Canine Health Day

On Saturday I traveled down to Kalamazoo in fierce wind to attend the Kalamazoo Kennel Club Canine Health Day. The hold one each year at their building and it is an excellent opportunity to get your annual CERFs done on dogs. This year they also had a cardiologist available for OFA clearances. Boston and Korbel passed their annual CERF eye exam with flying colors and Korbel got her cardiac clearance. We then did some training in the parking lot in preparation for a Samoyed team appearance we are hoping to make with some fellow exhibitors later this year. More on that as we get closer to the date.

Weekend Shows

It was good to get out to a show this weekend. Saturday Mike and I went to Allegan to show. Korbel was 2nd in her open class. Creme was Reserve Bitch and Chance was 2nd in his class. Today Mike went down to Marshall with the dogs and I stayed home to work on my dissertation. This time Korbel was 3rd, Chance was 2nd and Creme was Reserve Bitch again. Not a bad dog show weekend all in all. Seeing friends and catching up always makes it worth it. When the dogs work well for us and do their best to shine in the ring it is frosting on the cake.

Dawn and Ali

It sounds like Dawn has it made in the shade! She went shopping with Ali for new toys and got to pick out what she wanted. At night she sleeps under the covers with Ali! Wow, don't tell the rest of our dogs...they will all want to take a plane ride too! Here are Ali and Dawn the day after Dawn got to New York. Looks like they are having fun.

She Made it!

Thank goodness, Dawn landed at 4:45 p.m. this afternoon in Buffalo and is in Ali's arms now! We were concerned because the Delta website never showed her being boarded on the plane. I'm sure both Dawn and Ali are having fun getting to know each other. Ali said she was already giving her kisses.

Off to Buffalo???

Well maybe not. Here is Mike minutes before he left for the Grand Rapids airport to send Dawn off to her forever home with Allison. Allison lives in upstate New York near the Massachusetts border, but after trying a number of options we mutually decided it would work best to fly Dawn into Buffalo. Allison and her mom were to drive 51/2 hours to the Buffalo airport to pick her up on Friday. O.K. good plan, too bad we didn't realize that Friday the 13th was also going to be a record day in weather history! Poor Ali got stuck on the 104 miles of closed New York Turnpike all night long. When she finally arrived at her sisters house in Buffalo the next day she found that her sister had no power. Dawn flew to Cinncinati....and could go no further. We watched the web site as she got assigned to airplanes, then pulled off again over and over. Many phone calls later...it looks like she might make it into Buffalo late this afternoon. Ali promises she will call me as soon as Dawn is in her arms!

New CHIC!

We have a new CHIC at Solid Gold! CHIC is a canine health foundation term and it gathers data on purebred dogs. Each parent club sets criteria for their breed and the Samoyed Club of America has decided that in order to be listed as a CHIC dog, the dog must have an OFA clearance for hips, a cardiac clearance, a current CERF (eye exam by a board certified specialist) and be certified clear of PRA which is an inherited eye disease. The PRA test is done via DNA from blood. I am excited to say that I just got back the results from Boston's PRA blood analysis so now she has met the qualifications for CHIC. Yeah!!

Baskets of Fun

One of the unique aspects of the 2006 Samoyed Club National Specialty was the state and regional baskets which were donated. They were lovingly collected by local volunteers and then transported sometimes thousands of miles and artfully set out on display. Those in attendance had the pleasure of viewing them all week before voting on their favorites and the bidding for the right to take them home. I don't think I managed to get a picture of all of them, but here are quite a few. Colorado was voted the favorite with Minnesota a runner up. Also Wisconsin was 3rd. Michigan won the "who would have thought" category. The slide show is not arranged in any particular order.

SCA 2006 Baskets