Bits, Pieces and Highlights

Just a few small things that I will remember from this years National....

Watching my good friend Nancy Golden have the time of her life judging the Futurity puppies.

Seeing Pumpkin's cousin Yonah do so well in weight pull and then just a few days later, earn an Award of Merit in Breed.

Seeing Casey, last years National BOB winner, return to the Top 20 Invitaional for his last appearance of the evening wearing his weigh pull harness. At that point we learned he had been running back and forth between the Invitaional and the weight pull allnight long.

Watching Lightning, last years (and this years) Annual Award Winner for Top Sled Dog win Best of Breed. He, Casey and Yonah prove thse dogs are NOT just pretty faces.

Winning the veteran class with Icer, carrying on in his daddy's footsteps.

Ilsa made three appearance in the show ring at this years national, same as last year. Then she was a mass of fear, terrified at the sights and sounds. This year she showed beautifully, helping her dad earn a win in Stud Dog class and her mom earn a placement in Brood Bitch.

Placing with Kelly in that huge Open class of 41 girls.

The poker(bridge ?) game that was going on ringside for much of the week. It was even captured in the Banquet slide show.

Watching Babe experience the National as only a puppy can.

Winning one of Karen McF's beautiful "shard art" Planter boxes at the Auction. I have coveted one of her pieces for years and NOW I HAVE ONE!!

Seeing all the beautiful items in the Art Show. I never cease to be amazed at the talent in our club.

Seeing Karen Sickle's beautiful beadwork. She ring stewarded every day and every day she had on a new and more beautiful piece.

Watching Takenak's Barenof win the over 12 Veterans class and go on to an Award of merit. What an AMAZING dog!

Bo and Doug's hysterical Awards Banquet emceeing.

A 3 am off leash walk thru the hotel with Babe to get more ice for her ice bag.

Seeing all the great people I only get to see once or twice a year.

Number One on the hit parade? Getting the FANTASTIC news that my dear friend Mary is free of Hodgkins disease!!!

The low spot? Hearing the COE and BBE had passed. I am shocked and appalled.

Meanwhile....

I just got news that the other bitches that were entered in the show this weekene will not be there.

The entry was only 1 class dog and three class bitches, so now there is only one of each which means NO POINTS. I have already spent over $200 on entries, I guess I'll still go and hope that Ilsa can take a breed or two.

Kelly could get points...she'd have to 1) beat Ilsa for BOS or 2) Beat all 4 male specials and Ilsa for BOB or 3) hope the class boy can go BOS over the specials, then Kelly can go BOW over the boy and Ilsa can take breed. That's the scenario I'd LIKE to see happen but is also the most unlikely. If she picks up any points it will most likely be that a male special will take breed, Kelly will beat Ilsa for BOS and the class male will go BOW so he gets a point too.

Serious bummer to think about driving 8 hours for this but... I am taking my 16 year old friend Lindsay Ragsdale and I don't want to disappoint her. She is trying to get enough Junior wins to qualify for Westminster and Alamogordo is the perfect place for her to pick up a few more wins.

The Fabulous Icer

One of the biggest highlights of the whole National for me was showing my boy Icer in the Veterans classes.

On Wednesday he and I went into Veteran Sweeps. In a big class of nice boys he showed his heart out for me, ultimately placing 4th. A number of people later told me they thought he should have won the class. I know he probably looked and moved like the youngest dog out there, but he was closer to being one of the oldest! Given that I knew he was not the judges type, I was very pleased with his 4th place.

The following day I showed him in the regular Veterans class. I'm not sure if the reason he showed even better was because I was on such a high.... Just a few hours earlier I had just received the fantastic news that my friend Mary Carlson had gotten a report from her doctor saying she was clear of Hodgkin's disease - just a few short months after having been diagnosed with Stage 4B cancer. I was so happy and maybe my happiness made Icer show better. In any case he was fantastic. He flew around the ring light as a feather. I knew he was the type dog that the judge on that day would like and she sure did. He won his class easily amidst loud applause. The boy could not be denied!

One of the biggest compliments I got about Icer was from my friend Ken Granacki. Ken has a boy named Rapper, a multiple group winning and group placing dog. Rapper is just about the same age as Icer and as puppies the competed against each other at 4 shows in Denver and then again later that same year at the National. Icer won two of the days in Denver and Rapper won two. At the National, Rapper beat Icer in Sweeps and Icer beat Rapper in Futurity. They were in different regular classes for breed judging. They have never competed against each other since and over the years Ken and I have talked about getting them together as Veterans to break the tie that has held over the years.

Last year Rapper won the Veteran class. Icer stayed home. This year Rapper stayed home and Icer won the class. After Icer had received his ribbon and trophies on Thursday, Ken asked me if Icer would be at the National next year. I said yes, and Ken said that in that case, Rapper was staying home. :)

Icer and I are proud that he is following in his father's footsteps. Daddy Boomer (CH Saratoga's Sonic Boom WSX) won the veterans class at the National 3 times. May this year be the first of many more for his son.

The Famous Babe

As I mentioned in one of the posts over on the SCA 2004 blog, Babe was the star of the poop pool at the National. This was something Rescue came up with to raise money. The plan was to set up a 10 foot by 6 foot exercise pen, grid a piece of plastic off in 6 inch squares and lay it on the floor of the ex-pen, then cover it with wood chips, put a dog in the pen and whereever they pooped, that square won $1000.

Janet White the SCA National Rescue Coordinator decided it would be a good idea to use a puppy as puppies tend to have a more "predicatable" schedule.. in other words, feed them and they usually poop pretty quickly, so the chances of everyone standing around for hours waiting for a dog to poop would be less. Of course the problem is that a puppy might be spooked by the strange environment and people standing around watching her. Not my Babe....

I am famous! I am famous!!!!! The first day we were at the Big Show we were in this little room with all these people and dogs. They were sammies like me (only bigger) EVERYWHERE!!!! They were sniffiing each other and barking and some of them seemed really scared by the noise and the people and the slippery floor but not me, I though it was exciting! Then this lady came up to my mom and said she thought I looked like a pretty self assured puppy. Mommy laughed and said that was an understatement. Then the lady explained about this Poop Pool thing and asked if they could use ME at the Poop Pool Puppy. I wanted Mommy to say yes so badly and she did!

So the whole rest of the week people knew who I was. They made signs that had my name on them and they were EVERYWHERE. Mommy and I would be out walking and people would come up and say "You must be the famous BABE" and then say things to me like "N4 Babe, remember N4" or they'd ask my mommy if I liked the edge or the middle. Mommy would tell them she didn't know 'cause I'd never been in an ex-pen before.

Finally the big day came! I got a special meal (people watching called it the "Money Meal" and they took pictures while I was eating. Then Mommy carried me outide to this big fence thing full of woodchips and put me in it. It was fun!! I ate wood chips and threw them in the air and barked and everyone laughed. Then I pottied and everyone cheered and they took more pictures. It was all SO MUCH FUN!!!

-Babe

Yes, Babe was a good girl and after eating a double sized meal she did her duty in under 5 minutes. I had visions of her spending an hour in the exercies pen soaking up the attention she was receiving before getting down to business but she performed like the champion she will someday be. The lucky square was M3 and it happened to be an unpurchased sqaure so the money went back to rescue. The coordinator of the event even suggested we might use Babe again next year since she was such a hit this year.....

The Jamaican Brood Bitch Team

We're baaaack!!!

It was a fun but VERY exhausting week. If you want to get an idea of the kind of schedule we kept up all week long check out this post I made to the SCA 2004 blog.

Over the next few days I'll post some highlights of the week. First is the story of our entry into Brood Bitch...

Both of my girls were asked to be in the Brood Bitch class representing their respective mothers. Kelly was easy. I just handed her off to my friend Lindsay Ragsdale. Ilsa's entry into brood Bitch was a little more "interesting".

For those who've never seen a large Brood Bitch class it most closely resembles organized chaos. The purpose of Brood Bitch calss is to award the bitch that has most consistently produced outstanding puppies. The bitch is actually entered in the class, but it is her children who are judged. Each bitch can be represented by 2-4 of her get. That means while the entry in the class may be only 28 there will actually be a total of anywhere from 84 to 140 dogs inthe ring depending on how many get are in with each bitch.

Judge Jan Cherne had a very organized way of judging the class this year. She called in all the bitches at one time to check armbands. She then called in each "family" one at a time and judged them individually. Then after all the families had been gone over she made a cut calling back into the ring the 7 or 8 families she wanted to see again. From this group she made her final placements.

The problem with Ilsa's family arose because her breeders, Bo Gloster and Doug Haldeman, had entered two family groups. First there was Ilsa's grandmother Tasha, represented by her son Jimi and her daughter Smilla. Then Smilla herself was also entered as a brood bitch, represented by her daughters Ilsa and Yuki. Everything was going along fine as first Tasha entered, handled by Doug, with Jimi handled by Bo and Smilla handled by Lisa Robertson.

Then Smilla entered the ring handled by Bo with me handling Ilsa and Doug handling Yuki. Meanwhile Lisa also had her own brood bitch, Lexxon, that she took in with her get.

The problem arose when Lexxon, Tasha and Smilla ALL MADE THE CUT. We now had lost Lisa as a handler as she needed to be with Lexxon's family. So there we were outside of the ring.... Bo has Jimi and Tasha's leash in his hand, Doug has Yuki and Smilla, Ihave Ilsa. # handlers for 5 dogs. Bo grabs a guy in jeans who is standing around watching and hands him Smilla's leash. I grab a guy in shorts and t-shirt and hand him Yuki's leash and say "Follow me! Her name is Yuki!" and off we go into the ring.

Once we get in the ring the judge wants us to line up in "family groups". She wants Mom-dog facing out and in front of her kids. She wants the get about 2 steps behind. What do we do with Smilla????? She is both get behind Tasha but a brood bitch in her own right!! Do we put her forward or back. Bo sort of puts her in between...

The judge gets to us.... and it take about 5 minutes to explain to her what is going on... we have a brood bitch, then a get, then a get who is also a brood bitch and then her get. We have to explain at least three times. At this point Bo dubs us the Jamaican Brood Bitch Team.

Smilla gets moved to a placement, Tasha does not make the cut and so there I am in the ring with Ilsa, a clueless guy in front of me trying to handle Smilla and clueless guy behind me trying to handle Yuki. Smilla and Yukie have no idea what's going on and are spinning in circles. I am trying very hard not to laugh myself silly. Hey! We ended up in 3rd place! Not so bad for the Jamaican Brood Bitch Team... the Bob Sled team should only have done so well!

Meanwhile Kelly's family was 2nd and Lisa with Lexxon's family were 4th.

more to come.....

And We're Off!

Well we will be in the morning!

This is the last post here on Babe's blog for the next week or so. We head out to the Samoyed Club of America National Specialty in the morning. 1000 Sammies all in one place, must be heaven on earth!

If you are interested in keeping up with what we're up to.... check out the SCA 2004 blog that a few of us are contributing to.

Here's a quick look at the WhiteStar's schedule in Topeka...

Monday: Icer competes in Novice weight pull??
Tuesday: bathe Icer, attend the Top 20 Invitational
Wednesday: bathe, Kelly, Icer shows in Veteran Sweeps, attend Nancy's birthday bash
Thursday: Icer shows in Veteran Dog, Kelly may show in Brood Bitch representing her mother, attend SCA Annual Meeting
Friday: bathe Ilsa, Kelly shows in open Bitch, attend Auction and Auction Dinner
Saturday: Ilsa shows in Best of Breed, attend Awards Banquet

It's gonna be a busy week!

I am SO Tired!

I spent HOURS today helping Mommy get ready for what she says is our Big Trip. She was carrying stuff from the garage to the van and I was helping her. Because I'm so little I had to take lots of breaks to rest and chew on things I found in the garage. I found Rawhide bones and Greenies and a big Purple Rabbit that Mommy says I can take to the National. I also found a bag of dog food and a roll of tape that I took and hid under Mommy's truck. Now I think I need to take a nap.

- Babe

Yes Babe was a big "help" today. Actually she was very good. I spent my lunch hour loading the van and she was such a good girl just wandering around the yard watching and finding things to play with. You should have seen her when I gave her the Purple Rabbit. She was throwing it in the air and barking at it and jumping on it. Very Cute.

Elizabeth, Babe would be honored if you made a calendar with her picture on it. As long as it is for you own personal use, and not something to sell we don't mind at all if you use her pictures!

Babe Responds to Comments

The Show This Past Weekend

Elizabeth asked if I had fun at the show. OF COURSE I had fun. I am so cute EVERYONE wants to pet me. And EVERYONE says I am a born show dog because I love everyone and am not afraid of anything. I also have a new friend named Rifka who is as big as Kelly and Ilsa but she plays with me just like Bonnie does - as if she were little like me. Rifka is probaly just like Christmas' friend Reba!

I really liked my Aunt Tori. I wish I had been able to play with her but she had to stay clean for the show. She looks a lot like my Mama Aliy and acts like her too! Aunt Mary says that Mama Aliy and Aunt Tori are just like their Grandpa Jack.

Kelly won two purple ribbons at the show that said Winners on them and Ilsa won one purple and gold ribbon that said Best of Breed on it.

Mama Aliy's Coat

Elizabeth also asked how long it will take my Mama Aliy's coat to come back. Well it's already coming back! In that picture in my blog the other day Mama Aliy has WAY more hair than she had two weeks ago. Mommy says that Mama Aliy will be ready to go back in the show ring about the same time I am old enough, so that would be another 3-4 months. I'll make sure Mommy take pictures every few weeks so everyone can see how Mama Aliy is looking.

Who's Cuter?

My Uncle Mike says that Bonnie is as cute as me. Hmmm..... I thought *I* was the cutest puppy EVER!!!!! How can Bonnie be cuter than the cutest puppy EVER? Mommy says it s a good thing when every one thinks their own puppy is the cutest EVER but *I* want to be the cutest...pout...pout...pout....

Reunited!

Babe says: I am SO BORED!!


What?!?! My sister Bonnie is coming to visit???? YEAH!!!


Here comes Bonnie!


Bonnie asks: Wow Babe! Are you living with a coyote these days?
Babe answers: No Bonnie, that's not a coyote! That's our Mommy Aliy.
I don't think I ever want to have babies, Mommy Aliy says we made her look like that.


Let's play!!


OKAY!!


Bye Bonnie... see you again in a few weeks!

Here we go AGAIN!

Two weekends ago I was in Cheyenne Wyoming, last weekend it was Greeley, Colorado. I leave in about 30 minutes for Santa Fe New Mexico. Then next weekend I leave for the Samoyed National in Topeka. The weekend after I'll be in Almagordo, New Mexico for 4 days, then the weekend after that, Las Lunas, New Mexico. Yes, I've lost my mind. The thing with dogs shows, especially in this part of the country, is that when they are there, you have to go... it's not like on the east or west coats where you can pick and choose between several shows almsot every weekend. We go months some times of the year without a show within 10 hours driving distance.

Yes Babe is coming with me again this weekend. She is getting to be quite the traveler. This weekend she will get to meet her Aunt Tori. Tori and Babe's mom Aliy have the same daddy, Ch Moonfire's Yukon Jack aka YukieBear.

I'm taking a camera, I WILL get pictures this time around!

BRAG from last weekend!

At the Denver Specialty this past weekend, 9 year old Icer won Best in Working Sweepstakes. It was really nice as his litter sister Skyrocket was Best of Opposite in Sweepstakes (and later inthe day Best of Breed!). The judge was pleased to learn she'd been so consistent as to choose litter mates and was really thrilled to learn that both her winners were Veterans... proving that 9 is not old in this breed and that Quality Lasts!

Coming Soon....

I have new pictures of Bonnie and Domino... will post them early next week!

On the Road Again.....

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, Babe, Ilsa, Kelly, Icer and I hit the road for Greeley. We're headed to the Denver Samoyed Association Specialty and the Evergreen KC shows.

Icer is only showing tomorrow, in Working Sweeps and in Veteran. This is a warm-up for the National for him where he'll be shown in Veteran Sweeps and regular Veteran class. Poor dog won't know what hit him..he hasn't been in the ring on over a year!

Meanwhile Kelly shows in open, Ilsa in Best of Breed and Babe gets to watch and soak up the atmosphere. By the time we head to the National in a few weeks she'll be a seasoned dog show veteran.

Wish us luck!

I'm a REAL WhiteStar Dog Now!

What did Babe do yesterday? Something all good WhiteStar dogs know how to do. She played in the mud.






Aliy says: "Is that mud?? GOOD JOB BABE!!"