On April 19th I packed up my dad's white van (of course with way to much stuff....but you never know what you will need, and you always need to be prepared...my mother taught me this in her 30 years of traveling with dogs....very similar to the boy scouts, LOL), and got ready to leave to pick up my Facebook and phone friend, Kara Hamilton. We had only ever talked on the phone, and we were sharing a room near Tampa for the Hunt Test, and then in Orlando for the National. I decided before I left that day, since I didn't need to be to Kara's until about 8pm that I would trim Jocelyn's pad hair on her feet....so I started trimming....in a semi-dark room, as I couldn't find the control for the over-head light....guess what- BIG MISTAKE!!!! Lesson learned, never, ever, ever trim a dogs pads, while they are lying on their side , in a semi-dark room....because you will make a mistake and accidentally cut UP into the top hair on their feet! I felt like I had butchered her feet...luckily I didn't do that much damage, and we were able to salvage my mistake...but I learned my lesson with that mistake. Well, I finally got everything in the van, got Joce into the van and took off to Ohio. Before I went to Kara's, I was going to go to an Outlet Mall near her house, as she had told me about this store where she had gotten some really nice suits really cheap. By the time I went to go to the store 3/4 weeks later, the great deals were over, but they were still reasonably priced (not to get as many as Kara had got, but to get 2 suits, 1 I ended up wearing to the Awards Banquet) and a nice pair of sandals. I left there and got to Kara's shortly after she got home from work, and we ate some dinner, and waited for her boyfriend to help us load up the van, and then managed to squeeze 3 more dogs, and a lot more stuff into the van. In fact, you couldn't see out the back window (so no review window for the trip while the van was fully loaded!!). After a very very very long trip, we finally got to the promised land of Florida (GO GATORS!!!) and checked into the hotel, unpacked, took a short nap, and then tried to find the hunt grounds. That was an experience in itself!! There was no sign out, and the directions were not helpful at all, we ended up stopping at a gas station and asking someone local for directions. The guy was very helpful, and we found it with his directions....when we got on the grounds we ran into the groundskeeper, Debbie...who was the sweetest, most awesome lady!! She drove us around, showing us different places on the grounds, including this stand of trees by the pond and told us the story about a coven of witches who had planted them...the trees are called the 7 sisters, and when the sisters had grown large enough, one of them was chopped down for the coven to use as an alter.
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| The Seven Sisters |
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| Looking Straight up standing within the 7 Sisters |
Debbie had no idea that I was pagan, nor did Kara...and I was so fascinated by the story...got the pictures of the Sisters the first day of the hunt...was just so cool!!
So the Hunt Test was held on Friday April 22 and Saturday April 23...and both days were fun. It turned out that half the people entered, and a few of the judges, were people I had met at the July Hunt Test I volunteered at last year, including the gunners!! It was like old home week...seeing friends that I had met last year, and catching up with them. I got to introduce my beautiful Jocelyn to them...and even though we didn't qualify, we had fun, and I got some nice compliments on her style (especially when they found out we had only gotten to train 8 times before we tested LOL). The main problem we have (or she has :-) ) is returning the bird to me...we knew this before we entered, but I sort of hoped that by some miracle she might return to me...LOL. We did have one little "incident" on Friday, after everyone who qualified did their water retrieves, they let the rest of us retrieve the left over birds from the water, and when Joce and my turn came, she gave one of the judges a big scare. It was only her second time in the water, and when she dove in the water and went for the bird it was a bit further out than when we trained her the first time in the water. When Joce gets to the bird, she submerges herself completely under the water, head and all...and looks for the bird underwater. In FL when she got to the bird, because it was further than she had gone before, she submerged herself under the water like she did the first time...and then she started thrashing a bit...and then rocking back and forth. The one judge started telling me she thought that Joce was having problems, and the more Joce did this the more upset the judge got. I was telling the judge that this was the way Joce looked for the bird, but after a few minutes, because the judge was getting more and more upset I started to panic too. At one point it almost looked like Joce flipped completely over in the water, and at the same time I heard the owner of the property say in the distance "Hey it looks like a little Beluga Whale" (there was also a bit of laughter from those near him)...but the same time the judge next to me is saying "You need to go get your dog, she is having a seizure" . At this point, my heart started pounding a bit, and I started forward, and just then, Joce righted herself, turned in the water (the bird had floated off two or three feet to her left), saw the bird and went swimming right for it. When she got to it she dived under the water again (not as ungainly as before), grabbed the bird, swam to the shore and I went and got her and the bird. It was a bit tense for a bit...but everything came out well in the end!! Saturday went OK...she trapped the first bird, eventually brought it back to me, was allowed to go onto the next bird, but when she flushed the second one, and the gunners shot it and she eventually found it, she plopped down and said..."I'm not losing this one to you too...it's mine and I'm not bringing it back to you!!! Nahnahnah!!!" I met lots of cool people at the Hunt test...whom I got to know better the following week in Orlando. Three of these were John and Naiza (John's wife-both are sweet and awesome), and Paula (and her crew Henry and Wilson- whom Joce really liked to give kisses too). Paula loves horses and dogs, two of my favorite species...so she rocks!!!
After Kara and I finished we went back to the hotel, packed up and went onto Orlando...and got set up finally in our hotel room. Not much happened Saturday, and Sunday we started running into more of the Clumber crowd...like Cristy E and Jimmy...and Kelly and Cajun among the first we hung out with. Sunday night about 10 of us went out to a pricey seafood buffet, were I met Colleen and a really neat couple Richard and Joan. I got to know Richard and Joan better over the rest of the week...and man are they fun. They brought Owen with them, and he was a handsome guy. I got to spend some great times with R&J...can't wait to hang with them again in the near future!!! Kelly is fun too, and we have a bit in common, she is into physics, and I am into chemistry...not to many ladies are science geeks, so nice to meet someone with a bit of a common background!!
There were so many people I got to spend time with, Roe, my great friend and mentor here in MI, Collette, Joce's "grandma" and someone I am getting to know better everyday and whom I respect and am very lucky to have in my corner, Jim & Shirley F, who have been mentoring me here in MI and Kassie also here in MI who has been so very helpful in mentoring me here in MI and Danita who I have had the pleasure of getting to over the course of some of the MI shows recently. I also got to meet many of the people that I have becomes friends with either on Facebook or through one of the yahoo groups for Clumber's. I also got to talk to an old friend of my mom's, and tell him of her passing, and reconnect with him. It was nice to see him after 20+ years, and talk about mom with him. It was because of him that I knew about Clumber's, and I truly thank him for introducing me to my first Clumber Spaniel back when I used to go to shows regularly with mom. I probably spent too much money...but that was OK, because it was a National LOL...and I know mom did the same thing at her National's :-)
Joce did OK, not great, but I was happy. I bought her originally for hunting, and then decided I wanted to show her, and damn is she birdy!! Compared to her sisters, she is not necessarily what judges may be looking for, but I love her!!! She did get Best Kisser at the Fun and Games contest, and at the National Sweeps we placed 3rd, in Regular class 2nd, and on Friday in the Regional Sweeps and Regular class again it was 3rd and 2nd.
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| Joce's take from the National |
