:Musings on a Tuesday morning…

Dawn, coming later each morning, is creeping up outside the window. Arriving home from a club meeting late last night, the air smelled earthy, almost fermented. Fall is here, surprising me with its welcoming coziness, its embrace of comfort and quiet, its message to slow down, spend time inside perhaps reading, creating, rather than outside doing, doing, doing the endless things always awaiting attention.

So, I finished it. I had put this book on hold right after Kathy told me she’d spent a weekend reading it. Out of the loop, I hadn’t heard of this book prior to Kathy’s recommendation. Now it’s all over the place. It’s Oprah’s latest featured book. Rick told me I’m a trend setter because I had the book before it seemed to hit the headlines. He’s probably out of the loop too! I replied if anyone was a trend setter it was Kathy. Either the library ordered a bazillion copies or I put it on hold in the nick of time because it didn’t take but several weeks for a copy to become available. Not reading the book jacket, I dove right in. I hadn’t read any reviews. I didn’t know the story. I didn’t have a clue something would go south until Shelley’s comment a week or three ago. Instead, I immersed myself in the descriptions, beautiful descriptions of the daily routine of managing a kennel, grooming the dogs, training the dogs. The author’s poetic words made shoveling $h!t – and all the rest that goes with the care of some-20 dogs less mundane.

The end of the story left me…sad. I wanted more. More words, beautiful words. When I read the…what the heck is the blurb after the story called??? Aftermath is the only word that comes to my mind right now. Of course, that’s not it. Although it describes how I felt, especially when I read author David Wroblewski’s recommended reading list. First on the list, Vickie Hearn’s Adam’s Task. She’s been dead for several years. She was on the late Dr. John Armstrong’s canine genetics list. She wrote of being able to train a dog to follow her off-lead through crowds in New York City. She took my friend Cathy Marley to task about the notion that Apsos are too independent, too stubborn to train. Her words, shared until her demise from (dammitall) breast cancer, would settle in my mind, giving me something to ponder on those fortunate-for-me days she posted. Reading her name was almost like seeing my own ghost, my own welcome ghost.

Yesterday this arrived in the mail, sorta validating the work with our own Sawtelle dogs. Three FFT dogs have been invited to the AKC/Eukanuba Classic this year; quite an achievement actually. Fernando. Dante. And now Thateus. This event and a handful of featured shows throughout the year are televised on Animal Planet. Fernando and Dante invites are a result of their rankings nationally. Thateus’ invite is a result of completing his Championship title from the Bred-By-Exhibitor class. He’s also eligible for a competition at the Classic specifically for dogs handled by their breeders.