom and we all do agility together. In fact, Willow and I had a bunch of classes together for a while. Now, we do agility trials together and we have tons of fun running and jumping. Today, mom received an email from from Sherry about an experience she had.

It really worried mom, and she asked Sherry if I could post about it on my blog. Of course, Sherry said that I could...

...

On Thursday I was running Willow and Simba in class. I felt a tightening in my chest, under my arm and up my neck when I ran. When I stopped the pain was all but gone. Not wanting to cause a stir and announce one more physical problem I quietly slipped out after class, loaded my car and drove home. I had called my husband to come to (the training center) and he followed me home. It took 45 minutes for him to get to Pawsitive Partners from his work. We drove South, home away from St Vincent.

When we settled the pups, Rich took my blood pressure. It was really high and we decided we needed to get help. We drove to the Care Center here in Mooresville and they said we need to send you to a Cardiac Hospital after they took some test.By then when I was laying down my chest pain was completely gone. Mind you nothing was conclusive in any of the test and I was thinking, oh no I made a mistake coming here. It took a very long time to get to St Vincent at 15 miles an hour (with a nice ambulance person taking my vitals and not seeing anything to indicate a heart problem). Plus he kept asking how bad my pain was. I didn't have any). The roads were terrible and it was rush hour.

When I told them the attack had started at 1:30 and it was 6:00 before we got to a hospital, they asked why I didn't call 911? At this point I felt really dumb for coming to the hospital anyway, as the test were all just slightly, maybe pointing to a Heart Attack. Now I was feeling even dumber since I made so many wrong decisions, driving home, not calling 911, waiting too long and the list goes on.

I am writing this to you all so you won't make the same mistakes. God granted me this grace period of time to get to the hospital to get help. I am very grateful and will not make this mistake again.

The happy and not so happy end of this account of my Heart Attack is that I had a very, very, very slight attack. This lead to an over night stay and a heart cauterization. They found blockage in 3 places of my heart. The one being 70% and the others 40%. Surgery is not an option at this time but is in my future. As I told Liz (her agility instructor), I hope by then they will have a surgery that can be done from a pin hole

I am to 1.eat right, 2.exercise and 3.take my medication and resume my natural life. But one of the most important things that is not on the list........ but told to me over and over is to listen to my heart. When I ran my heart started to beat harder to squeeze blood to my heart. It was blocked to a narrow opening of only 30% so I had pain. My meds will help and the other things but most of all I have to listen to my heart and Stop when I have pain. Call 911 when and if it doesn't stop.

If you are expecting a Heart Attack to be so painful you can't stand it, it didn't feel that way. I only felt a tightening pain not a sharp pain. I'm sure everyone is different. More women die because they ignored the pain. It can be in your arm, chest, neck , back..... Don't be like me. Call 911. Let your friends help you. They won't think less of you if you only have indigestion, stress related pain or exercise pain. True friends just want you healthy! I was a goof, please don't make the same mistake. The doctor all told me.... "better safe, than sorry"....

Mom and I have stumbled across a bunch articles and television segments regarding women and their lack of understanding how heart attacks affect them differently than men. Heart attacks are a silent killer, as they say. Many women die from heart attacks because they do not know the symptoms. Here is a link you can view for other information regarding women and heart attacks.

I would have been really upset if something happened to Sherry and I couldn't see my pals Willow and Simba. I'm just really happy that everything is going to be OK. I'm going to give her an EXTRA big smooch next time I see her. I don't dole those out to just anyone!



Simba (the puppy) and Willow

The weekend

Hi bloggies,

We don't have much to report for the weekend. We went to our agility practice and we all did really well. Mommi ran Sam on a leash so he couldn't run all over the place wifout her. BOL.

She tried to tell him that it would be in his best interest to listen to her just a little when they are running together. By the end of the morning, I think Sam was just appeasing her and would follow her around a little bit. Mommi was happy about that.

We went wif our Auntie and our cuzin Cal, and they did great. Calvin hasn't been doing agility all that long, and he was really goin like an agility dog. Auntie was really prowd of him.

We have a couple of agility trials next month, so we are practicin really hard. I want to do a good job and get a couple of qualifyin runs.

Today, we went to the DWB chat, and that was a lot of fun to talk to a few of our pals and make new ones!

It was so cold this weekend that I mostly stayed under the covers. I buried myself way down in the blankies so I wouldn't get too cold. I told Mommi that I wanted a sleepin bag lik Joe Stains, and she said she would think about it.

Our mom was reading things on Maggie and Mitch's blog about matching up with a dog. Her list consisted of:

1. Doberman (OMD.... they are big!)
2. Tibetan Mastiff (ANOTHER big dog? WTH is going on?)
3. ROTTIE (OK... something is DEFINITELY going on)
4. Pitbull (??!! All these are GUARD DOGS. I thought I was a good guard dog?)
5. FOX TERRIER (now I know this is rigged!!!)

Katie came in as #15 on the list. Do you know where I CAME IN?? #79!!! Beagle mixes!!

OK, I am going to go talk to my mommie about this. I am not sure I like these results. I know we ALL are rescues, but she better not bring any of these other dogs around wifout MY permission. Besides, Katie would be mad, too.

Don't tell Sammie that he out ranked both ME and KATIE. He is already hard enough to live wif.

Friday Funnies?

Hi everybloggie,

We are lucky to have the computer this evening. Our mom had a bad time with work over the past couple of days and would not hardly get out of her chair and was just tapping, tapping, tapping on the computer all the time. We were NOT happy. We already had this discussion about our blogging time with her. And, it was MY turn to blog!

We had flyball practice tonight, and boy did we have fun! We were running fast, fast, fast. Mom has to figure out WHAT is going on with her video camera, as it isn't functioning too well, and that is why there isn't any video. Sigh. She always has SOME excuse for everything.

Before we even went to Flyball and agility practice (for Sam), we had to go to the do it yourself dogwash because Sam was FILTHY. He had never, ever been that dirty in his entire life. If you think this photo was bad, multiply it by a gazillion!



I told him that he was so muddy that Mom was really going to be mad. He looked like he got pushed down in the mud and someone sat on him. NOT that I would know ANYTHING ABOUT THAT OR HOW IT HAPPENED, SANTA.

When my mom saw him, she sort of did that little scream that only we dogs can hear. I mean, he was dripping in mud like perhaps someone just kept pouring buckets and buckets of mud on him. NOT that I would know ANYTHING ABOUT THAT OR HOW IT HAPPENED, SANTA.

Normally, Sam has some white on him, but he was completely one color.... gray. He had SO much mud on him that it was caked. Each piece of fur was about triple in size. It was like someone threw him in a mudpit and wouldn't let him out and he just kept jumping up trying to get out and no one would let him. NOT that I would know ANYTHING ABOUT THAT OR HOW IT HAPPENED, SANTA.

So, that is how we got to the do-it-yourself dog wash. Mom said she wasn't going to wash him at home with all the mud caked on him. You know, Mom, lots of people pay a lot of money to have a mud bath. You are just being very shortsighted.

So, Sam went in to the store and we stayed with our Auntie. Mom was in there for a long time. Finally, after like a thousand hours, she came out, and dang it, she still had Sam. Now, he was clean. She really had to scrub him hard and there was a bunch of mud in the bath. She said he was as dirty as a little pig, and how could any dog get that dirty by himself? NOT THAT I would know ANYTHING ABOUT THAT OR HOW IT HAPPENED THAT SAM CAME TO BE SO DIRTY, SANTA.

Look at this pic... does this look like anyone who may be possibly mean to her little brother. Nope, looks like a good girl who deserves lots of prezzies from Santa Paws.

Whew... we musta been really tired!

Hi everybloggie!!

We musta been really tired from our trip to Asta's pawty. We all look pretty out of it.........


It has been ages since we blogged. We have been busy opening a TON of Christmas cards from all our pup pals! We haven't had time to go visit all our new and newer friends' blogs, but we will get to it soon. In the meantime, THANKS. Getting all these cards are GREAT!

One thing we want to tell you is about our cuzin's blog. They got their act together and now they have some stuff on their bloggie. You should take a look over and visit them. They would appreciate it! Just tell them that Katie sent you! (That's me!).

I had a great time today doing agility! I had not practiced in a while and Mom took me to a practice tonight. I was so FAST, FAST, FAST. I really missed agility. One of these days my Mom will remember to take the video camera so you all can see how fast we are. After class, Mom and Auntie went to visit some of their friends at the restpawrant. Yack Yack Yack. That is all humans do. I talk a lot, but jeeeeeeeez! Zorra, Cuz Cal and I all curled up together and went to sleep while we were waiting on them.

This is my impression of my MOM yacking and yacking. They yack so much, they probably can't even remember what they said! Unless they are talking about ME! I bet that is it. I am a facinating subject! But, if Sam keeps putting his tail around my head, he's gonna be in TROUBLE.




I don't know of other doggies have noticed this, but my mom and Auntie have different sets of friends. IT's like some kind of a system that all their friends are divided into. They have their "friends." Then, there are their "doggie friends." But, in that group of "doggie friends, it is broken down to "agility doggie friends" and/or Flyball doggie friends," and I am SURE it breaks down even more. And, we are not even talking about her friends that have dogs AND annoying cats.

I find it all very confusing. That is why my mom should just take ME everywhere she goes. She doesn't need to go anywhere without me. I am not sure she can keep everyone straight without some kind of a scorecard. I can just sniff someone and let her know if they are a keeper. If I don't think they are OK.. OFF they go (and they can take Sammie with them, if they want to. Sometimes he's annoying.)

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat....

Hi Bloggerland,

I am feeling in the Christmas spirit today because we received a Christmas card from our pal, Lenny. Here I am holding the card to show everyone, but I dropped it right when mom was taking the picture. Ooooops. Good thing cards aren't breakable!



So, I went out and got in our car and drove into town, because no one by where we live has their Christmas decorations up yet. But, I knew that there were some people in town that did. So, I took mom's cell phone and started taping a couple of really great houses with their lights. These are GREAT. I love all the lights, animated ornaments and the big blowup decorations!



I just love Christmas because everything is so bright and everything shines so nicely.

Our Mom ------ Grounded

First, we want to thank bloggerland for helping us out when our mom ran off. We are taking measures so this action does NOT happen again.

As punishment, we told her....

No chocolate (because we can't have any)



No calling anyone (because she won't get us our own CELLPHONES)



and no picture taking (because we want to use the camera)



These are things she spends most time doing without us. Of course, going places is still OK, because she promised she would try to take us with her. And, she said she would be better about not leaving us alone (even if Auntie was here).

But, we are not sure we trust her, so we hired Hans... although he's very sweet. He will give her the evil eye if she tries to do any of the things mentioned above.

Found!

Oh, my sisters and I were so distraught over the abduction of our mother. Here we are in a meeting as to what our next move will be, once we get a ransom note. (I am so upset that I cannot even look at my favorite magazine, CLEAN RUN.)




As you can see, we are all on edge with worry.





We even called an emergency meeting with 2 of our cousins. (The cats wouldn't come, as they were too busy basking in the sun)



We decided to escape from our fenced in yard and start tracking our mother. We quickly got her scent and followed our noses. We sniffed that she took the following path:



Our mother loves to walk in the woods and go for hikes, so we continued on our journey.



We are sure we are on the right path. Here is a bridge.




We came upon this abandoned barn, and we looked in there, but we couldn't find our mother.



Sniff, sniff, we're still following the trail. Ahhh, all the colors are so pretty.





We kept on sniffing and found many unusual things along the way....





Then, we made acquaintances with a pack of llamas and asked if they had seen our mother. They said, "Yes, follow us."



Watch your STEP!!



We found a truck to help us in our search, so we climbed aboard....



Unfortunately, it didn't seem like it wanted to move.....

We continued our journey and saw even more bizarre sites.. like these weird looking apples.

... and this old train...

We even went to one of our mother's favorite places......

We sniffed and sniffed and sniffed.




We looked everywhere... Finally, it was getting dark and we decided to go home for the night and start anew in the morn. When, we heard a sound....



Our mother was home! After all, who could leave such a handsome mug as this?