Paws for Puppy Tales - June 2022

6/2/22 It's WESTMINSTER month; 17 days and counting before Kathy and I leave for New York! I'm trying to keep an upbeat attitude knowing that it will be an experience not everyone in the dog world gets to have, but seeing all of the wins posted about other Biewer Terriers that I know will be there competing, and with a total of 12 Biewer Terriers entered, my hopes of any placement for Winston has been dwindling. It's just been really depressing to think about the fact that we have spent SO. MUCH. MONEY. hiring the professional handler, with no better placements than I have done myself to date. BUT, it will be a fun trip, great to get away, and a new experience for me, so it will be fun. . . . . . .right?!? I sure hope so. I've been kind of down about a lot of things lately. My birthday came and went being kind of a no big deal/pretty much regular day. At my age that's kind of expected, but every year I guess I wish my kids or Jim would make it a bit more special. At one point the week before my birthday, Jenny asked Jim if we were planning anything for my birthday and/or memorial day; whereas I feel like it's not our place to "plan" anything, the kids should. The biggest birthday disappointment though, one that really hurt is the fact that after celebrating Virgie's and Terri's birthdays with them last September & April (going out for drinks/lunch both times), neither of them bothered to make plans for the three of us to celebrate me for my birthday. Terri even stopped over the weekend before my birthday and while here she even asked if we had anything planned, and said nothing about she, Virgie and I needing to do something. NOTHING. :*( Day of my birthday on the sisters group text, birthday wishes came through and plans for a birthday lunch gathering was talked about; a belated for Dodie and I, and to celebrate Andrea's June birthday. A day in the week of mid June was discussed, and me feeling the way I was, bowed out of that plan using the excuse (kind of for real though) of wanting to quarantine the week before my trip. Enough about that; moving on.

Debarah had still been wanting to talk with me about taking one of Dolly's girls as her "puppy back" per Dolly's contract. Thankfully I got used to the idea of her choosing Lila over Lexi and accepted it, because today she finally did call, and yes, Lila it is. She does plan on showing her and wanted a puppy from this litter to bring different lines into her program. In a way it might be nice to have a puppy bred by me with and shown by Windsong kennel. Debarah was also helpful in letting me know about how to get discounted registrations for my (future) litters ($12 instead of $30), and encouraged and informed me how to become a breeder of merit. It's not as difficult as I had thought but does entail doing all of the required health testing

Talking with Kathy the other day I asked about possible dog shows to go to after Westminster, she replied with one show that is not happening until the end of July, supposedly due to the cost of gas. So bummed; I certainly had hoped to get to more shows before then. Seems I will be showing Winston a bit more to get him to his Silver GCH title and I am anxious to get Lexi started on her show career, so I sure hope she is open to more shows after that one. She's got pups she needs to get in the ring as well but she doesn't seem very interested or excited to do anything.

6/7/22 Posting today more for the lack of anything better to do than anything else. Pups are doing well and growing. Levi will be leaving the morning I leave for Kathy's/New York trip and Debarah is working on a date for her courier to pick up Lila. It was almost going to be today, but her courier had a medical emergency which changed that plan, so we are still waiting on a new date. Yesterday didn't start out well for me either; brushing my teeth in the morning and a filling from my middle front tooth popped out! Thankfully no pain involved and was happy to be able to get an appointment for the same day. Ended up needing a crown to the tune of almost $1,000! As it turns out, a visit (especially being unexpected) was not as traumatic as I remember feeling with dentist appointments. Maybe because I didn't have time to think about and fret over it. I AM glad that the filling falling out happened now rather than while I was on the road to/at Westminster. I will need to go back again on the 17th to have the permanent crown put on. Really not a whole lot more to say, though we may finally get to have our first sisters swim at Mark & Karen's next week. The week I was supposedly going to quarantine, but a swim session??? I don't want to miss that, and being outside rather than at a public restaurant (should they do that later in the week), with plenty of room to stay well apart, I feel will be A-Okay.

6/9/22 Well, this was a pretty decent 2 days. The last two were spent watching Gage for Kristen and we had a lot of fun playing games, playing outside, and playing with puppies with him. As I was taking him home this afternoon, today was topped off with an unexpected email from a past puppy customer with a little update about the puppy they adopted almost 3 years ago (Louise: aka ANGEL from my K litter), and also a nice photo. A very nice and welcome surprise!! And then, shortly after getting that email, a text came through from Jennifer Harper, Winston's handler(s) with a photo showing that FINALLY he won a Toy group (4) placement today in Lake Charles, LA.!!! He is again the only Biewer Terrier showing in these shows, so has 3 more BOB wins and chances for more group placements, then on to Westminster!! Yikes. . . . . .it's (finally) coming up quick!

6/17/22 Countdown to Westminster (trip). Leaving on Saturday morning for Kathy's, and then we will head to Kansas City overnight for our flight to New York on Sunday morning. I contacted one of my Heartland family members, Deborah Storz who lives in NYC to get information on best ways to get around in NY. Not only did she give us options, but she also offered in her information to meet up with Kathy and I on Wednesday at Grand Central Station and be our tour guide for the day! The information she provided and the offer to show us around NYC has finally started getting me excited for this trip; well that and maybe just the fact that it is finally almost here. In any case I am getting excited and still hanging on to some hope that Winston will win some sort of placement.

After a one day postponement of Lila's "gotcha day" due to not getting a seat on stand-by, we did send her on her way yesterday 6/16/22 to her new home with Debarah Billings in Tennessee. After her long all-day trip, no doubt she was stressed and confused but I am sure she will perk up and be fine. I sure hope she matures as well as I've thought she will and as I told Debarah, hoping she will be her next Westminster entry!! Lila's leaving leaves Levi & Lexi here, just for another day as Levi will be picked up tomorrow morning. Lexi will stay here with us to mature some more and hopefully be my bred-by show contender.

My dentist appointment scheduled today to have my permanent crown put on had to be rescheduled until after the NY trip because the crown was not ready. Oh great!; now I will be paranoid about the temporary falling off while I'm away. The dentists office gave me a little packet of temporary glue to take with me with instructions for putting the crown back on should it fall off. I just pray that it does NOT fall off while I'm away!!

6/24/22 . . . and just like that all the prep, all the excitement, all the waiting, AND all the expense of WESTMINSTER is over! It was exciting, it was fun, and it was a little disappointing when after all of the anticipation Winston did not receive any placement at the show, and we come home with no winning Westminster ribbon. He showed like the AKC GCHB title holder that he is, but showing along with a nice group of 12 Biewer Terriers it just wasn't his day to win. He is back home with us now; I will show home a bit longer to get the 40-ish more points he needs for the GCH Silver title and then he can stay home and enjoy the retired life and hopefully produce nice show pups to follow in his paw-steps. Jennifer was the one to show him at Westminster as David was in another ring at the time which was okay knowing from their reunion in Tulsa was so obviously a happy one. When we picked Winston up from their grooming area they both seemed genuinely a bit sad to see him go (I almost got teary eyed). Another older couple there (maybe their parents????) who had obviously spent time with Winston mentioning something about missing their fishing buddy (???) said their good-byes to him as well. It was an expensive venture, but I enjoyed the experience of hiring a handler, and David and Jennifer were certainly very friendly and the love and care they give to the dogs they show is obvious.

The New York experience part of our trip went well, but WOW what a city it is!!! The building were SO TALL, the streets were crowded with anything and everything, and people. . . .everywhere. Kathy and I visited the 911 Memorial and a few sights along the way on Monday, then back to the city on Wednesday to meet up with Deborah Storz (Romy's mom) and she gave us a quick run through NYC to see some of the sights; a couple of her favorite bakeries, St Patrick's Cathedral, Bryant Park, Times Square, the famous New Years Eve ball (2022), Saks Fifth Avenue building/store, then a stop at her apartment where she ran up and got Romy for a walk with us through part of Central Park before it was time for Kathy and I to head back to Tarrytown and the Westminster grounds to pick up Winston. I experienced many Uber rides, as well as the NY train, subway, and a NY taxi ride while we were there. The Uber and train rides were fine, the subway, meh, the taxi ride was so crazy with all of the bumper to bumper, side to side traffic, and cars still able and willing to weave changing lanes at will. That is not an experience I care to take again. But all in all it was a fun trip, happy to have the experience of it all, but now I'm happy to be back home to my more normal life. First day back home it was back to the dentist for me to have my temporary crown replaced with the permanent one. Was supposed to have a sister swim day in the afternoon but the cooler weather and cloudy skies cancelled those plans, so baths for a couple of the dogs it is instead.

Side note; before heading off on to the last leg of our Westminster adventure, I sent Levi off with his new family that morning before leaving for Kathy's. They were both excited to finally be taking him home and now almost a week later they tell me he is happy and doing well, and given a clean bill of health by their vet. That leaves Lexi here with us and she is getting to spend lots more free run time with the big kids in the house and loving it.