OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

WINS

THE ROSE BOWL!!!!  

 

GO BUCKS!!!

After not winning a Bowl game in much too long a time, Ohio State was victorious at last. Congratulations to our great team and our great coach!

I want to congratulate Tami and Jeff Byroads on how stunning their Ch. Rattlebridge Costume Party looks as she competes for Best Veteran. Party is well loved!  We have been deeply saddened that Party has never had puppies as we expected her to have lovely puppies.  Dog people have always known that when a wonderful bitch is not able to have puppies when bred to really good dogs it will always happen when she is given any  opportunity to romance the neighborhood stray, she will have puppies! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catching Up:

Al and I wish everyone a Happy New Year once again. It has been quite a while since I have written about the goings on in our lives–too busy and just struggling to get our life in balance. We have not had an easy end to 2009.  Those of you who remember how excited I was to start riding again on the beautiful black Morgan gelding, Blazer, will understand how unhappy I am that Blazer became lame and went back to Connecticut. He was my dream horse, but what is to be is to be.  I am not riding at the moment which is just as well as I now have two pinched nerves giving me a run for my money; I will ultimately need surgery which will just cause one more difficulty in our lives.  I took myself to the emergency room last week with pain in my jaw and terrible pressure in my chest;  I was admitted for two days while every test possible was done on my heart. My father dropped dead with a heart attack at 45 and my mother died at about 78 of congestive heart failure. Genetics is so unpredictable and I seem to have dodged a bullet; my heart is perfect; stress or reflux was the culprit.  I no longer can do all I once did so I understand all too well my husband’s frustration and anger with the aging process.  The only revenge against aging is to keep moving forward and not give in!  I just wish my orthopedic problems would go hang themselves!

At the beginning of the Christmas holidays, Al had layer upon layer of basil cell carcinoma removed from a four inch area on his head resulting in a real crater on one side of his head to match the dent on the other side of his head from his brain surgery last February. The wound care was really awful for twice a day I had to scrape any new membrane off the crater so that the grafts would take.  It was really fascinating, though, to see the process of the graft taking.  The donor graft site was his thigh so no hair will grow within the four inch circle on his head. I keep threatening to buy him an Ozzie Osbourne wig!

Al is no longer in remission for his progressing liver carcinoid syndrome; he was to undergo surgery yesterday, but since my strong, stoic husband badly bruised his ribs while trying to fix the snow blade on the tractor, surgery was postponed.  Why do men not listen to their wives?  I called home yesterday to find that said husband was out clearing the driveway ( a long one at that) with our new snow blower!  Now with his bruised ribs causing him great pain and the remnants of a nasty cold, why would such a bright man wish to put himself in further jeopardy risking pneumonia thereby causing his extremely necessary liver procedure to be postponed even longer.  When I get on his case he becomes condescending, patronizing, and rude–attributes I do not find endearing but which are typically male!  Since I am back being an substitute elementary principal full time for two months in Columbus City Schools at Forest Park Elementary, a wonderful school, I cannot make sure he is “behaving” and not getting up on the roof to clear snow from the gutters.  However, our new kennel help/housekeeper/my spy, Angie Ward, is just dynamite at balancing everything at home while I do what I love best, work with kids.  Angie tattles on Al when he is not taking care of himself so we can double team him.  I have even asked her to use Al’s car to go back and forth to her home so Al has no wheels and cannot do anything stupid! I love him so much and I understand how frustrated he is because he cannot do the hard manual work he once did; he could and did fix anything. Although his education and career was in biochemistry, he is brilliant at coming up with ingenious solutions to repair machinery or fences or anything at all; he thrives on working outside. Last summer he kept transporting our tractor and our zero turn mower back and forth to the farm to mow as my nephew was working so many hours that he need the help.  They also put up fence at the farm for the horses and down here for the dogs. He is unstoppable!  Please do say a prayer for him as his body has been insulted with so many problems.

We seemed to hibernate over the holidays this year.  I had planned to see movies; I am dying to see Precious and Up in the Air, but never seemed to find time although I really didn’t accomplish much except to bake cookies for the first time in my life and then proceed to eat them to eight pounds more on my flabby body!

The only family we saw were Al’s daughter’s family on Christmas and New Year’s day. Al’s granddaughter, Audrey, is now seventeen and has been accepted at Ohio State. Darren is enjoying middle school. We were invited to Christmas dinner at my brother Bob’s home, but we always spend  Christmas with Al’s daughter these days.  We did go up to the farm for an evening after Christmas to see my niece and nephew and check on the horses.  It was a very quiet holiday time for us which suited us fine this year. Like so many people, I always get really depressed during the holidays as, since my wonderful mother died, my family is not very close anymore; my brothers and I talk and see each other occasionally, but my sister no longer communicates with us–me specifically, although her children stay in touch. It is very sad when families drift apart and old frustrations and still festering open wounds take the place of closeness.  It seems that so many of us long for the wonderful family traditions of Christmas that may still escape us; the warm and loving Walton family dynamics  from the old television show seem to be more of a myth than a reality for so many.

We did not put up a tree this year as last year I sobbed while putting up doggy ornaments each with the name of one of our dogs most of them departed.  I broke down when I put up Bandi’s ornament and Jeanie and Rubens and Danny and Rocky and Nancy and Katie and Rosie O’Grady and the list of beloved dogs goes on. I am sorry if I am getting a bid maudlin, but I can see the faces of all of my babies and will miss them forever until we meet at the Rainbow bridge. 

However, I kept in mind that the real reason for celebrating Christmas was the birth of our Savior and that is quite enough for me.

As for our wonderful present dogs we are enjoying them! We do have puppies right now and will be hoping for the right wonderful homes for them after we have selected the puppies we wish to keep for show. We never let our Cavaliers go to new homes at Christmas time–too busy a time for a new puppy or dog to be introduced to a family.  I do love seeing our dogs become beloved members of families especially when they become as therapy dogs.  At Christmas my friends Lu Ann Rogers and Eddye White gave me a lovely framed collection of all their Rattlebridge therapy dogs in all four colors; all of them beautiful representatives of our breed. The dogs belong to the therapy group Love on a Leash.  I hope to photograph the framed collection and put it on this blog.    Below see our Dory with her owner Angela. Angela helped form a therapy group in her town.  Dory is an absolute hit with all!

 

 

 

 

 

I am pleased that a three of our older puppies still look like they may make the show ring.  Rattlebridge Over the Hump (Humphrey) is a really nice blenheim male;  the tricolor Rattlebridge Tantalize (Liza) is looking good as is the ruby boy Rattlebridge Red Planet at Dawn (Mars). Although I have only shown one dog in two years helping to finish the championship of Ch. Rattlebridge Truth or Dare, if a puppy turns out to be really top quality, we will show him or her.

We had a snow day today, or yesterday as I just looked at the clock.  We have lots of snow and will probably have lots more–hence the purchase of the snow blower as the tractor has frozen lines of whatever which I refuse to let Al fool with since he fell and bruised as related above. The dogs adore the snow, but hate to get their fannies cold and wet and try to sneak in and pee inside!

Flash My friend Kisa Reinke, a really good Border Collie breeder from California just sent me this picture of her Border Collie going best of breed handled by her son Jared.  The Border Collie is a very acceptable color although many people do not often see this color. I think the dog is beautiful ad the kid is not bad either!  

 I have gone on long enough.  Feel free to contact me if you would like: meredith@rattlebridge.com.

until next time  . . .

 

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