Went to a dog show on saturday, 3/25/06. Saw the usual, visited vendors, spent some scratch on goodies our pups will need during the course of the year. But before I get into the show itself, I'd like to spend a moment telling you about an amazing human site we saw.
As we made our way through the crowd and past vendors and dogs, we came upon a woman who wore no shoes! Mind you, it's only the month of March & it still get a bit cold outside. Now, granted the show was indoors in a large warehouse-type building, but come on! At one point, she was kneeling to fix her dog's collar or something and you could see the soles of her feet were absolutely BLACK with dirt! (She was of the caucasian persuasion so the dirt was readily visible.) And, I'm not the only one who noticed this weird behavior; passers-by saw the soles of her feet & the disgusted looks on their faces were proof to me that it wasn't merely an over-reaction on my part.
You can CLICK HERE to see some dirty feet, but believe me, the ones we saw were much worse than these! I've seen some strange things but this person was a little off the deep end.
Back to the show...Shelties Rule. We didn't stay to see which breed was eventually awarded the coveted "
best in show" designation but our votes were cast for the intrepid
Shetland Sheepdog. A sturdy, devoted breed (as was once noted by the late Roger Carras, the voice of the Westminister Kennel Club show), the dogs in Ring #14 were happy, attentive and prancing about and showing off their stuff. What a fine representation of the canine family they are!
Oh, by the way, we happened to have three Shelties ourselves-Lyric, Lily & Declan.
CLICK HERE to view a picture of our furry friends. Lyric's the mother of Declan but there's absolutely no way you'd ever be able to tell they're mother & son. Both have strong Alpha tendencies (which we try to hold in check as much as possible) that let's just say sometimes interfere's with their familial relationship. Lily's the sweet one-she tries and usually succeeds in staying out of altercations between mother & son. These were joined a few months ago by a breed closely akin to them, a Collie, whom we named Douglas.
CLICK HERE to see our doggie Douggie. It's taken a while for them to become acclimatized to each other, but I guess I'd be a bit intimidated if a giant three times my size suddenly joined my family!
But this isn't to say that they don't get along! They can be seen playing & cavorting around in our yard at all times of the day, sometimes even using their agility equipment! And, if they can get me out of bed on the pretense that a naure call is imminent, they can sometimes be seen out side at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. with one very tired co-owner! (
The other owner wisely remains in bed, fast asleep.) I wouldn't want them to change their antics, however. Their personalities are all different, & we love 'em all.
The interloper, Douglas, is the newest addition to the pack. He's a tri-colored Collie (black, tan & white) & I initially nick-named him "the goof ball" because he was so...well, goofy. His larger size had us all a little in awe, but I had the advantage keeping him on a leash. The poor Shelties had to experience life with him usually while he was untethered...talk about initimidation! But he's accepted now, although the original pack tries to get out of his way now that I let him run off lead in the yard. He's sort of like a runaway freight train running full speed down an incline-heaven help anyone/thing that gets in his path!
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