It's a ConTEST!

Happy April! And no, this is not an april fool's joke! I'm making another attempt at a contest, though I still don't have many ideas for a prize. I thought about offering a free house cleaning, but heck, I would enter that myself, and since I know the answers, I'd win! So, instead, I'm offering a choice of:

a. $20 gift certificate to Lotta Watta Creek in O'Fallon, Ill (Yumm)

b. $20 gift certificate to Helping Udders (choose me!.. or not)

c. $20 to Walmart. You can't beat Walmart.

Here is a photo of my kids... aren't they the cutest? (study this hard) Maggie is on the left, Mopsy in the middle and Jake on the right. Got it?

Now that you've looked at them, see if you can recognize them from these body parts! All of the parts below come from one of my three dogs. Figure out what belongs to who and win your choice of the gifts above! I'll try to "grade" your answers and give feedback, so feel free to enter again and again based on the feedback. If someone doesn't win a couple days, I'll pick the nearest winner. You can email me the answers if you would prefer... leblanclori@charter.net

Okay, here are the body parts, click on the image below to see it larger.... GOOD LUCK!

Political Corectness

It has come to my attention that someone might be offended by the "I Think My boy is gay" post. So, in the interest of keeping everyone happy, I thought I'd point out some things for you to consider

1. Jake is neutered; he's a eunich. He isn't interested in anyone "in that way"
2. Mikko is neutered also. So even if Jake wasn't, Jake wouldn't really be in love with a 'boy'...
3. Even after fully wedging his entire head and neck through the hole he dug, Jake is still at least 3 feet from Mikko's fence. Clearly too far for even a kiss, much less a concentual relationship.
4. Mikko probably had nothing to do with the choice of his pink id tag or the act of putting it on.
5. Even if he had, wearing a pink tag is no different than my husband wearing a pink shirt (note to self: look to see if Greg owns a pink shirt)
6. Even if Mikko were a cross-dresser and he and Jake had the desire and the... ahem .... means to be gay... THEY ARE DOGS AND DR. PHIL WOULDN'T CARE!

But nothing would ever surprise me, so Dr. Phil, if you would like to pay for Jake and I to come to California (or wherever you are) get treated like celebrities and ride in a limo... give us a call. We'll even bring the little cross-dressing gay guy from across the street....

I need your IDEAS!

I'm going to have another contest... but no one seemed all that excited about the "Helping Udders" gift certificates (shame too, because I LOVE those people.. well, I don't actually LOOOOVVE them, just... well, nevermind). ANYWAY, what would you like to win (be reasonable please!) It will probably be a gift certificate.... how about Shutterfly? Amazon? McDonalds? what if I gave the winner a choice of three or four... what would motivate YOU to enter? Huh?

I Think My Boy is Gay

This weekend the weather was just beautiful, so we took the opportunity to repair our privacy fence at the top of the hill before the bushes leaf out. The fence panels were still okay, but the posts were rotting off and the fence was in danger of collapsing in a strong wind. Fortunately, Sarah was home to provide some "free" labor. (I'm sure that will cost me). In a few weeks, we won't even be able to get to the top of the hill because the bushes become so thick with leaves. However, the dogs have always been able to make it up there. In fact, Jake has a little "peek" hole dug under the fence so that he can flirt with his little girlfriend on the next street. We've never seen her, but somehow Jake knows when she's out... he'll jump and bark and beg until I let him out and he races to his peek hole, wagging and whining.

But with the fence panels down for repair, we finally got a look at his little French "ooh-la-la" sweetie pie. And we were a little shocked at what we saw. Mikko is a toy black poodle... about 1/10th Jake's size. But it wasn't Mikko's size that surprised us. It was the appendage on his tummy. Jake's girlfriend is a boy. And not only that, but judging from his little pink heart ID tag on his collar, he's a cross-dresser as well.

Does anyone have Dr. Phil's number?

Heavy heart

It is with great sadness that I am typing this entry. One of our dog friends, a beautiful young Weimaraner named Lexi left our world today. Brave and resilient, Lexi battled a terribly invasive cancer silently and never gave anyone a clue that she was ill. Last Friday, she ran part of an agility course in Carthage when her mom pulled her from the ring after she got sick part way through the run. This was their first indication that she was ill, and tonight-less than a week later-she is gone.

It is difficult enough to say goodbye to our companions when they are old and feeble. To lose a vibrant, young, seemingly healthy dog is a shock none of us ever want to bear. Steph and Dave, our hearts break for you.

Goodbye Lexi, I'm glad I got to know you.

Our Friend Gretchen

This is our friend Gretchen and this is a story that I like to tell. Gretchen is a rescue and she must have seen some pretty rough days in her early life. But lucky for her, she was rescued by someone with a lot of love and infinite patience. When I first met Gretchen, no one could touch her without her attacking their hand and sounding like she was fighting for her life. Perhaps in her mind, that is what she thought she was doing. Her new mom started bringing her to agility lessons and she did really well, as long as everyone left her alone. Fortunately though, we came to realize that her bark really was worse than her bite- literally- so we all began touching Gretchen every chance we got. At first it was hard, because she really sounded like you were about to lose your hand, but after a while we began to see through her. Her mom spent countless hours giving her the right balance of affection and discipline (I sound like Cesar Milan) Before long, Gretchen was speeding through the agility course with only an occasional side glance at a ring steward or a quick yap at the judge as she streaked by. After only one year of competing, Gretchen is now an advanced competitor, bringing home double-Qs, mach points, and blue ribbons. And to think that this little girl was having trouble finding a forever home.

We love you Gretchen!

Dragging butt...

Just got in from this weekend's agility trials in Carthage, MO. I had no idea that you could drive for 5 hours and still be in Missouri. But we're home, the car is unpacked, the doggy stuff washed (including the dog and handler) and I'm about to drift off. But first an update...
We took first place in Jumpers on Friday wracking up 22 MACH points (I'll explain those in some future blog), but that was Maggie and my big finale as well. We never Q'd again. Mostly crazy mistakes, like our last run when I forgot where we were going....
Our friend Addie took first place today in her Jumpers run and earned her AXJ title, so now she'll be earning MACH points also. Ben had several great runs this weekend (he's getting faster every time we see him) and brought home a third place in a very competitive course.
Speaking of Ben, his mom ignored our pleas to end all gift giving and brought the CUTEST dog cookies decorated for St. Pat's and Lexi's mom (who we have not seen for way too long) brought the dogs peanut butter cookies. Ben's mom also gave us a bag of Nathan's Hot Dog Treats. She called them "Doggy Crack" and I see why... the dogs LOVE them.
Depsite the challange to stay even in gift-giving (I'm failing) it is so nice to have good friends to run with. We all really benefit from the advice we get from each other because we are so caught up in the moment during our runs; it is hard to know what we are doing well, and what we are doing wrong. For instance, Ben's mom ALWAYS makes a point to give her dog feedback during the run. I saw her today smiling and talking to Ben while he was on the table. I know that I should really be doing that also, but I'm so freaked out trying to remember the course that I sort of forget about Maggie (shame on me, but it is the truth). Thank goodness for our friends that say "hey, did you know that you did such and such?" or "yikes! that off-course was totally your fault!" To a lot of people, it may sound harsh, but there is just too much going on for us to critique our own runs- we need those objective eyes. And, we all really want each other to do better. As competitive as we are, we want the very best runs from our friends, because seeing them get a ribbon, or a new title is almost as good as getting one ourselves.
Thanks Carol and Erin for a great weekend. I'm glad you got to take ribbons home and I cherish your friendship!