After a restless (and for some of us, sleepless) first 2 weeks, Hat’s settling in nicely!

• He’s not having the nocturnal crazies any more (well, just a little bit, but it’s not so bad)
• He’s starting to relax and PLAY!
• He and Kacey touched noses through the baby gate today – nobody hissed!



Isn’t he handsome? I think he’s a gorgeous cat despite his poor little ears. It’s so hard to get a picture of him though – he always has his face right in the camera!

His injuries have healed and he’s starting to act like a happy little house-hat. Sometimes I go upstairs to sit with him – he jumps in my lap, head bumps for a while, rolls over for belly rubs, then takes a bath and purrs himself to sleep. Too cute! Did I mention I LOVE this cat ?

Next on the agenda – introduce him to Ambika (who’s taken a peek or two from the stairs) and start letting him see the rest of the house.

We almost got snowed out! Thursday and Friday everyone in the area got from over 1 foot to over 2 feet of snow. Some people lost power. I had to dig myself out of a snowbank almost up to my waist (plowed in by my town). But then the sun came out, the snow began to melt and the trial was on !

Jayda Narrows the Q-Count

Jayda brought her “C-ATCH Countdown” from 15 down to 9, finishing her requirements in Wildcard and FullHouse and Q’ing twice in Standard and Jumpers. She may also finish a couple of individual class championships before the C-ATCH. The courses were trappy and tricky all weekend and the times were tight so I was very proud of her.

Bryce Beat Jayda by 2″ in Jumpers!

Even though he stopped to shake out his fur following a messy rear cross! Of course this was also the last run of the weekend – Jayda’s 10th and his 2nd – so Jayd was a little tired, but his speed was decent, his turns were tight and he had a good time showing everyone that he’s still “da man” .

Rrrraven Rrrrrocked!

She’s just getting better and better and a little more mature every trial. We had bobbles here and there, but all just green-dog / new team kinds of things. Overall she was fast and attentive, finishing her CL2-F and CL2-H titles, getting her first Level 3 Q (in jumpers), and ended with an awesome 1st place, 53 point Jackpot run.

Not that we don’t still have things to work on – I learned that she has about 2 un-reinforced teeters in her. (I asked for a third one and almost didn’t get it.), our rear crosses stink, and I really need to work on collecting her AFTER she runs (she doesn’t always want to stop and leave!) but she’s starting to look really nice!

No matter how much you wish they were normal at the beginning, every next day and every next year, you love them more for what they are.

Silvia Trkman, talking about her dog Bu (“News” page).

Explaining that last, somewhat incoherent post:

Hat is one of the trio of outdoor cats I’ve been caring for over the last several years. He’s very friendly and had become quite the homebody, following the sun from my front to my back porch and back during the day and sleeping in an old cat carrier on my front porch at night. On a typical day he would leave to do his business, stretch his legs or hang out with his friends for a while, otherwise he was always here.

Last night when I went out to “tuck him in” and give him a bedtime snack he was in his “bed”. I reached in and he shied away from me – VERY unlike him. Then he came out, but instead of going to me, he went under my car. He was limping!

I freaked out. At first I thought he’d been hit by a car, but I couldn’t examine him while he was under MY car. I was really afraid he’d do the typical injured cat thing – run away and hide.

So I ran inside and got food. All kinds of food. He still wouldn’t come to me, but I wasn’t going to leave him so there I was: middle of the night, about 20 degrees out, in my PJ’s, sitting in my driveway, fingers covered in smelly cat food, trying to coax a frightened cat out from underneath my car!

Finally I put some in a dish and stepped away. If there’s one thing Hat likes it’s food and the temptation was finally too much for him to resist – he came out to eat.

I grabbed him, carried him into my house and shut the door. By this time he seemed to have stopped limping, but it looked like he’d been attacked by something – there were spikey areas in his fur, a cut on his ear and under his eye, maybe more. The eye was tearing a lot. He also cried when I picked him up, which isn’t typical of him. I sat there pondering the situation for a while, then I picked him up again and carried him up the stairs to my spare room – simple as that.

He spent most of the night meowing. I tried sleeping on the floor with him – that idea worked out better for him (he was all too happy to snuggle up with me and my blanket) than for me (Ouch! – Apparently I’ve reached the age where I’m Too Old to Sleep On Floors). Went downstairs. Heard noise – went up, he’d knocked some books off a bookshelf. Sat with him again for a while then went back to bed. That was around 2AM. Bryce got me up again around 5:30.

Called my vet first thing in the AM and sleepwalked brought him over to be boostered, antibiotic-ed, have his ears cleaned, his nails trimmed, get checked for FELV/FIV (negative !) and have some icky stuff squeezed out of the cut under his eye. He was such a good cat at the vet – I wish my other cats were half that good! Fortunately my vet has a “deal” for treating stray cats so the damage wasn’t as bad as it otherwise might have been!

So he’s upstairs now, closing in on his first 24 hrs. He’s eating, he’s sleeping, he isn’t quite himself and he seems pretty tired, but that’s to be expected – so am I!

“‘Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud
I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form.
“Come in,” she said,
“I’ll give you shelter from the storm.”
(“Shelter from the Storm” – Bob Dylan)

I can’t save them all, but I can save this one – I got a “wake up call” last night and realized it was high time I did.

Don’t know if this will ultimately simplify my life or complicate it – probably a little bit of both. Smart move or stupid move? Yep – probably a little bit of both. Life’s funny like that.

For better or for worse, it’s a boy! Welcome home, Hat!

(More after a trip to the vet about his eye, a trip to the store for another litter pan, and maybe some sleep!)

The other weekend may have been All About Bryce, but the girls deserve a mention too

Jayda qualified in 9 out of 10 runs and finished her CL4-S title – now she’s completely out of Level 4! The best thing is she was really HAPPY this weekend, especially on Sunday! She had that big Jayda grin that I know and love on her face all day long and was eager to come out and run every run. I’ve NEVER seen her that happy or that confident at a trial before but I hope I see more of it!

Jayda’s not all that far from a C-ATCH of her very own. She’s a lot closer than Bryce was at this time last year!

Raven had a great day Saturday, going 4 for 4 – she was wonderful and all-in-all looking pretty mature! Sunday? Uh – not so much. There was a very “baby-dog” run in Jackpot, 2 really good runs (Colors and Wildcard) …and then there was Standard…

(Don’t laugh at her bad hair day – she was rolling around on the sofa before I took this and got a bad case of static cling! She also needs to take posing lessons from Jayda.)

Where was I? Oh yes – Sunday. After years of “drop and run”, I’ve been TRYING to get back into doing an occasional leadout with Raven. We do them in class, the course was perfect for a leadout, I decided to go for it.

Set her up and led out. She stayed in place and was watching me attentively. Released her … and she took off BEHIND me like a shot to make up her very own 5 obstacle wrong-course!

Leadouts – bah! WA-A-A-AY overrated, if you ask me !

Cute as it was, after that start we were pretty much toast, though the rest of the run was not without moments of brilliance. Overall, I was very pleased with her. Most of her qualifying runs she was working close to 4YPS and I think that number will go up as she gains confidence and experience. (Among other things, she has a very “bouncy” running style which eats up time – but she’s starting to flatten it out a little). She’s only 2 years old – not all that mature for her age, and only been trialing for a few months. She’s already come a long way.

So there you have it – the recap of a pretty exciting weekend!

Long ago I made a promise to Bryce that we would finish at least one agility championship together. At one time, I had my eye on several, but that wasn’t to be. I’m happy with this one and I’ll just have to save those other goals for the next generation!

A quick shout out to “Team Brycey” – all our friends and supporters in the agility community, his doctors, David at Advanced Canine for putting his BACK back together, and his “Aunties” and “Granny” – Tracey, Pat, Bernadette and Toni – for being a shoulder to cry on when things weren’t going so well and for helping ME keep it together the last couple of years! And to CPE – for providing a venue with something for everyone and for giving me the opportunity to keep a promise to a friend.