Hello and hello,
its been so long since I've posted that I just don't even know where to start. On a personal note, my life is pretty much unchanged. My roomie is getting ready to have her baby, and so all activity within the house is geared toward that: cleaning, laundry, things getting moved around and more cleaning LOL
I turned thirty this year; quite a milestone for me considering for some reason I never thought I'd live this long. I spent my birthday with friends and had a nice, little cookout at home. Harper and I spent the whole day previous to the cookout hiking at Hocking Hills, where we both had a blast.
I am still single, which is odd for me. Normally I'm a serial monogamist, but this time its been since November of 2010 since I've had a serious relationship and I'm really not ready to get back out there yet. I just have no desire to put forth the effort into something that is probably doomed to failure. Yeah, that wasn't very cheerful, was it? Sorry about that.
I have "seen" three people since Jared and I went bust, and it went pretty much like this:
Guy #1: Went back to his on-again-off-again ex, because this time it was really going to work (isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results)?
Guy #2: Booooring! Had a hard time making conversation and the conversation he did make was bland. Tried to get me to have sex with him on the first date.
Guy #3: At first, seemed very nice. Took me to rehome my cat (will share more about that later), opened doors for me, paid for food, was quite funny and intelligent. Recent divorcee, wasn't looking for anything serious (as I was not either), went to church with me, etc. Sadly enough, he failed to mention he had a drinking problem until he showed up an hour and a half late to my birthday party drunk off his ass and semi-belligerent.
Sooooo yeah. That's why I'm not dating right now LOL
My job is pretty much the same; I'm getting a raise this month at some point. My family is well, and really I don't have anything major going on right now. Except for working on trying to fix myself.
Harper has made wonderful progress since we've started agility training. Her confidence level has risen immeasurably, probably because she's so excellent at agility. She's fast, biddable, and accurate. Plus, she's willing to go that extra mile for me, so I'm nothing but proud of her. It will be a long while before we actually compete, but I have a feeling she'll be a force to be reckoned with. I, on the other hand, need to work on my training skills. I will be posting more about the progress she's made. I've been keeping a record of each class, which will be posted on a separate blog.
This past weekend, we went to a herding clinic at Karma performance. It was a BLAST despite the fact that it was windy, rainy, and cold. Harper's confidence level around livestock has increased tenfold since our first experience. She was actually able to put some pressure on the sheep. Nancy and I have decided to take her and Chili to herding class this summer, so it looks likes I will be concentrating on both agility and herding for the coming year.
My two projects looming on the horizon are church and dog related: The church related project is Vacation Bible School, for which I am selling suckers and the like. I'm not sure what part I will have exactly, but I have every desire to help bring kids to God. I'm still praying about my role. I don't know if I'm meant to lead children, or only to help out in other ways, such as assist with crafts or perhaps substituting if someone can't make it to teach one day.
The second project is the Health Foundation that my mentor Nancy is setting up. I'm not exactly sure what my role will be, but I do think its very important for everyone involved in Cardigans to put a foot forward for health. Sure, right now we have longevity on our side, but the more we know about genetics and closed gene pools, the more important it should be for us as breed stewards to protect what we have.
From what I've seen, we (as members of the Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America) haven't had a health survey since 1998. I see that as a very serious problem. How can we know what problems we have unless we do a survey? Where is the Health Committee? How can we educate puppy buyers properly if we don't know what's in our breed? Why doesn't anyone else think this is a big deal or see it as a problem?
Good questions, eh? Hence the need for a group of people more proactive about the health of our breed, hence the need for the Health Foundation.
Another aspect of health is breeding for certain traits, and breeding Harper has been on my mind lately. Should I breed her? Should I get another bitch? I'm actually leaning towards using her as my foundation bitch and letting Nancy engineer a breeding for me. She's only 17 months old right now; still too young for even an OFA preliminary diagnosis, but I'd like to start getting the ball rolling.
I have debated this for a long time, but really no one is willing to sell me what I consider a really good bitch (or give me one, which is what they should do considering that I will be showing it for them and their kennel name will still be on it) and I don't see the point in buying a bitch that will be Harper quality, when I have Harper right here. Don't get me wrong- I LOVE my girl, but she'll probably never finish. While she is structurally sound and probably better then alot of bitches out there, she moves out at elbows and there's no amount of coat that can hide it.
With the right dog, she'd produce well. Maybe she'll give me and Nancy something amazing to work with, just like Nancy's foundation bitch, Ruby. Ruby is Harper quality, and produced Sophia, who is Westminster quality. Maybe, just maybe with some luck I can get something similar. The genes are all there. Nancy is thinking about putting Harper with Frodo, who is related to one of Betty Anne's best bitches of all times, "Mystic." I LOVE Mystic, and she's my ideal in many ways. Oh to get something similar to her from the breeding. However, Frodo isn't a young man anymore and he may not even be viable.
Nancy has been living in Addison's world, and by "Addison's" I mean the autoimmune disease. Two bitches of previous litters are known to have Addison's: One from Sophia's litter and one from Brynnie's litter. As far as I know, none of the litters Brynnie produced in Germany have Addison's puppies. Hopefully Harper is clear of it. Unfortunately, there is no known marker for Addison's Disease, although UC Davis is currently working towards that. Circling back to the Health Foundation, wouldn't it be nice if we could help fund research that will benefit the long term health of our breed? Or perhaps help out needy people trying to find a diagnosis for their beloved Cardigan?
Well, that's perhaps enough for blog entry, eh? Besides, I must clean and further help the roomie prepare for the birth of Miss Vivian Rose Draper.
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