I’m afraid my Adora was basically sleepwalking through her obedience classes on Sunday. Oh, well! She qualified in Rally anyway because, hey, Rally. I mean, when a dog loses focus in Rally you can call her name. But her heeling in formal obedience was awful. There was a thunderstorm the night before and she doesn’t like thunder, so I’ll use that as an excuse. She virtually went to sleep on the long down, thus lending credence to the notion that she was tired or just not in the mood to show.
Nevertheless, she is now Anara Adornment RN, C-RN, RA, C-RA, RE. That’s not “registered nurse,” obviously. It’s “rally novice.”
And Pippa is Sevenwoods Epiphany RN, C-RN, RA, C-RA, RE, CD, C-CD.
Also, I sort of regretted not entering Adora in the real show (the breed ring, you know). Because even sleepwalking, she would probably have won her class — she’s beaten the winner several times in the past. But, I don’t know. She really is terribly out of coat still. Although three of the confirmation people walked by her when I was practicing her stays in the lobby and independently stopped, looked at her, and said, “That’s a nice ruby.” Which she IS. Except when she wanders off to do her own thing on the off-lead heeling pattern.
So! Home again.
Also! Check this out. It’s the April YA releases. a) there are sure a lot of ’em; and b) whoa, paranormal is still popular. I never read paranormal unless a review by someone I trust cuts one out of the herd. Too hard to tell which ones might be good otherwise.
It’s interesting to see the trends, (Immortals, anyone?) but I don’t know how many sound like they would actually appeal to me. ABOVE I’m familiar with by repute, because I follow Leah Bobet on Twitter, but I haven’t read it. It’s getting good reviews, though, and it sounds like I would probably like it. I need to add it to my wish list at least . . . there, all done. So now I won’t forget it’s there.
And serial killers appear in at least four April YA releases. Four! Maybe five, not sure about number 55, go read the plot summary and see what you think. Plus maybe I missed a couple somewhere in the list. Anyway, it seems like an awful lot of serial killers. One of the books sounds especially disturbing: number 11) I HUNT KILLERS. I loved Dan Well’s book I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER and I wonder if it spawned some offspring? Which I am not sure I would like nearly as well.
Oh, look, number 46 is GRAVE MERCY by LaFevers! That one actually sounds quite good Angie at Angieville liked it, that’s a good sign. Also, Robin LaFevers wrote this really good post on second and third chances for a writer whose career seems to have stalled. That post alone makes me want to read her book. That’s another one to put on my wishlist.
How about you? Any stand out?
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Your photos have educated me enough that when we were at the vet recently I saw a dog and said, that looks like a Cavalier Ruby. But I didn’t have the brass to interrupt and inquire. I feel for Adora and her dislike of thunder. But it doesn’t bother Pippa? Does out of coat mean still shedding from winter?
I’m afraid my eyes glazed over on the YA list, an awful lot seemed rather similar. Nothing stood out. Since you called attention to GRAVE MERCY, though, that review does make it sound worth checking out. Or it did until it compared it to something by a writer I don’t have a high opinion of. I can see the writer’s brain working in the couple of her books I’ve read. Still, I liked the excerpt, so library, here I come.
Yep, I just scanned briefly through the list. But all the serial killer entries kind of started leaping out at me after the first couple.
The Cavalier owner probably would have been impressed to have you recognize her dog! Some people do, but a whole lot think you have a cocker. I’ve been into Cavaliers long enough that to me, cockers and Cavaliers really don’t look very much alike at all. Totally different head, different proportions (cockers are much more “square”, different kind of coat, and of course Cavaliers don’t have docked tails.
Being out of coat means having shed heavily in the recent past, so that right now the animal has a thin or sparse coat. Intact girls shed heavily after ever season and girls that have just had a litter shed EVERY HAIR ON THEIR BODIES. Well, of course, not really, but you can quite easily see right through their coats to the skin. And the beautiful plume of a tail turns into this awful little rat-like tail. Sigh. Cavaliers take about eight or ten months to regrow a decent coat after having a litter.
Boy dogs don’t have this issue. That’s one reason so many top winners are male.
Poor Adora was upset by a VERY SERIOUS hailstorm we had back in 2007. Seriously, it sounded like giants pelting the house with thousands of baseballs. Very, very dramatic. Did a lot of damage to the trees and shrubs, banged up the stain on the house, wrecked my parent’s roof (oddly, not mine, though we are right across the street from each other), and of course left Adora with a lasting fear of storms.
It was interesting how my girls demonstrated that sound sensitivity is genetic — every dog I have who’s related to Adora was afraid of the hailstorm and crowded up close to me while it was going on; Pippa and her daughter played tag in the hallway and weren’t a bit bothered.