Catching Baby Pigs, and, Going To The Specialty

After Daddy shot the sow, we still had to get all those baby pigs out of the field. There were so many of them that they were eating a whole lot of the farmer's corn. We spent lots and lots of time tracking those little pigs, but they were so darn fast we could never catch them. Daddy finally managed to catch two of them one day when he snuck up on them while they were sleeping in the sun. Another day he caught another one. Here is a picture of me and Daddy with one of the little piglets. We put all three of those piglets in our barn and we are going to keep them and raise them so that when our freezer is empty again we will have more pigs to give us more pork.

By the time we got done chasing those little pigs all over the place, it was time for me and Mommy to head off on another Big Adventure. This time, we were going all the way to Gettysburg, Pencilvania for the Rhodesian Ridgeback National Specialty dog show. First, we drove back down to Illinois where my Grandma Joan, Grandpa Frank, and Michael were having a puppy party for me and all of my littermates. I hadn't seen any of then for such a long time- over 5 months! I was also happy to see my canine mommy again, but I was such a big puppy by then that I didn't miss her anymore like when I was little. My friends Barbara Sawyer-Brown and Art Brown came to the party too, and Art put a skinny little collar on me and we practiced walking around like we were at a dog show. Art was going to be my handler at the Specialty so it was good that we had a chance to practice before we got to Pencilvania. My sister Dixie was going to the show, too, and so was her new adopted brother, Dusty. We were so tired after the puppy party that we slept hard all night long.

The next morning we got up early, loaded Grandma Joan's van, and headed off to Pencilvania. It was so far away that it took us all day to get there- we didn't arrive at our hotel until 9 o'clock at night.

The next morning Mommy took me over to the conformation ring so that Art and I could dog show in the Puppy Sweepstakes. I was a little nervous 'cause I had only been to one dog show before this and there were hardly any Rhodesian Ridgebacks there. At the Specialty, ALL of the dogs were RR's, and there were so MANY of them! I tried to count them all but I kept losing track and finally gave up. Mommy was even more nervous than I was, so it was a good thing that Art and I were showing together, instead of me and Mommy.

There were so many puppies in my class that the judge had to split us into two groups. Then he chose the ones he liked best, and excused all of the others. Art and I made the "cut", and Mommy was so excited because Barbara had told her that nobody goes to the Specialty to win and she had no expectations that we would. She was very surprised and very happy. After the judge looked us all over again he chose the four that he liked best. He picked one, two, and then he pointed at ME! THIRD PLACE. woohoo! That meant we got a ribbon, a fancy new leash, and Mommy got a piece of paper with some numbers on it. I liked my leash a lot better. Then we got to have our picture taken with the judge. I was a little scared to get on the big box, but then they started throwing squeaky toys and I forgot to be scared. Mommy says my picture turned out beautiful!

Mommy says that I should mention that the judge was a very nice man and was very kind and gentle with the puppies. Mommy says that was very important because she did not want me to get afraid of judges at my first big show. Mr. William Kent was the Sweepstakes judge and I liked him a lot, too.

After Art and I did our dog showing, he and Dixie showed in the Girl Puppy Sweepstakes. Mommy and I thought that Dixie looked fantastic, but the judge did not give her a ribbon. That made us sad, because Michael, Dixie's Daddy, wasn't there and we all wanted to surprise him with TWO puppy wins.

But then a funny thing happened. The next day Art and I dog showed in the 6-9 month Puppy Dog class and we DIDN'T win. Not a ribbon, not a leash, not even a piece of paper with numbers on it. Nothing at all. But Mommy said she was still very proud of me and thought I had done a great job dog showing with Art, and she was still so happy about our ribbon from the first day that she didn't seem sad at all. The best part was, when Dixie dog showed in the 6-9 month Girl Puppy class, SHE won a ribbon. For FOURTH PLACE! I think that was even better than my third place in Sweepstakes but Mommy was still very happy about that. When our dog showing was all done, both me and Dixie had a ribbon to take home. Dusty was still too little to enter the dog show, but he was watching and learning for when he gets bigger like me and Dixie. We all had a great time in Gettysburg, made lots of new friends, met so many nice people, and I had lots of fun playing with Dixie, Dusty, Mommy, and Grandma Joan. All in all, it was another Great Adventure!