New Hope for the Field

Last weekend Victor went down to Hutto for the Alamo Area Whippet Club's coursing trials - they held both ASFA and AKC events each day. Peepers had already gotten a JC leg earlier this year and she finished up her Junior Courser title on Sunday, so she's now WindnSatin Peek-a-Boo, JC! I'm so happy she's decided she will make turns - she used to blow off a course after the first or second turn!

On Saturday, Nox started off gangbusters...but Victor said the lure op was getting the lure too far out and he finally dumped her at a sharp turn about 2/3 of the way through the course. She didn't get passed. On Sunday she did get her first leg...so hopefully she will wrap that up next time.

Pumpkin declined - she's all about the LGRA lure and did well at the NOTRA practices we had...but she didn't want to play this time around. Shugah hit the first turn and then her ADD kicked in - hopefully the light bulb will turn on, although she is amazingly empty-headed, especially for a girl! I expect it of the boys - but not the girls!

Speaking of the boys, we are going to need to start practicing some of them and see where their heads are at in relation to field events. So J/T, Wulfie, Buster and Lars may be heading to some local practices here soon!

New Title and New Beginnings

Solo had been entered at the Fort Smith, AR shows this past weekend. After a series of minor mishaps combined with the nasty weather Saturday morning (and the show committee debating on whether to cancel Saturday's show), Jill made the decision to come home after having been on the road for 3 weeks.

Well, we took our lemons and made lemonade...and took Solo along to WindyGlen for the NOTRA meet after having spent a nice Saturday there. And today, Solo earned his needed point to finished his Oval Racing Champion title!

Also, his daughter Nox (out of Duri) had nice practices the previous Saturday at the GIT meet and ran on the following Sunday in her first meet and earned her first point. Saturday at Windyglen she earned a bit more towards her GRC. Peepers (bred by Mary Childs and Susan V) also practiced and ran the previous week and ran Saturday as well and earned her first GRC point, but we're going back to some training for her, as she had a bit too much interest in one of her yardmates (Demi) - although the second program's finish was beautiful with her and Nox running shoulder-to-shoulder and heads straight while crossing the finish.

Pumpkin (Nox's sister) practiced during the GIT weekend and showed more promise than ever, so we had her along this weekend as well and on Sunday she learned to run with a muzzle on and we also did a test run with her sister Nox (to see if they would play nice with each other, which they did) and today, she and Nox were introduced to the oval (practice) and did very well.

So we're excited to have some new, young racers to work with in the coming months!

Some New Pix and a Brief Update

Posted some new pictures we took this past weekend of the Spells pups that remain here (Nox, Azchyl and Pumpkin - 8 months), 2 of Sassi's, J/T and Shugah (7 months) as well as Peepers.

Peepers
At the lure coursing in Cleburne this past weekend, Peepers turned it on for her JC run and surprised us by earning her first JC (Junior Courser) leg. Why surprise? In practice she rarely turned more than once! So it was great to see the switch go off and watch her put some effort into it! She looked pretty darned fast too - and got some nice compliments from bystanders there. Unfortunately, the brilliance only lasted halfway through the course the next day - so no JC title yet.

You can see in the picture of Peepers above that we had some pretty scenery at the coursing site. So we took advantage of it by bringing the Spells-girls with us the next day and snapping some photos. We also took advantage of the leafy tree in our front yard for pictures of J/T and Shugah.

Nox
I've uploaded the new pictures into the online albums at Gryffyn's Aeyrie and there are links to the individual albums on the Updates page.

I received some pictures from the Selmans of Lance and Tasha, and from Deb of Mukki. Need to get those downloaded, edited and uploaded as well!

A Few Web Updates

This morning while walking down the driveway to try to spot a fat cottontail that Victor had seen when he went out to feed the horses, I came upon a sparkling, dewey spiderweb. Feeling the moment, I went and retrieved my Rebel from the kitchen counter where I had left it after taking new pictures of the "Boogie Babies" that remain here. I then promptly learned that it is a pain to attempt to take a picture of an arachnid's homey creation because the camera will not focus on its delicate filaments - but instead (in this case) the crape myrtle behind it. After a few failed attempts, I resorted to placing my hand in front of it and swiftly removing it as I snapped the shot - hoping autofocus wouldn't adjust again. I managed a few neat-o shots. I do have an album of non-dog-related shots on the Gryffyn's Aeyrie website that you can view here.


We also managed to update pictures of some of the dogs on our web site. Fawn (formerly known as "Pockets") was at the house visiting for a few days, so we took some nice new pictures. Also updated ones for Peepers, Zander as well as shots sent to us of Axl and Tripp. There is a list of updates with direct links here.

Potter Time

This weekend we got to be quaint and act like "normal" folks since we had no doggie events to attend (having missed entering the Longview shows before the limit was reached). Since the numbers are historically small we figured it was no great loss anyway.

Saturday I spent the day off. REALLY off. I had my nose in the most recent Harry Potter saga and am currently halfway through the tome. Even though I've already taken in the summary posted at Wikipedia - I just couldn't wait since Amazon fell down on the job getting the book to me close to its release date.

On Sunday, we opted to take in a movie for once! We were certainly overdue for one - and our natural choice was moviedom's latest Harry Potter saga. We even went overboard by heading to the Studio Movie Grill so that we could eat way too much food and take in some cocktails as well - it you can call a 20 oz. mixer titled "Miami Viced Tea" as well as a huge goblet containing a frozen Mudslide "cocktails". And they don't skimp on the liquor either! The movie was MARVELOUS although a bit too condensed - they really could have added another hour to it without it becoming excruciating - there's a lot to tell in this installment. I guess I can understand why many Potter-people are disappointed with this one - the story gets darker as it moves along in each book - so surely they would realize the movies will too! I think some people are expecting the shiny, happy wonderment of the first book/movie to continue throughout the entire series. I also think they just can't believe that the young stars of this story are growing up...especially the lead, Daniel Radcliffe who has branched out into more serious projects during his breaks from Potter-work.

Amidst all this, we did manage to get some updated pictures of some of the crew here, which I hope to post soon on the site. New pix include Fawn (formerly known as Pockets) spent several days with us while her 'mom' Susan travelled - so we got some nice shots of her; Zander, who will be heading to BC, Canada soon, and is now in the midst of a coat change and has oodles more black tipping; and Peepers, who is quite the elegant little black whirlwind, who still does not appreciate the ability to stand still and stacked! Much too serious work for her!