Pumpkin Pumps Us Up!

The first show of the year was that hosted by the Nolan River Kennel Club in Glen Rose, TX. This year members of the Lone Star Borzoi Club hosted a BCOA Trophy Supported Entry in conjunction with the Saturday show. In the Sweepstakes classes, Ozzy and Ray placed second and third, respectively. Their mother Duri was entered in the Veteran Sweeps and placed Best Opp to Kalipso's brother Kazimir, who we had here for several months some years ago. Kaz now lives with our friend Tim in Boyd, TX. In the Regular classes, Ozzy came away with a 4th placement in a very large Bred-By class; Faina won the Bred-By class on the girls' side, with Pumpkin taking second to her. Duri again came away with Best Opp Veteran.

Duri
At the Sunday show Ozzy placed 2nd and Ray 4th in another large BBE class. Faina was 3rd in he BBE class - and Pumpkin won the BBE bitch class. Pumpkin then went on to take Winners Bitch and Best Opposite Sex (over 4 bitch specials) for a 4 point major! Our little fireball is finally filling out and maturing - she is certainly enjoying getting to go our and showoff too!
Pumpkin

LSBC's First Specialty Show

Ten years ago tomorrow, the organizational meeting of the Lone Star Borzoi Club took place. The past ten years has seen LOTS of hard work, including fun matches, A-matches (for licensing requirements), a handling seminar, ASFA lure trials, the hosting of several BCOA trophy supported entries, an auction to raise funds for a rescue or 22 Borzoi near Houston, TX, and assisting in the hosting of the 2005 BCOA National Specialty Show (in Mesquite). In February of this year, LSBC received licensed status from AKC and this past Saturday was the club's first Specialty Show. It was held in conjunction with the all-breed cluster hosted by the Travis County Kennel Club.

Our dogs managed to earn us some nice bling - trophies created by Redbird Adams, Royale Russian Hounds, including original artworks. Royal Russian is part of the foundation behind our friend Sara's Chataqua kennels, which is part of the foundation behind Gryffyn's Aeyrie. Here's a brief rundown of how our guys did...

Sassi - Best of Opposite Sex
Solo - Award of Merit
J/T - Best Bred-by Exhibitor
Burni - Best Veteran in Sweepstakes
J/T - Best of Opposite Sex in Puppy Sweepstakes

Nox won her 12-18 month class; Faina was 3rd in a large Bred-by Class and won her Sweeps class; Burni made the cut in Best of Breed, then became invisible, but showed fabulously for an approaching 8-year old. For the life of me I cannot remember how Nox and Pumpkin did in their Sweepstakes classes! We were so busy juggling dogs and trying to keep up!

Can't wait for the pictures!

From Hell to Heaven (or close to it!)

I managed to survive "Hell Week"! Hoorah! And all the work resulted in some nice wins in both Silken Windhounds and Borzoi - so much the better!

At the inaugural Southern Silken Specialties in Georgia, Gabe was Reserve Winners Dog and Best Bred-By Exhibitor on Saturday and his uncle Tyler was Best Opposite Sex. Luna was Reserve Winners Bitch. At the Saturday specialty (the ISWS qualifier), Gabe was Winners Dog and then went on to win Best in Specialty Show!! He was also once again Best Bred-By. Luna was again Reserve Winners Bitch. For his trouble, Gabe got a lovely biothane sighthound collar - even more exciting, it looks like the collar's designer/creator will be getting one of our puppies!

Victor and Gabe on their big day

On Monday at the Rocky Mountain Borzoi Club specialty show, Nox went on to win Best in Sweepstakes and her brother Sasha (who lives in CO with Sylvia Sieverding) was Best Opposite in Sweeps! This was our second year in a row to win BISweeps - last fall it was Lars who took the honors. Faina won the Bred-By Exhibitor class and went on to Reserve Winners Bitch. Sasha won the 9-12 Puppy Dog class and then went Reserve Winners Dog. Solo won an Award of Merit. All in all a nice day!

RLynn and Solo, Award of Merit, RMBC Fall 2008
We also got to meet with our friends and extended family at both events. The Lockards brought Kenny to visit and show, and the Turnell's brought Bailey (Arthur/Miss T) and his little girlie friend they got from Sara. She's a petite little thing and cute as a button! There's never enough time to visit it seems like!

It took a couple days to recover from the trip, with my back acting up as well as an episode of costochondritis from sleeping (likely twisted) on a hard bed at KOA. But I still had a great time!

Faina's Trippin'!

Road-Trippin' that is! Faina went on a looooooong journey to Canada to be shown by Jill on one of her annual international excursions. Since she is the only Borzoi entered in the shows, I am not really expecting to get back a Canadian champion as she will have to do it all through placements in the Hound group. The GOOD news is - she is actually up to 5 points having been awarded a Group 2 and a Group 3!!!

Jill says that Faina is living up to her name (Goody Two Shoes) and is behaving well and taking it all in stride. Looks like I will be getting back a well-traveled and nicely polished show dog upon their return!

New Puppy Pics

Took some new pictures of our Spells Litter the other day now that their eyes are open and they have graduated from the "larval stage". They're quite the active bunch and very very mobile! They are started on mush, and the one at the food trough from beginning to end is the little spotted brindle girl - she is ALL about the food! Their photo album is online [ HERE ]. Here's a picture of the little boy I have got my eye on.

I also followed around in the yard the "Boogie Baby" pups that remain here (Wulf, Buster and Faina) and took some candid shots of them. Managed to get some nice shots of the little heathens and their pages are updated on our website and there are links from their individual pages to their online albums. Below is a picture of Wulf checking out the flora along the fence.

More Puppy Prepping

Last night once we both got home from work, we began prepping the kitchen area for whelping. Normally we are earlier in this, but we have something of a conflict with Monkee's pups that remain here (Buster, Wulf and Faina). It has been way too hot (and humid) for them to live outside 24/7 in the puppy pen! We have been trying to acclimatize them with longer and longer periods out in the yard when we are home - and they had gobs of outdoor time this past weekend - but there's just no way they are ready to be out all day. We finally settled on moving Buster and Wulf (BIG boys) to the ex-en in the dog room with some of the Silken girls who are in for various reasons (Ginger, Trouble, and Kandi). Faina (with QiQi) moved into Duri's old crate in the dog room after she was ensconced in her new area in the kitchen. Here's hoping they don't make too much of a mess today while we are at work! The boys have actually been lifting their legs since 10 weeks of age (my - are they going to be handfuls once they're grown!) - so I am hoping they don't somehow manage to pee on Moose since his crate is next to them. He needs to be ready for his trip to Colorado for the specialty on Labor Day!

Duri also got her "maternity cut" last night. I took the clippers (with a 1" guide on the blade) to her "britches" and belly and tail so the newborn pups wouldn't get tangled in her coat. We also started taking her temperature since with so many on board, I wonder if she may actually go into labor this weekend as opposed to the 6th (which is 63 days from the breeding). I showed Victor how to read the old mercury thermometer so he can monitor her while I make my brief trip to Colorado.

To brighten the day, here's a picture of little Faina jumping through the high grass. She's such a cute little girl - but looks like she will be hell on toys. Hopefully that bodes well for her future playing running games.