Fauna we don't like...

...at Prado.  As I was setting up a water triple with double blind at Fred's for Dodger to run, Helena motored up in the golf cart and told me that a rattlesnake had bitten one of her workers, who fortunately was wearing boots so the fangs didn't go thru.  They'd tried to get it, but it got away into the heavy bushes on the other side of the water.  Right near where I'd set the line to run from of course.

This isn't the snake in question, it's one I saw while looking at wildflowers in one of the county parks a couple of years ago, but it is most likely the same species.  I went ahead and ran that setup, but for Proxy I put the line on the other side of the pond!  Hopefully they will find and dispatch the bugger before the hunt test this weekend.

Later we went to the front field to run some marks and blinds there, and OMG the flies are getting insane.  They know that winter (such as it is here) is coming, so they are going crazy trying to do something - I suppose lay eggs that are going to winter over or something.  I was twitching and swatting the whole time I was there.

 

Let us in let us in!!!

And just as I was picking up the winger after we were done, here come four Pointers from waaaaaay down the other end of the field, right thru where one of my marks and one blind had been.  Ya know, I like Pointers, Leslie has cool ones and I may have one some day.  But the people who train them for field work at Prado have got to be some of the most clueless folk and these ones were no different.  They let all these dogs out of their truck, maybe 400-500 yards away and then just ignored them while they ran amok.  They were very lucky that I was done before that happened!

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised - when this guy drove in the front gate, he was going way too fast and almost spread himself all over the front of a semi that was taking silage out.

Field training in southern California

The last AKC hunt test of the year is in a week and a half, so I've been out to Prado several times recently, to see if it is at all possible to get a leg!  ;-)  Noticed that the crawdads at the T pond are acting weird...

 

For some reason, before they come out on land, they wave their claws around above the surface of the water.  Dunno what it's for!

 

A couple of them waving their claws and one on the shore.

Not much for flowers this time of year, except for these big yellow ones which are all over.  These are at Gordy's in one of the very few surviving clumps of cattails (the trialers don't like having any cover in the way of their marks).

Dusk at the T pond!

One of those great weekends

The mutts and I went up to the Sacramento area for the three Sacramento DTC trials and the two Donner Trial KC shows, all held at the fairgrounds in Roseville.  Saturday were two trials and Proxy's debut at working on OTCh points.  In the a.m. trial, she was Second in Utility for 4 points and in the afternoon trial she won Utility for a nice 10 points!  She wasn't entered in Open as I thought she wasn't quite comfortable enough in the ring yet... ;-)  Well, she did manage to flunk the signals on Sunday!

On the conformation side of it, on Saturday Teaz won the point and on Sunday Proxy won it.  Unfortunately, both days we were trying to put the point on Brisa, sigh.

field training

Dodger, Proxy and I spent four hours training at Prado this afternoon, and since it was hot and I am old I had to stop and have a sit down every so often.  One of those times, Dodger was cleaning burrs out of his coat and he decided that a burr on my shoelaces had to go too!

 

silly dog

 

Success!

There were a lot of big dragonflies out.

Beanstalk!

This -->

 

became this -->

in less than a day!  And I didn't even plant magic beans... ;-)

variety

First, the required pictures of Kitty!  ;-)  I had hosed off a soft crate and brought it in Thursday night so it could finish drying off.  For some reason, Kitty thought this was an excellent place to hang out.

Saturday evening we went to some friends house to see OC Elvis, a local Elvis impersonator - much fun!

 

Our hosts, Roger and Tara

This morning, we went to train in Long Beach and saw Holly for the first time since her surgery - poor thing, she looked sooooo pathetic.

Labor Day

We got quite a bit done over the three day holiday, most significantly the trailer is cleaned up and repaired so can be put up for commission sale.  I also found a stand at a garage sale that would fit a big tank we had stored and then moved the goldfish that were in two smaller tanks to the one big one.

Sunday was also my birthday - Rick got me flowers and a sweet card, plus we went to dinner.

Bonus!  Picture of Kitty in the sun by the sliding glass door.