Maggie, Raven, and I returned from the 3-day show in Belleville, IL, last evening about 6:30. We had a fun weekend. The Friday show was hosted by the Gateway Non-Sporting Dog Club, and the Saturday and Sunday shows by the Edwardsville Illinois Kennel Club. For some reason, a few years ago Lhasa people from multiple states started gathering at this show for an end-of-the-year, last-chance-at-majors event. This year people came from IL, MO, TN, WI, OH, and ND. We had large class entries with 5-point majors in dogs and 4-point majors in bitches. There were 6 specials entered also.
Summary: Great people. Great food. Great friends. Laughs. Excitement. Some disappointment. Fun. Beautiful Lhasas! Good vendors at the show site. Great variety of stores for Christmas shopping. Nice hotel with patio door in the room making easy parking lot access for loading and unloading. Decent weather until Saturday night when rain began and continued for most of Sunday.
Maggie was the big winner for us. On Saturday under Michelle Billings, Maggie took Winners Bitch and Best of Winners for a 5-point major. It was a welcome ‑ but unexpected - win, so I was thrilled. Once again, a big thanks to Jane, who took Maggie back into the ring for Breed so I could show Raven, and who showed Maggie to that Best of Winners award that resulted in a 5-point rather than a 4-point major.
This show weekend is our last of 2011. Maggie is entered in the Skokie Valley show and Sweepstakes next weekend, but since she is the only class Lhasa entered and there are no points, it seems senseless to go. I think I'll go Christmas shopping instead!
I tried to get some candid photos of the girls as we were waiting for it to be time to go to ringside. The effort was semi-successful. I was using an older digital camera that had a horribly long delay time between the time I pressed the button and the time the photo was actually taken. The results were a lot of terrible shots of heads moving. However, a few of the photos were not too bad so I am sharing. Click the photo if you want a larger view.
Just think, it was this time last year when I was posting baby pictures of Raven and Maggie.
And…speaking of baby pictures, we'll be taking new pictures of Dancer's puppies tomorrow or Wednesday. I'll post them as soon as I can.
Life is good when you have a Lhasa to love you.
Joyce
They look beautiful. You've done a great job. Both their coat are thick and shiny
ReplyDeleteRaquel