Roxy training diary month 68

January 2009

Jan 31. Annie and I struggled a lot to get qualifying scores ("legs") in USDAA agility. We came close lots of times, but you need a perfect score to get a leg, and we were far from perfect.

Finally, one March weekend in Shreveport in 1999 when Annie had her 6th birthday, I just reached a point of total frustration. Another good run had been ruined, perhaps by me, perhaps by her, and so I sat in the car and cried. It was not ever going to work out for us.

Still, the next weekend we had a trial in Covington, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, in conjunction with a horse event there. It was a difficult venue; as we ran, the hunter-jumper and steeplechase competitors would wander by on horseback to watch.

Annie must have sensed my frustration, or just giving up is a good idea, because we got two legs that weekend, putting us 2/3 of the way towards her Starters/Novice (AD) title.

Today, I went down to Salt Lake for the first 5K of the season, as part of the Salt Lake City Track Club's Winter Running Series. I placed 7/20 in the Clydesdale Division, which is for men 200 lbs plus (fat guys). I qualify, so that's what I ran in. I would have been 9/12 in my age group. It was a time of 25:05, which is well off my PR pace, but I didn't push myself as much as I could have because I'm coming back from this lung crud. That's 3 miles on the new running calendar.

One-Legged Dog

Jan 27. I had a "moment" thinking about Annie yesterday morning. It's the kind of thing that happens whenever you lose someone you love.

I was out early shoveling snow, and I was thinking to myself, "I need to be careful not to pile up the snow here so Annie can get through. Annie hates snow."

Then I realized she wouldn't mind at all. I felt very alone for a bit.

The Shadow Bites

Buddies, Really

Dr. Nebeker brought Annie's ashes to the house tonight. They are between Dylan and Marieke. I told Rosemary that Annie and Marieke don't want to be next to each other. We might move Kodiak between them.

Kodiak and Annie used to play fearsome games, then sleep cuddled together. Kodiak really didn't like other dogs, so that was quite a compliment coming from him.

Jan 22. Two more pictures from the new collection, "Annie: The Early Days".

She used to like to have her tummy rubbed. After she hit puberty, she wasn't much of a snuggler, but as a puppy she did a little.

The first "trick" I taught her was the Tonsillectomy Trick. Later on, she learned some real tricks, but as a puppy, this was her first.

Jan 21. As you might imagine, I've been spending a lot of time over the last few days reminiscing about Annie.

Rosemary was kind enough to go through our pre-digital photograph collection and fished out this, the first known picture of Annie.

Her littermates are all doing various puppy things, but Annie is staring directly at the photographer, as if to say: Take Me, Dammit, You Stupid Person.

It was love at first sight.

Jan 19. Today, we had to put Annie to sleep.

She has been increasingly agitated and upset, especially at night, over the last few weeks.

Rosemary reported that Annie was really uncomfortable while I was gone.

We made the decision to release her from her anxieties, which had been increasing.

Annie came into my life at a time when I was healing from the sudden loss of my friend Kiri. Annie and I developed a special bond, as you can see from the tribute pages I made for her some time ago.

Annie's titles are listed at right. Along with a long and distinguished agility career, and a much shorter and less distingushed career in the obedience and rally rings, she was a licensed pet therapy dog and even appeared on TV, albeit very briefly.

She will be missed.

Plateau's Poke Salad Annie CDX AX AXJ NAP OJP AAD SM RN VQW HIC

March 22, 1993 – January 19, 2009

Dude! That hurts!

Jan 8. Roxy had her second shock-wave treatment today, and Dr. Pam was impressed with her healing process.

Now Roxy is released to limited activity, so she can be out of her pen more and we're letting her play with Sky as long as Rosemary and I supervise.

I'm hoping she'll be back to 100% when the "herding season" reopens in the spring. Time will tell.

Sky fell in love with a crab toy, so we went to a site online and got him a gigantic squeaky crab. It squeaks from the "claws" and squawks from the "body". He has great fun with it.