What a Weekend

We broke out the RV for the last show weekend of the year in Rochester, MN. It all began on a dirt road in Iowa where Nick and I picked up Cindy, Meredith, 4 puppies and a Moose. I should have know when I couldn't get the RV to Cindy's house and we had to load at a cross roads that it was going to be quite a weekend. Well we weren't even back onto the highway before puppy Frank was under my seat. Oh I should mention that is where Russ rides. So the first hour was consumed with tussle, tussle, move resettle until they both decided there was indeed room for two under the Captain's chair. Other than running out of Nature's Miracle before arriving in Rochester the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.

We established base camp, then Cindy and I set out to set up grooming space. I should mention that we left the children to fend for themselves. Immediately upon our return, Cindy throws something away and notices a toxic chili spill. Of course, Shaker was the first one in the mix and ate goodness knows how much in the few seconds that it took Cindy to grab paper towels and start damage control. (For those of you keeping score--that's 2 for the dogs, 1 for Nick and 0 for the grown-ups).

We all hit the hay at a reasonable hour, and I am thinking yeah we can sleep in a bit because we have a late Cardi show time. WRONG! Sometime in the night, Moose decides my bed is more comfortable that Cindy's pull out couch and makes the great Moose launch onto my legs. I heard him coming so the landing wasn't too big of a surprise, but boy oh boy is he a big boy. He stays with us for much of the night, but at 'O ridiculous:30 he decides he misses his mom. When he leapt off the bed, he woke up Shaker, who woke up Russ, who woke up the puppies. Fantastic, so we take the whole motley crew out to the x-pens. Thanks Moose I owe you one. (That's 3 for the dogs, 1 for Nick and 0 for adults)

We leave the puppies in the x-pens while we are at the show, and at some point it started raining. It never occurred to me that the kids would leave the puppies in the rain, but alas they did. So we dry dogs, put out snacks, and start pouring wine for our 10+ guests. Good thing Sherilyn has reflexes of steel or the wine, crackers, Amana sausage, cheese and tomato bruschetta would have been on the floor. Yes, 5 puppies, a snack tray with wine glasses is a recipe for disaster. (That's 3 for the dogs, 2 for Nick and 1 for the humans. Thanks Sherilyn for scoring one for the home team.)

We head to bed knowing we have an early show time but every time I would settle I heard one of the puppies make a sound that curled my hair. That's it I can't stand it anymore and put Frank in bed with Russ, Shaker and me. (Dogs 4, Nick 2, Adults 1)

Next morning dawns early with the same routine. We head to the show ring without any of Russ' normal bait, because Mr. Picky Pants has decided he prefers Ball Park franks to anything worth eating. Don't get me started on this one, because the night before I picked up two cans of Alpo just to see if he would eat it. Oh my goodness, I can't believe it--we feed only top quality Whole Dog Journal approved foods and my baby Russ prefers Alpo! I think this was about the time I got accused of treating my other two dogs like red-headed step children. (Apparently I wasn't concerned enough about Shaker eating the chili and beans and I confess I left Music at home. But in my defense, Shaker is a garbage gut, and Music respectfully requested to be left on the couch for a quiet weekend) (Dogs 5, Nick 2, Adults 1)

This next paragraph should be prefaced with "no dogs were injured in the escapade." After packing up, and getting about 1/2 hour on the road, I hear crash! What in the world? Cindy jumps up and says "oh its a little wine spill." "Do I need to stop?", I ask. "Nope" is her reply "we are good". Okay, so I drive a few more feet and hear "maybe you should stop." So I pull over to the side of the road and I hear "their goes my sock." I come to a complete stop turn and glance back to a Sea of Cranberry wine. My first thought is where are the dogs? Can you believe it 7 dogs in the RV and I can't see even one. I have no idea where they went and hid but not a trace of even one dog while the toxic clean up team of Cindy, Kim and Meredith use 3 bath towels, now toast, a roll of paper towels, and untold amounts of 409 and Nature's Miracle to get the job done. I have to tell you I laughed so hard my ribs hurt today. (Dogs 5, Nick 2, Meredith 1, Adults 2)

Well the camera was buried all weekend, so the only pictures are in my mind. The ones posted to the blog today are what my puppies look like today--wiped out but happy. (Oh Music always looks as content as can be when she has her favorite spot on the couch, Russ hasn't figured out that he doesn't fit in his puppy bed anymore, and Shaker well he's just even tempered but always ready to go Shaker!)