What our happy hounds are up to
Submitted by Eva Partida
Date of Story. June 2006
This past June I went to Helsinki, Finland, to visit my mom and also
to participate in a big dog show being held in Helsinki.
We left on June 3rd, I took two Ibizans and one Italian Greyhound (plus two suitcases) to go to the European Winner's Show being held in Helsinki, from June 9th to the 11th. There was an entry of
10,000 dogs from 40 different countries and 300 different breeds!
We flew from Philadelphia to Paris and then after changing planes at
the Charles de Gaulle airport flew straight to Helsinki.
A major agravation was that, due to some strange animal regulations in the Paris airport, I could not check the dogs directly to Helsinki but, instead I had to pick up the dogs and my luggage in Paris, and re-check them again in a different terminal!!. I was afraid of missing my connection if I did not get help in the airport for transporting everything. I had pre-arranged for a baggage service to help me on arrival and luckily my carrier was there awaiting for me and everything went smoothly, coming and going.
The weather in Finland for the first two days was around the high
fitties and low sixties, but then the rest of the time the temperature was in the low 80ties every day until I left on June 25th.
On Friday I went to the airport to pick up Arturo, his wife Miriam
and their dogs, Lucas and Gala, they were coming from Spain to
participate in the show. Lucas got accidentally loose in the airport from his leash. He saw a piece of green grass far away and off he took like a bullet!
Fortunately, after about 10 minutes Arturo was able to get him back.
As my mom lives in the outskirts of Helsinki, it was easy for me to go back and forth to the show.
Saturday was a big day for 10 wire Ibizans. Arturo had entered Gala
and Lucas in open class. I had entered Ana in junior class and Jillian in the champion class which is judged in order just like regular classes.
Arturo won his class with Gala and I won my classes with Ana and Jillian.
Since Ana came from Junior class, she won the Junior European Winner title.
Arturo's Gala was Best Female and also BOB so she won the coveted European Winner title!
Lucas was second in open and Arja Pellinen's male Ch. Snout Never Heard was BOS and new European Winner.
The next day at Nurmijarvi a local specialty organized by
Pharaoh/Ibizan club was held. The judge was a breeder/judge from England, Grant H Carter. The entries for Ibizans were 17.
Again Ana won her class and Jillian won the champion class. Also there was a fun competition about best moving dog and best head. Needles to say, Ana took the best moving dog trophy and Jillian took the best head trophy. This judge was really in love with Ana and gave her BOB! BOS was Arja's veteran boy Ch. Snout Michelplatini (Pinto)
I got so many trophies that I had to leave them at my mom's house.
After the shows, I had two weeks time just to relax and enjoy the
family. We spent one wonderful week at beautiful lake Paijanne, which is about 120 miles from Helsinki. We were living in a rustic summer cottage, without plumbing and hot water, deep in the woods and by the lake. I only had Ana with me since Jillian has stayed with my friend Arja Pellinen to continue her show career in Finland.
Since she is so attatched to me Ana had taken no interest to go hunting to the woods. I did not have to worry about her taking off so she was able to have complete freedom at the property. She would not even sleep with my mom at the main cabin which had larger bed and keep her company, since my aunt and I were sleeping at another cabin with smaller beds. I had to end up sharing my small bed with Ana, since she would keep barking until I came to get her. My mom's feelings were hurt that her company was not good enough for Ana
:-)
The remaining week I stayed at my mom's house at Vuosaari,
which is a very pretty island in the outskirts of Helsinki. The house isat
walking distance from a beautiful rural park with huge 5 acres fenced-in dog park.
Finland is very dog-friendly country with lots of dog parks in the
cities and training camps and fields all over the country. The dogs can go in the bus, train, metro (subway), outside restaurants, malls, etc. It is fun to spend a doggy vacation there :-)
Submitted by Eva Partida
Date of Story. August, 2005
I took my girl Jillian outside this morning to my back yard, she was due to have puppies any time now and needed supervision to make sure all her functions were going as they should. I have a shed in the yard where I keep a bucket behind so the dogs cannot run full speed around the shed and collide with each another.
Jillian went directly to shed and stuck her head right inside the bucket (Which I usually keep upside down to prevent water gathering as such had that morning) I yelled to Jillian not to drink that dirty water, since I always have fresh water on the deck.
She did not listen to me, so I went over to pull her away from the bucket behind the shed.
While dumping the murky water out I almost screamed when I saw what came out from the bucket..........first I thought it was two rats........Jillian grabbed one up in her mouth and ran off before I could stop her.
The other one just laid there on my feet seemingly lifeless. By that point I realized they were little baby squirrels! I nudges the one on the ground with my foot and it was moving and alive. By that time Jillian had come back to me with the little baby squirrel in her mouth, very much alive.
She carefully released the it on the ground and started to mother it. The squirrel was moving and once again she picked it up and gave it to me. It never made sound inside Jillian's mouth and was not hurt. I don't know if Jillian was delivering her prey to me or she was babying the squirrel.....I tried to towel dry the the little creature but it tried to bite me :) I think they were about 2 weeks old. If it weren't for Jillian they would have drowned ....... I don't know how they ended up in the bucket......if they fell off from the tree? I put them down into the other side of the fence and they happily dissapeared into the bushes.
