Every year, Linda and I take one or two big trips, usually as the result of my work or, occasionally, hers. It's been a while since we took one simply for ourselves and/or our dogs so when we decided it was time to drive from Orlando to Michigan to pick up our Rottie girl, Moxie, we were looking at a lot of expense and no income potential. A bit of background: Moxie, our two-year-old girl, has been with our handler, Kimm McDowell, since late February. Kimm happens to live in Wayland MI which makes this whole show thing a little tricky but we felt that Moxie would benefit from the experience of being away from us and as a bonus, would have the opportunity to pick up some Championship points.
Well, Moxie
has picked up some points and with shows scheduled for the weekend we arrived and the Memorial Day weekend, she had some great opportunities to pick up some more. And, for additional punishment, we decided to bring our youngest puppy, Scamp, and his littermate CocoBear for their first show experience. We left last Wednesday and arrived on Friday in Flint MI. Shows were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday and on Saturday, Scamp went Reserve Winners Dog in his very first show and Moxie won her Open Class and also went Reserve Winners on the distaff side. Nice to be recognized but no points. CocoBear has had little experience in terms of show training so she did not show but she did get a lot of socialization and some show training from Kimm.
On Sunday, Scamp went Winners Dog for his first points in only his second show. We were delighted. Here's how he looked trotting around the ring with his Auntie Kimm.
Not to be outdone, Moxie also went Winners Bitch and, in Best Of Breed, was awarded Best of Winners. Here's a shot of Scamp and Moxie showing in Breed.
And here's one of my favorite shots of Moxie going around the ring on Sunday.
So, after the excitement of the weekend, we went to Kimm's house to stay for the next week and, of course, Kimm and Linda went off to the Mall for some shopping. I went off for a drive and to see if I could find some subjects to shoot and stumbled upon a cluster of Poppies. Here's one shot of what I found.
And a little farther down the road I found this great old barn and took a bunch of photos of it. Here's my favorite.
Kimm's daughter, Michelle, also shows Quarter Horses and so the rest of the week will include dog shows, horse shows and a wedding next weekend. Pics to follow. In the meantime, here's Tigger, the barn cat, watching the horses frolic.
One last note: the internet connection here in Wayland is abysmal so I have no idea whether this post will ever process. If it does, enjoy. If not, at least my fingers got some exercise today
.
Jim
. We're still in Michigan and started a string of 5 shows today. Also have a horse show to attend this weekend along with the dog shows so I'll have more opportunities to post some images. Think I'll wait until next week when we get home however. This place is a black hole in terms of internet access