Nevada is the most exasperating, but endearing dog you could ever meet. You can't help but love her, but she can, single handedly, drive me around the bend. To watch her, anyone would think she got a daily beating. And she doesn't - honest!
Our day went like this.
I start packing for the show this weekend.
I start with the dog stuff. Sophie and Nevada sit side by side watching my activities intently - occasionally glancing at each other. You can almost hear the conversation - "are you going? am I going? are we both going? where are we going? what are we doing?"
I scurry around tripping over both of them constantly.
Once the dog gear is packed I pick up the nail clippers and dremel. Suddenly neither dog is to be found.Sophie has a wonderful recall. I try that and she appears, slinking out of the living room, flops over on her side and sticks her feet up to get her nails done. I spy Nevada peeking at me around the dining room door. I can see one eye and one leg out of my peripheral vision. I look up and meet her eyes and she jerks back out of sight. Except for that one leg. " I still see you Nevada" I say. Immediately the leg jerks back out of sight and I hear her scuttling backwards. A few seconds later she is peeking around the doorway again. This little activity continues through Sophies nail clipping. I call Nevada. No response. I call again. No response. I finally say " Nevada, I know you are right around the corner, now come on." She scuttles into the kitchen on her belly, tail tucked and scrabbling on all fours. She absolutely hates to have her nails done. She squirms over and goes down on her side, curls into the tightest ball you can imagine, with all 4 paws tucked into the centre of this ball. Can you say rigor mortis? I try to untangle a foot and her whole body comes with it. A rather undignified tug of war ensues. I pull and tug and her entire body whips around without once unfurling. I finally win. I eyeball her and she melts slightly. Enough so that I can uncurl that first paw. One I start, the body uncurls at an amazing rate and I suddenly have the other 3 legs braced against various parts of my anatomy holding me off as far as possible. OK - I can manage with this.
Finally Dale gets home. We each grab an end of Nevada's "Canadian Giant" sized Furarri dog crate and heft it out the door, over the fence ( it won't fit through the gate ) and into the back of the van. Well - now we've done it. The girls have figured out who is going and who is staying. We come back in and find Sophie in her crate, snoozing happily but taking up enough room so that Nevada can't join her. Nevada is sitting forlornly in the spot where her crate used to be! The worlds saddest look on her face.
After supper, I head into the bathroom with the dog shampoo and dog towels. Nevada is watching this with great trepidation. After I leave the room, she creeps in and investigates, finds to her horror that it is "dog stuff" sitting beside the tub and shoots back out of the room like a bullet, sliding and skidding on the wood floors. 15 minutes later, Dale ( my dog bather ) grabs Nevada's collar and heads into the living room to get her. She is no where to be found. We search the house, upstairs and down, inside and out. Finally we notice that Sophie is sitting outside her crate looking very disgruntled. We dig a little deeper and find Nevada cowering underneath the dog bed at the back of the crate. We coax her out, put on her collar and she is lured into the tub. 10 minutes later she is back, shuddering and rolling, and scivvying along the floor on her side - her normal antics after a bath!
I spend the next hour itemizing all her idiosyncrasies for the handler I have hired. If not handled exactly right she will wrap herself around his legs and cling like a leach.
Not conducive to showing off her lovely side gait!
Finally - we are settled down for the evening - she is relaxing - for now - but keeping a very close eye on me.
She actually loves to get away, just one on one. She loves the girl we are sharing a motel room with and adores the dog that will be with us - a lovely little Pointer bitch. They are great friends. She loves to walk around the show grounds, meeting and greeting everyone like they are old friends. But she hates the prep work involved!
I am worried a bit about Sophie though. This will be her first time being left behind all alone. I have not left her alone since we lost Sadie. I have Dale talked into coming home to do some bookwork to keep her company. And I have my son talked into doing his computer "stuff" at our place on my computer - to keep her company. Am I a worrier? You betcha! But maybe that makes Nevada and I a good pair
Traditionally, rock cairns are carefully designed rock monuments, that safely guide travelers on their journey. Today they are often seen as purely decorative rock monuments.
This is another favourite of mine from Derek's work. Having bird dogs, Weimaraners, I gotta love game birds. And this is a great photo that shows a lot of detail.
