Halloween II Jason Returns or in my case my worst nightmare came very true. Not only would I love this to be a fictional story and I could let my imagination go wild but the truth is it was real and very much felt like being trapped in a horror flick.

On October 31st I was returning from an all inclusive mini getaway in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Nothing is better than getting away and enjoying the sun, tequila and ocean yet I came home to some devastating news; Vapor got lost from the dog sitters yard on October 27.

When my friend Cindy from Manitoba who came to play flyball with my teammates told me the news I honestly do not think it even registered that he wasn’t at the tournament. I truly believe I was expecting them to say…just kidding we wanted to tell you the team set a new personal best time, yet my stomach instantly had the queezy feeling and I new this was no joke. The tears didn’t start flowing I believe my tanned face just turned an ash grey, and my breath was completely taken away from me. The natural thing to do was to go to the sitters residence and start calling for him.

When we finally got together as a group each person reported they had been going to the City pound since the day he was lost and he wasn’t there nor in the morgue. A sense of relief every time one of my friends would say he isn’t there but on the flip side where was he?

Everyone started to pull their resources and help put ads on social networks, newspapers, missing pet sites and of course printing off hundreds of flyers. As the news broke out on Facebook my network of friends responded with prayers and wishes that sent me strength and hope he was still out there.

In the past we have used animal communicators to speak to our family when they have passed the Rainbow Bridge, some of you may believe others of you may not, if anything when you feel desperate for help they are able to provide you with that calming effect that you can find your loved one or able to put them to rest. I will not go into the details of what was said except they were very accurate and actually helped us with direction and provided insight in possible places he was travelling. With this information we plastered flyers throughout these areas and then the phone calls started. People had spotted him on the weekend, but it was Tuesday Nov 2nd two more days that he was out there alone and confused.

Some of you disc doggers are my friends through Facebook and may have seen my frantic updates on Nov 2nd, it was that afternoon around 2:00 pm a couple of teenagers in the Oliver area recognized him from the flyer they received a few hours earlier. Remember we were advised to go to this area. By this time Vapor had possibly travelled another 5 kms Northeast from his original path to return home to me. As I posted the sighting of him on Facebook, Charlotte Caine a member of Alberta Redneck Furry Fliers called her sister who worked in the area saw him cross right in front of her office window. Her sister dropped everything and was out there trying to keep up with him but he was moving at a very good pace. She lost him by the time I saw Nancy on the street. She told me he looked good and it was him, she said he looked at her and the disc but chose to keep running. I never asked why did her sister had a competition standard disc at work but was so thankful that it was really him, he was alive and so close and we would find him again. Brent spotted him this time and being so happy to see our family member right there in front of him, he actually spooked him more and he vanished again. He called me on my phone telling me it is him he is scared but not hurt. Again relief knowing he really is here but sadness that he is gone again. The search continued and at one point I even scared him but now the reality that rush hour was looming and he was on the run and beyond scared could only mean he would be crossing more dangerous roads.

In the end it was best to stop chasing him around as his stress level was extreme which could mean he would stop thinking and something horrible could happen. We thanked the numerous friends who came from work to help us and asked them to stop. A few stayed to put  some more flyers in mailboxes as we all hoped he would stay in the area and when he felt less threatened he would allow us to pick him up.

Meagan O’Neil and her border collies Flyte and Wynd crossed the rush hour traffic to put the last bunch of flyers in the neighborhood it just happened that she spotted him in the field. She opened her door and Flyte raced out into the field. Vapor was cautious at first but decided that Flyte was fun to play with. Meagan would call her back and slowly lured Vapor back. Whatever communication was going on between the dogs was obviously calming enough to Vapor that he let Meagan put his arms around him and take him into her vehicle. Meagan was instrumental in finding him as she was very calm were I was in pure panic and frantic mode with everything going on. She did say her past experiences of losing a dog helps knowing what to do and when to stay calm. I can only hope this is my last experience of having to find a family member. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out to help me and to all the good Samaritans in the City that just wanted to see Vapor find his way home. Pay it forward does work.

This Halloween started as a nightmare but ended with a joyous reunion. Thanks again all my disc and flyball friends for bringing my boy home to me. This nightmare in Edmonton ended well.

Nov 2 so happy to have back in my arms

October is my favorite time of year, mostly because there are no bugs and the possibility of having a nice fall day is still feasible. Of course the opposite is also very real and the idea of having snow in October is dreadful as you know that means we are headed for a long winter. The other reason I love October is because of Halloween. It really is my favorite holiday/celebration. I love to watch scary movies, I love to go to haunted houses and in general scare the crap out of myself even though I pay for it later with crazy nightmares and the same thought why do I put myself through this yearly.

So what does this have to do with disc? Not a whole lot but kind of an ironic story. Out in the country the one thing that does freak me out is the sound of the coyotes howling in the middle of the night. I have this idea in my head that they are going to open the door one night and grab my little guy named Pyrat or me for that matter. In fact when Pyrat was 12 weeks old we almost lost him to the coyotes as one of them was lurking in the bushes just around sunset. It happened so fast, the coyote came out of the bush and lunged for Pyrat, before you knew it Pyrat was in the coyote’s mouth and he/she was high tailing it out of there. Pure panic over came us as drop it command just wasn’t working for this coyote, all of a sudden our old Dalmatian – JJ was barking and charged at the coyote and actually was able to bite the coyote. Pyrat went rolling to the ground to disappear into the bush with the rapidly on set of pure darkness. Not only did he disappear in seconds the thought of Pyrat not coming to his name or the thought of JJ being hurt by the coyotes was truly a horrible feeling. We spent the next 4 hours in the cool of the night looking for Pyrat to no prevail. My little puppy was gone and truly it was like a scene from Nightmare on Elm Street. All the horror was real, he was gone and the likelihood of him surviving the night just didn’t seem possible. At 4:30 am either Pyrat had fell asleep from being in shock or he finally remembered his name as we basically stumbled over him in the pitch darkness that cool October night. My little treasure was returned to me and I could erase the idea of finding only his bones the next day out of my mind.

So what does this have to do with disc you say, the other night again the Coyotes were nearby as their crackling sounds were so vivid it sent chills down my spine. The sky was cloudy making the normal darkness appear more sinister than usual I could hear the neighbors horses feet pounding the ground as if they were running away from the headless horseman. What was out there? Could it be the coyotes were so brave to approach the house? Indeed the drooling menace was standing by the kennel runs with an orange disc in his mouth. Perhaps he was entertaining himself or he was chewing on it to satisfy his hunger. I didn’t want to find out, I didn’t want to star in my own horror flick. I quickly closed the door and said out loud you can take that disc; I have 10 more on order. In the morning the remains of the orange disc were on the ground. Rest in peace great disc you have taken your final flight. Walking the grounds I searched to see signs of the creature who took the life of orange. No sign of the murder that took place just 12 hours before. All seemed at peace with the daylight hours and warm sun of this October day. The question was would this be another night filled with horror for black and orange Jawz? It proved to be an uneventful night; the creeping menace was no match for the Jawz. Not a single bite. This horror story has come to an end. The Jawz will swim again and Pyrat will continue his chase to catch his bounty. All ends well on this Hollow eve.

Happy Halloween.

OOPs I did it again! I wonder if Kristen will be using that song this week in Chattanooga? I am pretty sure you get the drift that I’m late once again in posting my blog. Seriously I have no idea where the time goes?

Hosting the qualifier is a big job and even after we have said our good byes to the judges, the tents have all come down and I have wrapped up results the best part is still to come..yup I get to croak when I see the visa bill arrive with all those costs to host the event. This by far is not the fun part of the qualifier!! Good thing I have a business degree and understand the concept to budget, hmmm maybe not, I may have fell asleep during that class or was a little busy practicing the art form of drinking a cold beer. I’m sure you all can relate as beer and disc seem to go hand in hand last year in Chattanooga!

We have been discussing the idea of moving the date of our qualifier earlier in the year as the costs associated to travel to Tennessee can be ridiculous for us Canadians with only 2 weeks advance airline notice. The cheapest flight I found was $800 return plus $200 each way for the kennel. Before you know it one weekend becomes a $2000 party and for some of us that kind of fun time needs to be planned well in advance. So with that we are considering moving the date to August or perhaps be so bold to do it at the Edmonton Humane Society Fundraiser in June. There are pros and cons to both scenarios but the main challenge is finding a place that allows the dogs off leash. I’m not sure how the clubs in the States do it, but no doubt about it finding the perfect location is clearly the hardest part about putting a great event together.

As I mentioned in my last blog we were busy doing demos at the Chuckwagon races the Wednesday and Friday evening before the qualifier. It was a lot of fun and Jenelle Holbrough wowed the crowd with her freestyle moves with her Kelpie Karu. I may have been delirious from the lack of sleep that week but I decided to try Davy my whippet in the long distance challenge. What is the worse thing he could do? Run the entire track, forget what come means, nah he is a disc dog of course he will come back within the 1 minute of stage time allowed for him. Maybe that is why I choose not to throw very far! But of course there is always a backup plan have a few people on the sidelines ready to coral him in just in case he decided to say I’m at the Chucks Yee Hay and SEE YA! The good news was he decided to be a good boy and catch his flying rabbit and return with gusto for more rabbit toss.

The qualifier turned out to be windy as windy could be for this town. We had 30-40 km/hr winds that would continuously change direction. Remember I have a business degree and anything to do with understanding physics, math, and geometry or pretty much anything that isn’t related to marketing really does mess with me. Needless to say my throwing was horrible but at times I even impressed myself so much so in the end Vapor and Bones placed 2nd and 3rd in D/A. This was a shock to me as I was hoping to improve as I worked on throwing from February on but by no means did I expect this outcome. The ARFF membership does comprise of some really good throwers; (Shonna Olson, Gord Donhou and not to forget Bill Moran in the Novice class (watch out next year). In the same sentence I’m no where near the likes of scores of Mark Muir so back to the drawing board and for this winter season hopefully find some wind to work with but you know what that equates to, really cold temperatures so perhaps I will just use a fan and practice indoors. Actually I think I’m on to something here! I’ll let you know how it goes over the next few months.

In the end we had some great routines from the Novice, Open and Micro dog classes. But not to be undone were the last minute pairs teams. From no one wanting to do it to 5 teams in the last minute sign up was great to see. I’m pretty sure the judges enjoyed every crazy moment that was presented by the teams. Ella Caine our 8 year old junior put in a great routine with Sam. Mom time to get Ella her own disc dog as your little girl has talent!

Even though not everyone can win, everyone is a winner in my eyes! We really have grown as a club and it is great to see the interest that we have been creating throughout the Province. Thanks everyone for all the support and to our lone representative going to Chattanooga, make us proud Kristen as you have talent. Go get em Team ARFF.

Best of luck everyone and let your plastic rabbits fly high!

Holly smokes it just seems like yesterday we were getting ready for the Edmonton Humane Shelter’s disc trial and demo and here we are one week away from the Western Canadian Qualifier!

I know I should be practicing like everyone else is but of course I would catch a cold and once again hurt myself. So needless to say there is no excuse not to sit down, and put some ice on my knee and fill you in on ARFF’s latest adventures.

The entries for our qualifier closed last week and it is very exciting to see the new people coming out to give the disciplines a try. It is great to see how our members throughout the Province have been getting people involved at the local parks. Without their enthusiasm and love of the sport we would be at a stall with growth. I’m so excited to say we have four new people coming from Calgary and Southern Alberta and three new people from the Edmonton area. What is very exciting is many of the players from last year are either debuting there new dogs and/or entering more events now that we all have a better idea of how to play. I’m so proud of all the members of ARFF with the work they have done over the year and their support of disc. Once again GO/Petcurean foods are sponsoring our prizes and raffle table. I can’t thank enough Cathy Kenzie and Go for their on going support. I’m proud to say my boys are powered by Go!

With all the preparations for the trial going on we received an email to do a demo at the Edmonton Northlands Chuckwagon Races. This is pretty exciting as this is one of the premier summer attractions at the famous Calgary Stampede. Nothing is better to see intense cowboys driving a chuckwagon at mach speeds with their team of amazing thoroughbreds. It will be an exciting event with a total of 36 teams entered that will compete in 9 heats, over the course of five explosive days to see who will be named the 2010 Edmonton WPCA Chuckwagon Champion! The competition will be intense as the drivers race to win their heat and to try break an untouchable track record of 1:15.55 that was set by Hugh Sinclair in 1999. Members of ARFF will set the smoking scene by demonstrating some of our freestyle routines and a distance challenge. Once again Go/Petcurean Food will provide demo shirts for us to wear and we plan on having a meet and greet and will distribute our fliers for our big event next weekend.

I’m really looking forward to you reading my next blog as it will be filled with pictures from the races as well as the Qualifier. I guess that means I have 7 more days to get my knee back together and only hope I can earn a spot next week as I can already taste the macaroni that was served at the BBQ last year in TN.

Best of luck to all the competitors next week and have a great time with your best friend!

Lara

July is here and I’m just getting back to my blog. I’m ashamed of my lack of time as of late and hope to get back on track real soon. It is so easy to fill my blog with all the excuses of why I haven’t entered our disc stories as of late but I’m sure the entertainment value would go down within the first five minutes. In a nutshell my excuse is life just became a little more complicated as of late. Not to bore you with the details, we basically had to retreat to our second home and make new living accommodations for the boys. Not that this is a bad thing but those who know me know I’m not the best in getting up in the morning and my farm is about 50 minutes from my work. I know most of your are saying that is a normal day in traffic. Again I’m use to having a 3 minute drive to work and all of sudden adding 50 minutes to my commute just doesn’t work for me. Plus I find our shower at the farm isn’t as hot as I would like and starting the morning off cranky just seems to stretch into the rest of my day! So the final decision was to split the boys and pretty much put my freestyle dreams on the shelf as my main dogs are now living the good life of just running around on the farm.

Although I haven’t been developing my skills does not mean we haven’t been active in growing the sport. We were working closely with the Edmonton Humane Society to provide a day of entertainment at the 18th annual dog walk. This event is the main fundraiser for the shelter. ARFF hosted our first local trial and focused on distance and accuracy rounds and time trial. It was great to have three junior handlers out and it was great to see the kids playing with their parents in the team events. Aidan Lalonde and his border collies Milly and Mason were awesome and Aidan really has a great throwing arm… watch out for him in September. But not far behind Aidan was Troy Der with Cody a mix breed that was rescued from a local rescue group a few years ago. The pair showed of their skills with precision throws and huge air. Ella Caine joined in the fun by taking the throwing basics 101 instruction before the event and was entered with Sam who is a springer mix. She was our youngest handler and she is 8. All the moms that played in the team events with your kids you ROCK!

Several of us did our freestyle routines for the large crowds and we even found out that Ninja a JRT owned by Gord Donhue really does like sheep. Who new a JRT wants to be a herder rather than a freestyler! Two new presenters were Donna and Bill from our February seminar in Calgary. It was great to see them out and how far they have come in such a short time. Now that they have had a taste of what to expect I’m sure they will be rockin it in September.

Special thanks goes out to Petland and Petcurean for donating prizes for the event. Petcurean manufacturers Go and Now food and is made in Canada, has a great product and a great disc ad that we gave out to general public. Each participant went home with a Legacy t-shirt, Petland gift bag, 1lb sample of Go and a disc. I can’t thank our sponsors enough for making this a great event as our Overall Jr Champion – Aidan Lalonde was very happy to receive a 25lb bag of Go and a special prize from Petland. Gord Donhue had great rounds with Kanga his Australian Shepherd, his final score was 33.5 in distance and accuracy. Not far behind was Kelly Lalonde with Milly and Mason two very nice border collies who placed second and third. Each participant received prizes from Go/Now and the prized Skyhoundz plaques. In the time trial Vapor a mix breed sped home in 18 seconds and Davy a whippet first time out did it in 22 seconds, 3rd place went to Sam a Border Collie at 27 seconds owned by Melissa Forsythe from Innisfail, Alberta. Once the time breaker with Sam and Swift a mix breed owned by Donna McClaughin from Lethbridge, Alberta was determined. We also offered team D/A and team time trial to round out the day of good family fun. Congratulations go out to Conky (Border Collie) with Gary Waselenchuk and his daughter for first place in Team D/A and to Melissa/Bill with Jessie for fastest team time trial with Jessie at 21 seconds. For more results go to the ARFF website.

Our next competition will be another local Skyhoundz trial on Sept 4 and Sept 5 will be the World Qualifier! Entries will be closing in August.

Have a great summer!