2012 New Year, Bad Baby, New Baby

I am wishing a very special 2012 to all. Hopefully better than 2011. Seems like all I did was work. Either in my job or around the house. I didn't get to do to many dog related events this year, but did have a very cute litter in July. Most were placed in very nice homes. Except for one. Bad baby, red girl. Imagine that. :-)

Wild eyed, trouble-making "Spinnie". Good thing she is small. Six months and not even 17 inches. Small enough you can pick her up and haul her bad butt off when needed. That is if you can catch her. She will come if she thinks you are mad enough or something in it for her. Puff is pretty sure she should find a new home. She will not leave her poor tail alone and I can't tell you how many times I've had to save Puff from a bad baby attached to her like a tail eating Piranha. 

Classic Spinnie. Would you want that attached to your butt?

Yum! Puffa's tail is tasty!

Run! Puffa! Run!

Next weekend Roy will be flying to Denver and then drive up to Cheyenne, Wyoming to pick up my Christmas present. A new bloodline. "Phoenix", a red tri baby boy. I am ready for a working bred baby. My boys are getting older and I would like another male. I think he will be a nice addition to the house and be interested in doing some stock work especially on cattle. Hopefully he will fit in the soft crate for under the seat or Roy will have a not-so-fun time returning home.  

I really like his moderate trim. I think he will be a handsome guy! He is that nice rich chocolate-red rather than the red-red. If you know the difference in the colors of Aussies you know what I mean. ;-) He is a blend of a variety of bloodlines. Some pretty old. Should be interesting. 

The past couple of weeks have been really crazy. I've had four extra dogs for the holidays. Myst and Casco. Maggie and Sadie. Their parents went somewhere much warmer and more hospitable than Maine for the holidays. Three 6 month old littermate puppies make me want to pull my hair out. They think they have to bark at EVERYTHING! Feeding time is pretty interesting. Good thing I have many rooms and the way the house is set up I can rotate them into several areas when I have to run errands. Since I don't have kennels it works out pretty well. I am ready for all the hairy children's parents to come and  pick up their kids. I bet that is how people with daycare feel at 5 o'clock.

Journey and Zigman!

Congrats to Anne for handling "Journey" to her UKC championship in one weekend! You are starting to become a PRO!!! Maybe I will send all my dogs out with you????

Also to Dana and "Zigman" for earning his APDT Rally Championship! He is one special little guy!

A lot of new brags, projects and additions to StoneCircle.

Well, Layla and Anne have been doing a fabulous job in conformation, obedience and agility. La only needs one 3 point major to finish her altered championship. She has garnered reserves to majors as well. She has also earned her first open leg in obedience! Finally Anne is handling her own dog, thanks to a little trickery. It works out for the best since Layla can't keep her eyes of her mom!

Pearl and Dana have earned a point for StoneCircle's HOF count in agility in ASCA in the Open classes and Ziggy is doing excellent in Rally and he is keeping Pearl on her toes. :-)

We have new pigs.........and they are well, pigs.

We also have new chickens. The ticks are horrible and I lost my last old hen this past winter. Decided to stock up on the tick eating chickens.

Baby rabbits were born a couple of weeks ago..........

Roy made me a great new greenhouse, new raised beds and I also am using some of my flower gardens on the south end of my house for peppers and tomatoes!

And our best additions.....Quizzy had 5 beautiful babies on her father, Corey's birthday. Five puppies. Just like seven years ago when he, Chase and Bungee were born in the same room. Both were rainbow litters. All colors. One red merle female, one red tri male, one blue merle male and 2 black tri females. All fat and active little buggers. Especially the red merle girl. She is very vocal and a tough little thing. She already barks and lets everyone know how much she likes to eat. I told Roy that she might stay here. He said "Why? Don't you have enough naughty dogs?" I like the naughty ones. I've always liked the naughty ones.......

StoneCircle Spinnaker "Spin"

The Mighty La Kicks Butt & Takes Names!!!!!

Congratulations to the "Mighty La" and Anne! They had a fabulous weekend at the ASCNE Rescue show in Taunton this past weekend.

Fri - Reserve Winner's Bitch
Sat - Reserve Winner's Bitch, Pee Wee, 1st Rally leg
Sun -Winner's Bitch/ Best Of Winner's, Pee Wee, CD title, High in Trial Aussie (obedience)

Annaka & Layla. Way CUTE! Great job, Annaka!

Other weekend news....

Also congrats to Pearl and Dana for finishing their AKC Rally Excellent Title with a second place and Ziggy earning his first Rally Novice leg!

Go teams! I am so proud of you!!!

New Brags for Some Awesome Aussies!!!

Multiple brags and congratulations going out to some of my favorite performance teams!!

                     Anne & "Layla" earned two qualifying runs in ASCA agility last weekend.

This Friday she earned a leg in AKC Rally Advanced with Martha Miller.

Dana and "The Pearlinator" earned her APDT ARCHEX Title!!!

Also Heather & "Tessa" earned an AKC Rally Advanced Leg!

Pat & "Bella" earned an AKC Rally Novice Leg with a perfect score!!!

Fantastic job!!!

Felon's baby girls come by for a visit.

Well, Raven came over with her mom for a short while on Saturday. Acadia always loves playing with her sibs in the yard. So I had to get some recent pictures of her, especially because it had been a while since I had seen her.

Dory and Raven

Then on Sunday Scarlett's parents went on vacation for a week, so she is spending some time here while they are away.

Acadia and Scarlett

Scarlett

Acadia likes having a young dog to play with. Puff and Quiz play with her, but not in a puppy-like way. It is more of a "I'm going to pound you, brat". Acadia will probably be happier when there is another baby in the house at some point. Not grumpy three year old bitches.

Goodbye my sweet old man................

Mr. Stubbs of StoneCircle CD, RN, CL1-R, TDI, CGC
March 3, 1997-February 14, 2011

This was a pretty rough decision for me. You never want to see them suffer, but the thought of saying goodbye was gut wrenching. I loved that little man. He was special right from the time he was born. The spitting image of his mom. Just smaller. He was a wee little fellow with a big presence. A snorting, smiling, fuzzy, undersized, little boy that could make anyone smile. I almost lost him once when at 8 weeks he decided to make wallpaper paste and sheetrock a meal. He spent a weekend at the emergency clinic and they were pretty reluctant to give that cute little morsel back. He was one cute little puppy. They all took turns watching and holding him.

See? Really CUTE!!! He has old man eyebrows. 

The house feels kind of quiet without him. Sure there is still a pack here, but he kind of was the "elder". Overlooked the goings on. I think the other guys seem to be looking for him and probably think he has gone to visit Auntie for a spell. I wonder how long they will wait for him to come home? Some day they will see him again. Hopefully some day I will see him again too and all the others that have gone before him that were waiting for him to make him feel welcome. That is where I want to go. If my babies are not in Heaven then it would not be the kind of place I want to go..........it wouldn't be Heaven without dogs.

Congratulations to Lisa Howard and "Mimi"!!

Miranda has finished three CPE agility titles!

Her regular CL1-R, jumpers, with a first place to finish her CL1-F title. She had a first place run in Wildcard to finish her CL1-H title. She also got a level 2 Fullhouse leg.

Very Nice Girls!!!

New ASCA HOF Sire & Dam!

Congratulations to the Hawley's for two new Hall of Fame. Both of Felon's parents have earned their HOF's!

Congratulations to Team Dana, Pearl & Zig-man.

Pearl and Ziggy are doing excellent. Dana is doing a great job as a fairly new handler. I am really impressed with her dedication and ability. I am glad that Ziggy ended up being Pearl's little brother. It was a nice match for everyone and I get to see him. Dana sent me their recent brags......

Pearl:

ARCHX StoneCircle Ice N On The Cake RL3X, CL2, CL3-F, CL3-H,  FDCh, AKC RA, ASCA RS-N, GS-O, JS-O, CGC

Pearl has 2 legs towards her ASCA novice Rally title and one leg towards her AKC Rally excellent title. She also very close to finishing her CPE CL3 title. I’ll probably have more updates for you soon. J Pearl placed 6^th in the nation in 2010 for APDT Rally dogs who earned ARCHX title.

Zig

StoneCircle ZigZag N Bi RLP (APDT Rally Puppy level title) with an Award of Excellence (for getting his title with all scores over 190). Placed 5^th in the nation in 2010 APDT Rally dogs who earned RLP title.

Also

" Miranda" owned by Lisa Howard has earned her first CPE title- CLR-1.

Aussies LOVE Snow!

Crazy eyed dog!

Go Bungee & KD!

Where Puffa?

The sistas!

Handsome!

Tasty!

Old men need jackets!

Vacation, Website, Etc...

Roy and I left on Thanksgiving for my first real "no dog" vacation. We spent a few days in Florida. Went on a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean. Then spent a few more days in Florida before returning home. Twelve days. I didn't know how well I would handle that, but it went ok.

I also didn't know how well I would handle the ship. Last time I went on a boat and spent the night was on the Scotia Prince over 20 years ago. It was a small ship in comparison and the water was rough. The ship was really rocking. I was wicked sea sick and hated it. First night I started getting that feeling on the cruise and I was bummed. Luckily medication really cleared that up, but then when we went ashore I would feel like the ground was moving. It took a week for that to go away. I started to think I would have to live the rest of my life on a boat.

It was a nice cruise overall and the ship was lovely. Food was excellent and the weather was awesome. I could get used to laying on the white beaches of the Caribbean, but I definitely missed my dogs. I would find myself migrating to any dogs I saw on my trip.

I had a lot more pictures and video of the trip, but unfortunately my computer died not long after we returned home. Luckily I was able to retrieve most of my website, but not the most recent so I have to spend some time soon getting that updated. Sadly though I did loose a lot of other files, which really has made me sad and frustrated. Technology is great when it is helpful, but frustrating when it is the only source and it is lost.

We had some very nice black and white portraits done. I was very pleased with how they came out. We both look pretty decent.