I love this photo of Brandy looking out for her property!

Another of Taffy's fancy hair.

Paul can be such a stinker sometimes....LOL He really surprised Taffy that time!

And this one! I didn't even expect that. Caught Brandy completely unaware.

WELL, NOW! I finally caught him!!

Guess who this is meant for? And, yes, he got me!! LOL And, of course, the dogs were in on it.

Aren't I pretty mom? And you worked so hard on my show coat.

Brandy takes her rest in the shade too....and my horse, Arizona, decided it was siesta time for him too.

More Fun

These guys know how it's done!

Body slamming is popular with the poodles! LOL

And then a nice rest in the shade.

Aren't they sweet together! Taffy is a mess!! But she sure did have a good time!

And a good drink from the stream will do us good.

Summertime Fun

Well, all I can say is that our grandson, Paul, certainly knows how to have fun. And, so do our dogs. It was a wonderfully warm day so Papa got out a plastic liner for a pool to make a slide for Paul. I'm not sure who had more fun? Papa or Paul or was it Taffy? LOL

Been away for awhile but I'm finally back

I will have some real catching up to do. It has been a very busy summer and fall. Our mother began to fail so we spent as much time with her as we were able to. She passed to eternal peace and happiness on October 16th. Since then we have been busy closing her estate and getting all the paperwork out to the court; which we finished today!

I will begin posting things that have been done and photos taken slowly so that I can catch up and you can too.

The most recent is the fun the poodles and Brandy had in the snow a few days ago.

They had a wonderful time running around chasing the snowmobile, fighting over who was going to ride...LOL, and looking everywhere for Mickey when he drove out of their sight!

Tag, your it! Looking for dad.

Loving the run!

Billy on watch

Billy's Show

Billy and I did well at his first show in Topsfield, MA. Dianne and I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to prepare Billy and leave in time to get him to his ring by 11:15 a.m. Being in the first puppy class, we had no time to spare. He blew out nicely and we did a little bit of clipping to straighten out some stray hairs and ran to the ring.


He was nervous and started drooling so I walked him up and down in front of the ring until we were called to try to calm him.































We were the only ones in his class so there we were, two novices, standing in front of the judge and both of us going 'gulp'. The judge turned out to be a very nice woman who was helpful and made it easy for us.





Because he won his first class, he had to go in against the other winners! LOL No, we didn't take any ribbons in that one.














Billy stacked like a pro each time he was asked to. He gaited beside me just like he is supposed to but he didn't keep his head up high or his tail up until his second time in the ring because he was unsure of himself.














He was a very good boy about having his teeth checked and his body touched by the judge.


































He did take the blue ribbon but it still was a good sign because the judge does not have to award it or any ribbon to the only dog showing if they do not feel that the dog is representative of the breed.

We received encouraging words from the judge after his class and from a 60-year veteran of handling and we plan to continue showing Billy. Our next show is Friday coming up in New York. It is very good practice for Billy and will help him to become used to all of the noise and confusion going on.

Billy Nearly Ready for Show

I should say Billy AND I are nearly ready for the show next Friday. Dianne and I trimmed him again after receiving advice from the Groomer's Forum. We took Billy out so that he and I could practice ring work, stacking, moving, etc. It isn't as easy as it looks to properly pace your dog around the ring. I was all over the place and so was he. It was like a three ring circus at first. But we are finally getting it and it is coming together. I am excited and nervous all at the same time.






















































We don't expect Billy to take any ribbons but just to get experience as well as for me too. I was a little taken aback when Dianne told me today that there are 20+ dogs entered. When I checked last year's stats, there were no where near that many. I entered thinking that there would be about 8 and there wouldn't be as much pressure or distraction for either of us. Oh, well. We're just going to jump right into the frying pan and do our best.

Prom Photos

I photographed my first prom and it was quite an experience. I set all my equipment up in studio to make sure everything was working fine then packed it all up and off I went to Wilmington. Ellen came as my assitant and we set everything up and did our tests; deja vous of Hallmark. LOL

Things didn't go quite as I had hoped but I did photograph a very cute couple and I got some experience in doing proms.

My mom and Family

A couple of photos of memere before she had her stroke. Dianne, Me, Michael, and memere. These were taken just before we left for the Equine Effaire last November.

Practicing my grooming skills

Dianne leaves her poodles with me most Wednesdays to give our dogs a play date to run around our fields together having a good time. Yesterday, poor little jester, her toy poodle, looked like he got rolled around the swamp by our standard poodles. He needed a clipping too so I brought him in the house and did a full grooming on him. It gave me a chance to practice my skills and it sure mad him look pretty!

Yep, that's my tortoiseshell kitty, Isis, laying behind Jester. She just jumped off the table onto the grooming table and decided to take her nap there. She is a really funny little girl!

Jester is in the lion cut and needs to grow a bit more coat before he can be groomed the way it should look.