I left Purina Farms on Sunday morning drove the 1,620 miles, arriving home just 34 hours later. I was even home early enough to unpack the van!
The Specialty week is like stepping into an alternate reality. Normal life just slips away. I think that is a good thing to experience because it gives us a vantage point to evaluate normal life — is that the kind of life we want to live?
There is a lot of thinking time in all those miles!
There were so many wonderful parts about the Specialty week but a definite high point was seeing dogs who carry small pieces of my heart. In no particular order, here are the Kaibab dogs I got to see during the week.
Sparkler Ruthie and her human, Lori, also had a rental RV and were parked right next to me.
I saw both of them a lot — lucky me! Ruthie rocked the Scentwork trial ⭐️
On the other side of Lori was iPup Tag with his human, Tina, her twin sister, Tami, and Tami’s dog, Wiley. This is Tag and Tina — he was Oldest Qualifier in both Scentwork and Rally!
And here is Tag with his littermate, Sparkle. Both will be 11 in June 🍀
On the other side of me was Dianne and Gordon with Sparkler Jordan, and her canine siblings, Terrie and Hunter.
Jordan and her human were well-honored at the Annual Awards Banquet — Jordan picked up her Grand Master Draft Dog award and Dianne received the AKC Sportspersonship Award — a super big deal and well-deserved! Congratulations, Dianne!
Bridget drove four hours each way to spend a few hours with all of us one day, bringing along Wildflower Kitsap.
He is GORGEOUS!!!! Wow. It was so great to see him and his human again — so much gratitude to Bridget for making the effort ❤️
Alison and Tom also rented an RV and were just a few trailers over — they brought Sparkler Kiri and Bright Star Zuber.
Zuber has a full set of draft genes — and some bonus ones — the draft test was no problem for Team Zuber.
It was SO great to see all of them.
Down the RV road a few spots was Moonshadow Andy, his awesome person, and his wonderful canine sister.
Andy
Don’t you just want to kiss all those freckles?!
It was like a little village in the RV area — so fun. Except that one night we were evacuated to the Event Center because of a tornado warning. Minor detail!
Seeing how much the dogs are loved and enjoying their lives was beyond wonderful.
Thank you to all who are sharing their lives with a puppy (or puppies) who started off their time on earth with me ❤️