Meet Mongo

I know I know...it's not a Borzoi, nor is it a Silken. Mongo is a six month old Manchester Terrier that comes to us from a friend we met while attending a Thanksgiving celebration at Jill's home (Jill handles our Borzoi specials and occasional class entry). AJ offered Mongo to me and I took him up on it (after Victor's ok) since I love his mama Dawn.

I couldn't tell you a thing about his lines other than he is down from CL Eudy's last big special and some of his other Manchesters. I don't figure we will get heavily involved with the breed other to enjoy the little man and show him. If I ever decide to go the judging route he would count as another breed...but I'm on the fence about all that kind of stuff. I have enjoyed the judging Sweeps classes but don't know how far I would pursue a judging "career."

So far, AJ has been proved right in that Mongo seems more houndy than terrier, although he is super secure of himself and hasn't hesitated to go up to all the strange dogs at the house fearlessly. He is a bit more hesitant about Monkee now that she read him the riot act last night - but he certainly doesn't cower around her...just avoids her haughtily. He is also a first rate snuggler.

And yes...that's a cast on his rear leg. Properly fitting into our latest "bad luck blast," while in the car traveling to another friend's work, where we were to pick him up after our return from Michigan, he became entangled in a seat belt and broke his leg just above the growth plate. Prognosis is good, and the procedure thankfully not as expensive as Arthur's earlier this year - the vet figured on 4 weeks to heal. Mongo is still quite nimble despite the cast - although it's humorous to watch him strut about with it. Yes, he struts.

Mongo meets Tyler

BCOA 2009 and the MBC Specialty

It's six days past....and I am still not completely recovered (although that may be due to other factors from this week...more later). After missing the California event, I was chomping at the bit to be at Nationals again, and it was great to see folks that I pretty much only see at Nationals. The hotel and grounds were FABULOUS and the large ring next to the river set a charming stage despite the long, downhill walk to it (again...more later). We found a great spot to park the Zoibus which allowed us to set up a double-size ex-pen to potty the dogs on a grassy median right beside it. This enormously cut the amount of time to ex and feed our critters during the stay. Solo and Sassi got to hang in the room while we were there, and the weather pretty much cooperated with the youngsters that stayed cozy in the van.

Due to time constraints and also not having much to run, we skipped the racing and coursing events - we certainly hope to have entries in 2010 for them! This being the case, our first event was the Futurity, where Ozzy took a 4th placement in the 6-9 Puppy Dog class.

The next day in Sweeps, diminutive Sparkk took 2nd in a large 6-9 Puppy Bitch class, which thrilled us to no end, especially since she looked practically microscopic in size next to the other entries. She sure had the attitude and showiness of a BIG dog though! Burni then provided us with much excitement by winning his 8-9 Veteran Sweepstakes class, not showing his age one bit.

Ozzy on the move
We had a touch more excitement in the Regular Classes, beginning with the 6-9 Month Puppy Dogs. The entries present for the class totaled 12 and Ozzy took 3rd place and his brother Vlad (owned by Rebecca Neal) was 4th. Interestingly, 2 other sibs from a friend's litter were 1st/2nd and are somewhat closely related to the OZZlings. In the Bred By Exhibitor Bitch class, Faina and Pumpkin both made the cut, but in the end left without a ribbon, as did Solo and Sassi in the Best of Breed class. Certainly better than being dismissed right off the bat, so we were happy for that!


Solo in BOB


Sassi in BOB
The day after the conclusion of the BCOA National was the Midwest Borzoi Club regional specialty show. I was pretty much beat from the days previous and my ankles were having an uproar, but we labored on! In the Sweepstakes classes, Ozzy was 3rd in 6-9 Month Puppy Dog and Burni was Best of Opposite Sex in Veteran Sweeps. In the regular classes, Ozzy took 2nd and little (microscopic) Sparkk WON her 6-9 Month Puppy Bitch class! Burni went on to win his Veterans class as well.


Lynn showing Sparkk


Burni
We had a wonderful time, a touch of success, and good times catching up with people we don't get to see often. Looking forward to next year in Kentucky!!

7 Things You Didn't Know About the Humane Society

Yup - the truth is getting out there. The following link is from a blog on the CattleGrower.com web site.

http://www.cattlegrower.com/CheyenneOutlaw/blog/176/

Three's a Charm (SilkenFest 2009)

We had an unbelievable Silken Windhound Nationals experience this year - I am completely floored! In addition to our show ring experiences, we got to meet up with several folks who have dogs from us (both Silken and Borzoi) and see how our pups have grown - and some were being shown as well. Nice to see our dogs in the ring with someone else handling them!

Nan brought out Andres (Solo/Duri; borzoi) - he has forgotten he is a dog as he is the only one and doesn't see much in the way of dogs (except the occasional "ankle biter") out his way. But he is a stunning adolescent male with coat so shiny it's almost blinding. Deb and her daughter also brought Mukki (Bruce/Luna; silken) along for a visit - he grew into such a lovely boy with luscious coat and a grin for everyone. Also got to see Voodoo (now with the Peffers) and her mother Jett (VooDoo's mother, with Ahryn); Kandi's 2 daughters (Blondie and Oreo) from her leased breeding; Tim and Vicki Frey had Sylvi (Bruce/Luna) and Enzo (Isaak/Serena) along to show and their sibling Ajax was also there with Lynn Wall; and Tripp with Pam all the way from CT (and boy was that WORTH it!) - I did not have near enough time to visit with everyone as much as I wanted to - not even Pat Shaw who was so kind as to put us and our crew up at her home for the weekend!

On Saturday we took care of some health testing on several dogs and then began visiting with folks. Victor was at the SLASH LGRA meet with Nox since we decided to take advantage of it being at the same location. It paid off as she won the meet and earned 2 GRC/NRC points! We also had the huge shrimp boil (and pig out) - tables lined up with brown paper and the menfolk dumping fresh from the pot corn, potatoes, shrimp and sausage among the various trays of fresh fruit available for desert and strategically placed bottles of cocktail sauce and squeezy butter. We opened up the sangria that Nan had brought and shared amongst several folks in our vicinity.

Sunday was the day of the showing festivities and started off with Puppy Sweepstakes. Shadow won his class (9-12) with brother Enzo taking third. Goth and Pryss both won their classes and Fanci and Darkun both took 4th in their classes. Kandi's daughter Blondie also won her class. Pryss then went on to win Best in Sweepstakes and Goth took Best Opposite in Sweeps!!

The Regular classes had some nice surprises for us as well. In the 9-12 month puppy dog class, the three brothers, Shadow, Ajax and Enzo took 2nd through 4th places respectively. Gabe won the Bred-By Exhibitor dog class and Tripp won the Open dog class, with his almost 9 year old great-grandpa Ivanhoe taking 2nd to him. Tripp then went on to take Winners Dog and Gabe got Reserve. Fanci was 4th in the 9-12 puppy bitch class and Blondie was 3rd (I was so thrilled to see how she and her sister Oreo have turned out, although poor Oreo managed to cut her pad and was slightly off - but they are stunning youngsters). Pryss won the 12-18 Month class and Maverick's daughter Storm (bred by Lori at Elessar) was 3rd. A naughty Missi was 3rd in the Novice class and still got compliments despite her bratty behavior. Radar shown by a friend for her new owner, Mary) was 2nd in the class and I overheard the judge comment that she was a beautiful bitch, but a lunatic (I 100% agree - she has always been a hard one to work with!!). In the Bred By bitch class Luna was 2nd and Kandi 3rd. Our most amazing class performance was Trouble winning the largest class there - Open Bitch (11 entries). I don't think anyone recognized her since she was behaving so well! Siren, on the other hand, declined to participate and Victor couldn't even get her out from under the tent - she sat her hiney down and outright refused. Sylvi and VooDoo were also there but unfortunately didn't get placements. In the end, Trouble won Reserve Winners Bitch!

By the time Best of Breed came around, I thought I was going to fall over from all the dogs we had shown. Tyler was on "autopilot" though - and I just let out his lead and held on to the very end as he zipped around the ring like a Brittany and pretty much showed himself while I huffed and puffed behind him. I am still on cloud nine - as Tyler earned his third national specialty win! He has now won the two highest entries of Silkenfest (2009 and 2007) in addition to the 2006 show. This also finished his ISWS Grand Champion title!

A nice finish for this year's Silkenfest was Ivanhoe winning the inaugural Stud Dog class, represented by Tyler, Kandi and VooDoo. He sure gave the youngsters a run for it in the classes as well. He just needs a qualifying specialty win to complete his ISWS title - but we figure it will be hard as he lost some teeth when he broke his lower jaw a few years ago.

Needless to say - we floated home!