Picture of Nathan and Mom

At last! We finally figured out how to get around Blogger and post this picture. Mom has been wanting to post this for a couple of weeks now. Thanks to "Blogger Tips and Tricks" we're able to let everybody see Nathan and Mom "back in the day". Yea!

This was when Nathan was doing Earthdog tests and working to become the first Bedlington in breed history to earn the title of Master Earthdog in 2002. This was in New Jersey in June(?) 2001 and Uncle Dennis took the picture of their first ribbon in Master, out of the 4 required for the title. Mom had never taken a dog to Master before so she was very happy! Nathan was almost 11 years old and I wasn't even born yet. Thanks to him and his good coaching, I became Bedlington Master Earthdog number 4 in 2004 and my doggie mom Clancy, the 5th Master Earthdog Bedlington in 2005. There aren't that many of us Bedlingtons doing Earthdog. Josie and Emmy are working their way up the ladder right now from Intro (it goes Intro, Junior, Senior, and Master) and Clancy and I are just doing Earthdog now for fun since we're finished with all the titles.

This picture sits in a frame in Mom's cube at work ---

More pictures and stories later --

Love,

Rudy

Goodbye Old Friend

We had to say good-bye this past Monday to our old cousin Nathan; it was very sad. On Sunday night Mom decided to let him sleep on his favorite doggie bed in the den instead of going into the pen in the laundry room with Clancy for the night. She pulled out the roll-away couch and she and I slept on that while Nathan laid on his bed. It was his last night and she wanted to be near him. Mom didn't sleep well.

So Mom got Nathan ready, and after lunch on Monday, Linda came by and the rest of us came running to the door to say hi to her. We were all born at her house and some of us came to Mom's house a few years later, but Josie and I came to Mom when we were tiny babies. Nathan did too.

They put us back in the laundry room in our pens and took Nathan away, all wrapped up in a blanket and doggie bed, very sickly. That was the last we saw of him. It seems like someone is missing in the house now, but we are doing our best to make her love us more.

He was very old -- sixteen years and 5 months. That's more than 3 times my age! He showed me how to go through a 9-inch above-ground Earthdog practice tunnel when I was only 11 weeks old. He was always making sure we behaved ourselves, and when Josie and I would play too rough, he'd get inbetween us and bark at us really loud! He said he was the first Bedlington to earn the Master Earthdog title which is only for terriers. My mom Clancy and I also have Master Earthdog titles -- Earthdogging is fun! Josie and Emmy do it too but they're not as far along as we are. He used to say he and his old buddy (my grandpa) Joey were Mom's favorite dogs in the whole wide world. I think he was bragging a bit! Nathan was Mom's best buddy 'way before I came along. Doesn't she know I'm her best buddy now? She needs a lot of cheering up. Now she has a pretty green jar with Nathan's old collar and tags on it in the den where we watch TV . Hmmm.. wonder what that is. That seems silly, but what do I know about these things?

We would have a picture for you to look at today, but Mom can't figure out what is going on now that the computer is back online. Blogger won't upload a picture for us! It worked once and then nothing. Oh poo! No pictures of anybody this time.

I'll have another story for later -- class started last week at the agility place and I had so much fun!

Love
Rudy

New Year's Resolutions

I was trying to get Mom to post something for me, but then Uncle Dennis crashed the computer! That was bad. Now Mom is sad 'cause Cousin Nathan isn't feeling well so she didn't feel like letting me use the computer. I told her I got tagged to do my resolutions -- so she let me do it today before she takes Nathan to the vet. He's so old (16), he just sleeps a lot and won't eat. I hope we can cheer her up somehow!

My New Year's resolutions:

1) Have more and more fun doing agility. I love it so much, I can't help getting upset having to wait in a crate for an hour while Miss Emmy has her lesson first. Why does she get first dibs? I see all the other dogs having fun and I'm in this dumb crate.. I have to talk about it to everyone that passes by! Mom even says I'm the most fun dog to run. Haha - I'll show Emmy who's the best!

2) Take better care of Mom. I got her to let me sleep in the bed with them at night, but she keeps on leaving me downstairs to work on the PC in the same room with those rats. I can keep an eye on them while she works! And I can help look out for traffic if she'd only take me everywhere she goes. I'm a big help!

3) I'm going to run even faster around the yard so Josie can never catch me. She likes to wait while I circle the lower garden and try to catch me at the other end, but I can put on more speed and run uphill. She doesn't have the momentum if she's standing there waiting at the bottom! I'm - just - so - FAST....

4) Convince Mom that I don't have to stay in the pen with my mom Clancy and Cousin Nathan during the day. I get so frustrated that I rip up the newspapers on the floor and get newsprint on my nose. Then Mom has to wash my face when she gets home. See- if she'd only listen to me she wouldn't have to wash my face!

5) Get Mom to take us all on more road trips. We get to camp out when we go to Earthdog tests and that's so much fun. We didn't get to go very much last year because of gas prices. I went to a few agility trials by myself, so I'm hoping I get to go more often! I did go to some dog shows but they're no fun...

Mom says she's not feeling up to posting any pictures this time since none are on the PC since it crashed. They're on CD somewhere else -- she's not feeling real happy today anyway....

Happy thoughts!
Rudy