Celebrating Team Xeena!

Let’s celebrate one of Sparkle’s amazing granddaughters — Bright Star Xeena ⭐️

Kim shares:

“This past weekend Xeena earned her SDDA Master Champion title in scent detection. To earn this title you must have 10 titling scores (which equals a total of 30 passes) at the advanced and excellent level (a minimum of 3 titling scores must be at the excellent level). To get a titling score you need passes in all 3 components - containers, interiors, and exteriors. In order to qualify for a MACH you also must have a minimum of 3 Gold scores of 96% or higher (Xeena ended up with 9 gold and 1 silver).

Going into the weekend Xeena needed 1 more interior pass at the excellent level to finish her 10th titling score. Excellent interiors can be tricky as there are 3 rooms to search - one room has 1 hide, one room has 2 hides and one room has no hides, plus there can be food distractors in any or all of the rooms. It is up to each team to determine how many hides are in each room but if you make an error, you are not allowed to continue to the next room. So it is a bit of a mental game for the handler as you decide if you are ready to move to the next room. The hides at this level are also more complicated for the dog. Xeena did a great job finding the hides and I held my own in reading her and calling each room correctly. We finished all 3 rooms in under 3 minutes (there is a 15 minute time limit) with a 1 point deduction for Xeena’s indication on a hide being a bit off (the hide was in a stapler on a desk and Xeena alerted directly below the stapler on the edge of the desk).

Xeena definitely loves the nosework game and I love being her teammate.”

WOWZA!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO TEAM XEENA.

This is Grief

I wish I were one to create a beautiful memorial movie for my dogs, filled with all my favorite photos of them and a lovely song to accompany the images.

I keep waiting to be inspired to write a meaningful obituary for each of the girls who have left. An obituary that could capture who they were and what they meant. Like the one I wrote for my dad just a little over two years ago.

Maybe that is the problem — the serial losses. The backlog of obituaries from the past few years. The newspaper deadline forced me to action with my dad’s obituary but the rest? The words are frozen in the trauma of loss after loss.

And so while I can’t find the words or the song she deserves — here is the summary of Sparkle’s obituary: She was perfect.

So so perfect.

💔