Weenies

So apparently all my dog show friends are a bunch of weenies since not one of you sent me a less than flattering win picture.  Or maybe it's that none of you have ever taken a less than flattering win picture?  Because if that is the case, I'm screwed.

Now, to take the post title another direction...  This morning I was thinking about owning a stud dog and what that has meant to me personally.  In the world of dogs, there are people who prefer to own dogs and those who prefer to own bitches.  In most respects, it doesn't really matter to me - I have both - but owning a stud dog seems, to me, to be a little different.

When Sam came to live with me, nearly 10 years ago, it was supposed to be a temporary situation.  As a novice Cardigan owner I had no intention of becoming involved in the conformation or breeding side of owning dogs.  Ginny had come to live with me about 5 months earlier and I had originally thought I would pursue competitive obedience with her (the only dog sport I was aware of at the time) but that wasn't panning out.  Sam came along and things began to change.

I acknowledge that every stud dog is different and what I've experienced with Sam may not be the norm but, here's what I've found:

- Some stud dogs don't like other intact males.  In my first group of Cardigan friends, there were a bunch of intact males.  Some had stood at stud, others hadn't.  None of them liked each other.  We all socialized at agility events but we had to do it from a 6-10 foot distance if we had the dogs with us.

- Intact males can be wonderfully polite around girls in season or real idiots.  Early on, Sam was very polite when his girlfriends would come to stay with us.  As he's aged, he's gotten less polite and more of an idiot.  The whining and tap dancing that accompanied Georgia's last season were ridiculous.

- When you own a stud dog, you sometimes have to take matters into your own hands.  Enough said.

- Taking your stud dog to a good looking, male repro vet to be collected on can seriously impair your sang froid.

- Owning a stud dog causes you to have what most people would think of as completely inappropriate public conversations about testicles, penises, semen, sperm counts, motility and virility.  It also causes the guy at the UPS store to ask if you were the one who shipped a 'whole bucket' of sperm to England.  I was not.

- Owning a stud dog means you don't have to be married or have a boyfriend to experience having a man in your bed who hogs the bed, steals the covers, throws the pillows on the floor, snores, farts and kicks you when he's dreaming.

-Owning a stud dog means you can have lovely friendships all over the country and world with people you've never met because their dog has your stud in its pedigree.  I'm always thrilled to see pictures of members of the Samily and hear about their exploits.

What about the rest of you who own stud dogs?  Anything to add to the list?

Class Pictures

Ahh yes, summer is coming to a close (at least chronologically if not meteorologically) and thoughts turn to back to school.  New school clothes (my personal fave), new school supplies (lunch box anyone? or are those passe?) and class pictures.

I won't share any of my old class pictures.  I think they are all in storage anyway and, generally speaking, incredibly unflattering with the exception of 5th grade.  In the spirit of those class pictures, we took the dogs to Chris Green Lake yesterday to get some head shots.  Let me just say that Moira and Bogey are terrific models, the rest of them are difficult to work with.  Sam is too excited about being out of the house, Ginny is too excited about having grass to eat and Georgia is still too young to really want to hold still.  None the less, here are some of the better photos from today....

Sam, he's actually an alum.  Can you guess which fraternity he pledged?

This is an oldy, but goody of Gin.  She just didn't want to have her picture taken.

Moira.  The other really good shot of her looked like a mug shot.

Bogey.  Doesn't this look like your classic 'senior portrait?'  The pensive, staring into space look.

And our 'first grader,' Georgia.

Old Man Dreams

It's no secret or surprise that Sam is aging.  As part of that process he's sleeping more and deeper than he ever has and sometimes he chooses to sleep in out of the way places.  Sometimes we even lose track of where he is because he sleeps so soundly he doesn't move when we move dogs around.

That happened on Saturday evening when UHM forgot Sam was sleeping in the hallway and let the Baby Dogs (Bogey & Georgia) in the house.  Sam and Bogey don't get along and aren't allowed to interact.  Up until recently, Sam hasn't been overly fond of Georgia either.  He's not a big fan of the kissy, kissy, licky, licky thing puppies do with older dogs.  He has some very strong ideas on personal space.  That seems to be changing though as Georgia matures and becomes a GIRL and not a puppy.  So when the Baby Dogs came in the other night and Georgia got to Sam before I could  I found Sam flirting with her but with a rather perplexed look on his face.  I can only assume she woke him out of a sound sleep and Sam was too befuddled to realize what was going on.  I'd like to think he saw her something like this.....

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BTW, UHM was able to grab Bogey's collar before he ran up on Sam and the dream turned into something else.

Father-Daughter

I think this is my favorite photo from the birthday party.

Ginny, from Sam's first litter, and Sam.

Cardi Party 2011

Yesterday we hosted a Cardi Party of epic proportions to celebrate Sam's 13th birthday (May 31st).  In attendance were 16 Cardigans, ranging in age from 9 weeks to 13 years old, 1 Border Corgi (ok, she's a Border Collie but we renamed her so she wouldn't feel left out) and 1 Aussie.  It was a mob scene but everyone had a lot of fun and no one cried or ended up wearing a cone so I felt like it was a success.

We had frapping, watermelon, cake, and lots of fun talking dog.  Sam got lots of emails wishing him a happy birthday and I read each one to him.  He barked back at me - surprising, I know.

Huge thanks to UHM, Liz H., Liz B., Elizabeth, Heather, Robin and Sarah and all their assorted dogs, kidlets and better halfs for making Sam's party so much fun.  You can see a smattering of images from the party on Flickr but there were so many that I couldn't upload them all this month - stupid limits.  Watch The Chronicles of Cardigan and Nick the Cardi, International Man of Mystery (yes Liz B., I'm shaming you into a blog post) for even more images.  Blogger is having some sort of issue with uploading photos directly to blog posts so I'll update this later with a couple of my favorite shots from the day.

PS- I forgot to mention that the wonderful folks at Sammy Snacks, where Sam's cake came from, also very generously provided party favors in the form of samples of their snacks and dog food.  Everyone went home with some to try.

"Mojo: The libido. The life force. The essence. The right stuff. What the French call a certain... I don't know what."

Much like Austin Powers, Sammy got his mojo back today.  Our 1 o'clock appt with Dr. Dove proved that the surgery in March was a success.  There wasn't a lot of volume (he's 13 and he only has one testicle!) but what was there was good quality and sufficient for freezing.  The thousand dollar testicle WORKS!

The Holiday Weekend

For you poor working stiffs out there, I understand this is a long weekend.  I hope you enjoy it :)  The Horde started the weekend with a small success.  Miss Georgia got her second point today at the Hampton, VA, show under breed-judge Janet Robinson (Snowdonia).

In other Georgia news, she is in season.  At this point, that doesn't really mean much to anyone but Sam.  He is absolutely gobsmacked by her beauty and enticing aroma.  He sings, he tap dances, he tries to make the tips of his ears cross in his efforts to express to her the degree to which he finds her alluring.  It's a little pathetic to watch him try to impress her since she's still young enough that she doesn't really know what all his posturing is about.  Being the unscrupulous dog-mom that I am, I plan to take full advantage of Georgia's condition and Sam's infatuation.  Today I called Dr. Dove's office to make an appointment for Sam to be collected on next Friday.  Sam has never really needed incentive to do his business at Dr. Dove's office but since Monday will be the old man's 13th birthday and he's down to just the one testicle, I figure it can't hurt to give him a little encouragement, something to strive for, even though he won't be allowed to consummate the relationship in that way. I'm considering it a belated birthday gift for the old man.

There's No Place Like Home

I've been away since Monday, visiting UHM's parents in South Carolina, at the beach :)  There are advantages to being unemployed - I can go to the beach in the off-season when there's virtually no one there but the weather is still good enough for me to lie in the sun and add a few more wrinkles to my face.

Anyway, I got home this evening.  UHM won't be home until Wednesday.  When I arrived home I was greeted by three ecstatic dogs.  Moira woo-wooed me, Ginny ran around grabbing chewies and Sam barked a lot and jumped on me.  Sam is old, Sam's back hurts, Sam shouldn't jump on me.  Sam will be getting a double dose of Tramadol tonight.  Grace, the cat, slept through all this but has been awake for the last hour complaining about nothing.  That's Grace.  At 14 she's allowed to complain a bit, even if it is about nothing.

For those of you who are my friends on FB, you'll know that Georgia has a yacht.  We saw it while we were lunching at the marina on Tuesday.  It's a nice yacht.  If you click on the image you should just be able to make out Georgia's name on the yacht.

When UHM returns with the camera next week you can see Georgia's other 'toy.'  Here's a hint though, it's sporty and cherry red.  The Princess is acquiring quite a lot of toys.

Save the Date - A Birthday Party/Samily Reunion

This is a tiny bit early, and I'll post it again but....

For those of you in the area who would like to celebrate the old man's 13th birthday (May 31st), we're having a party/Samily reunion on Sunday, June 5th.  The start time is dependent on when Cardis show at the Charlottesville-Albemarle KC show.  While Sam LOVES to open presents, he's asked that donations be made to CorgiAid, Inc. instead.  He'll be perfectly happy ripping up tissue paper to celebrate becoming a teenager.

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