Once more, dog show season upon us

Ah, spring. The snow has melted, the trees have leaves, the lawn needs to be mowed, the black flies and mosquitos are out... and there are once again dog shows here in Maine. I entered Ian in the York County Kennel Club shows the weekend of May 2nd and again in the Vacationland shows the weekend of the 16th. Ian took Reserve on 5/2/09 to a puppy who really should not have won. Not just my opinion; several people outside the ring thought so as well. Since it was a good two and a half hour drive back down the next day, and the Saturday judge's husband was judging on Sunday, I decided to save the gas money and stay home. No point throwing good money after bad. At those same shows, Elli's littermate Ah-Leah went Winners Bitch both days for her first two points. She really is looking nice. I can't kick myself too hard for keeping Elli instead of her, though. I wouldn't trade my "wild child" for anything.

At the Vacationland show on 5/16/09, Ian went Winners Dog for a point, bringing his total to 13. I was hoping for Best of Winners so I could boost that to two points off the bitches, but no such luck; Cheryl's Fergie went WB and BoW. On Sunday Finn, the cute little blue puppy shown by Ed Merrin (sp?) from Massachusetts went WD with Ian as Reserve. Those two have traded off wins and Reserves a few times now. Ed is super nice, and Finn is a promising pup. In fact, maybe he and Elli will have a date in the future...

As for Miss Elli, she is definitely looking better to me than she was a month or two ago. (Major, major puppy uglies!) Her topline is levelling off again as I was hoping it would -- it was dead level at 7 weeks. She is still small compared to her littermates, but as I purposely don't feed puppy food to artificially enhance the growth rate, I'm okay with that for now. She will hopefully catch up as she matures, though I think she'll be a more delicate bitch than many in the show ring. Assuming she clears all of her health tests when the time comes, I think she is worth breeding. I'm not sure it would make sense to buy another puppy for a foundation; the only way I'm going to get the "pick of a litter" is to breed it myself. Otherwise I'll always have to settle for second best.

Next shows: Penobscot Valley KC in June. Ian is entered both days (just TWO more points, universe! Please!). I'm debating whether to enter Elli on Saturday so I can enter her in the Sweepstakes as well. Guess it will come down to finances.

Coming out of the post-AI stupor

I figured once American Idol was over I'd have my life back. I clearly forgot the run of press appearances the winner and runner-up do during the couple weeks following the show. So much Adam Lambert goodness over the last few days!! Oh, and there were some appearances by That Other Guy as well.

Normally I'd be incensed and disgusted by the result, but Kris is such a nice guy that I just don't have it in me to hate on him. Plus, he and Adam are too cute as buddies. They totally need to have their own reality show.

Adam still should have won, though.