Happiness is......

(Lacey, WA) Seeing Wazzu with a huge smile on her face.

Friday morning we moved from Rochester to St. Martin's College in Lacey, WA. Our club (Rainier Agility Team)is having their annual NADAC agility trial in Lacey this weekend. This year I am Co-Chair so we got there nice and early to start getting things all set up.

It was an extremely busy day for me and even though Mike helped me a LOT I was still up and around more than usual. By the time it was time to take the judges out to dinner I had to change the plans I had made as I really needed to lie down. Since both judges are from Montana, I thought it would be great to take them to a place right on the water with local flavor. The Olympia Oyster House is really famous and has been there forever so that was the plan. But by the time we were all ready to do dinner it was 7:00pm on a Friday night. I called and they said the wait was over an hour. That didn't sound like a fun thing at all - even for healthy people!

So we looked at the menu online and ordered take-out. After picking it up we went to my parent's house which overlooks the Puget Sound and has a nice view of Mt. Rainier. The food was excellent, the scenery was beautiful, and the company was great. A big thanks to Mom for letting us invade her house on just a few moments notice.

The trial ran smoothly and on Saturday the weather was fair most of the day other than about a ten minute rain storm. The first run of the day was Weavers. I pulled Wazzu from it due to her back but Sparkie ran, of course. Poor Mike was so busy helping me that he wasn't concentrating on the course well and Sparkie was wild as she hadn't gotten to do anything yesterday so they didn't have the best run.

The next run was Chances - the only thing Wazzu and I really need as it is our weak area. Wazzu ran like she was the fastest dog on earth and like she was the best distance dog in agility. It's really amazing what she can do when she feels good and the moon and planets are all aligned correctly. Ha ha. Go figure! Well, whatever it was, it was GREAT! How fun!

The next run was Regular and Wazzu acted like agility was the worst form of torture there was. I was so discouraged as I felt sorry for her as I don't want to make her do something if it hurts - so after a bit we left the course. Mike and Sparkie however had pulled it all together and had a fabulous run coming in 1st place!

I'm not sure what happened after that Regular run but suddenly Wazzu decided she felt good enough to do agility again. She wasn't super duper speedy but she did run fairly fast and acted happy. However, between runs she was totally conked out. People would pet her and she wouldn't even open her eyes. It was a very odd day and I was a bit concerned.

Sparkie ran well the rest of the day and had a couple really spectacular runs. As always, we got a lot of comments about how cute she is and how much fun she has. Fun is her middle name for sure!

Sunday was probably the most fun day of agility I've ever participated in - even though the weather was horrible and it poured quite a bit of the day. There were a few sun breaks too though and those were much appreciated. For Wazzu and I it was like the sun was beaming down on us the entire day - even when it poured.

Sparkie ran so nicely today. She was brilliant in all her runs. Unfortunately she had just one little problem on a number of runs with contacts which kept her from getting many Q's but she really ran perfect lines and was super fast.

I don't know what got into Wazzu but she was like a ray of sunshine all day. She was so happy! She ran fast and perfectly going 6/6. But it wasn't the Q's that made our day. Wazzu was happy and silly all day. Even between runs she was happy and wanted to play. There is nothing better than seeing Wazzu so happy and smiling - especially with all the health problems she is having right now. It truly was one of our happiest days ever.

Poor little Slugger spent all three days locked in the RV as he is still on bed rest. He was such a good little sport about it all. What a sweetie.

Unfortunately by late afternoon on Sunday my body rebelled. I guess I did too much all weekend since I was very busy helping to coordinate the trial and am now suffering a huge setback in my health. I'm sure hoping I rebound quickly. Poor Mike had to pack up both our stuff and help pack up all the trial stuff.

After all was said and done we crept up the freeway, along with what seemed like everyone else in the state, back up to Woodinville where Mike got us all settled in once again. Poor guy is pretty worn out.

Here's to dreaming about one very happy Wazzu!

Debbie
6/22-24/07