Proud All Over Again

I've been sitting at home, feeling sorry for myself because everyone else is out at the BCCA National in California, drinking Sonoma County cabernet and having a grand old time -- while I'm freezing here in New England. It isn't the first, or fifth, or fifteenth, or fiftieth time I've wished that I'd had the available cash to take Dinah out there and show her to Wendy Hines. Bess and Travis will just have to uphold the family honor for us.

The one bright spot is if I hadn't been stuck home this week, I wouldn't have been here to pull the latest issue of the Bearded Colleague (the BCCC's quarterly magazine) out of the mailbox. This was the Specialty issue, so it brought back some nice memories of August in Gananoque all over again. I'd taken out a nice little black-and-white brag ad for Dinah's two Canadian wins this year, and Lois (the editor, who also owns Seamus's litter sister Kyla) did a fabulous job with it.

Dinah's BCCC win photo (photo by Kathleen Schaffer of Pup Art):




The part that I've been waiting for is the judge's commentary on her various placements. Here's what she had to say about Dinah:

Breaksea November Storm: 1st in Open Bitch. Quality bitch of the style I like, beautiful feminine head and expression, she is completely balanced combining strength with quality, shown in good coat and condition, her free flowing movement impressed me, I felt she was worthy of Winners Bitch.

Another sweet and completely unexpected surprise was the note of congratulations that Seamus's breeders added to his mom Maxine's ad in the Colleague. Not only did they congratulate Conor for his BOW/AOM at the Specialty, but they also congratulated Seamus for completing his APDT Rally Level 1 championship (RL1X) back in September. I have to admit to getting a little choked up. We expect Dinah Moe to get the glory when she does well, but it was genuinely touching for Seamus to get some too.