The Beginning

So many things have happened this month, that I'm not sure where to begin this tale. At the beginning, I suppose, since that's usually the right place. I'm pretty sure this is going to be LONG... I'll probably break it up into more than one post, otherwise I'm likely to forget to finish up!

The beginning of February found me busily preparing for my 500 mile, 8 hour long trip to St. Paul, Minnesota. Athena was going to her fun match with the Greater Twin Cities Whippet Club. (Which I went on to find out was called a "sanctioned B match"... not sure if there is a difference.) Saturday, the 2nd, I woke up super early to start my trip. Of course I had forgotten to pick up a pump to keep my milk supply up while I was gone from Lochlan, so I had to go out of my way to grab that, which ended up taking about an extra hour. The trip out went fine. I listened to lots of World of Warcraft podcasts, and then rocked out to my music so hard that the muscles in my arms were sore from playing the steering wheel drum. My aunt always said to never marry a drummer because they never stop tapping, patting, thumping... Well, my uncle is a drummer. And I spent a lot of time with him... Too late!

I brought two of my super soft fuzzy blankets and a pillow for when I got tired. I didn't get tired. I had 4 hours of sleep heading into that trip and didn't even get a wee bit sleepy. Not sure how it happened, but whatever, I was happy. Stopping to pump added at least an hour to the trip, possibly an hour and a half. I think I arrived at Carol's around 4pm. She is such a nice lady! You never feel awkward or out of place; it's like you are family. And her dogs! Oh my gosh. It was a little piece of heaven being surrounded by so many whippets, I gotta tell ya. I missed Caayn and my boys with all of my heart, but I wouldn't have traded that weekend for anything. (Would you believe me when I say that Caayn and I have never, ever, been apart, except for the night I spent at the hospital with Lochlan? Same goes for Sully.)

I got to meet Imani's Affinity Queenie, who is called Queenie and is the mother of Athena. I also met Antoinette "Toni" who looks EXACTLY like Athena, only the other half of her face has brindle too. And I met Louis and Cosette "Cozy", who were two more siblings. Louis was the boy we almost brought home. He is lovely! And big, my goodness was he solidly built. He looks like he could tear a course up. And Cozy stole my heart. I have an extreme soft spot for black and white dogs. Not sure why. I'll have to get around to posting some pictures. Cozy has black patches on both sides of her face, and then black splotches on her back. And she just has a wonderful personality. I would have brought her home with me at the drop of a hat if I could have! The only one of Athena's siblings to have been sold went to a guy in Texas. I'm not sure what her name is, but she was solid white with black ears. It'd be nice to find her!

Luckily I have pictures of all these wonderful dogs, so one of these days I will get my butt in gear and start editting/cropping and getting them online. (I took over 200 that weekend.)

The banquet was a lot of fun. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, dog people are a breed apart. They are good people for the most part. And you'll always have something in common. I got to meet David Samuelson and his wife, Gina. He was the one who referred me on to Carol when I was hunting for a whippet. I know I met a ton more people, but I can't remember all the names. While I was being introduced to everyone, I kept wondering to myself if any of them were members of Whippet World, an MSN group... Hehe.