An Oreo of a Day

Two wafers of Good News with some — unfortunately — Sad News in the middle. Hence the title of this post.

Today was agility day at the Specialty in Gettysburg, and the Kaibab dogs did well. Wildflower Kadi qualified in Novice Standard Preferred — congratulations to Eden and Kadi. You may recall that yesterday Kadi earned her TD — Team Kadi is marching their way towards the Triathlete Award! 🍀

Bright Star Zuber qualified in Open Jumpers Preferred — this is him proudly sporting his ribbons.

Congratulations to Team Zuber.

The middle part of this Oreo Day is that my 17+ years old Karma left to join Harper and Sparkle at the Rainbow Bridge.

Karma is the cat I found roaming around a gas station in Barstow, CA over 16 years ago. After being told by the gas station folks that she had been dumped there a couple of weeks prior, I popped Karma in a dog crate and brought her home. She was a calm, kind, and confident cat who enjoyed a long and happy life.

We will miss her 💔

Okay — and now for the other Good News wafer part of the day (because the Universe loves juxtapositions). Capella had the second ultrasound today and it looks like she has four or maybe five baby stars on board. Everything and everyone looks just fine 🙏🍀

The puppies are due on June 2.

Amazing.

2025 National Specialty

The BIG SHOW is happening in Gettysburg and I am so bummed to be missing it but I am quite involved because I am doing the newsletter, as usual. This is how I know that we can send our congratulations to Eden Jonas and Wildflower Kadi for passing the Tracking Dog Test. I even have a photo!!

You can find the newsletter each day at THIS LINK under Daily Newsletters. The Pre-Show Edition is already posted.

I am excited to follow the fun all week — and report on it.

❤️

Cautious Optimism

It went like this…

Remember when Sparkle had her leg amputated in Montana?

That was March 12. Capella got to hang out with her besties (aka Suzanne and her gang) — we even did our favorite dog walk down the road from where I used to live.

Capella, Shiloh, and Story

Well, one of Suzanne’s girls was in season and girl hormones are contagious. Nine days later Capella was in season. This was too soon — 6-8 weeks early.

I was pretty sad.

Conventional wisdom says you need four month between cycles to have a fertile cycle, and we were not at four months yet.

I got a consult with Dr. Marty Greer to see if it was even worth breeding Capella given the short cycle. She said that yes, if Capella ovulated it was worth a try.

Capella’s progesterone chart

She did indeed ovulate. Timing was perfect. Semen quality was great.

BUT was her cycle long enough to support a pregnancy? I have been pretty anxious about all this, as you might imagine.

Source unknown

I needed to be in Montana for work on Thursday/Friday and so I had our wonderful vet do the ultrasound, even though it was a bit early. The Magic 8 Ball had given me a bit of an early warning that she might be pregnant.

But I was still just sick with the worry of it and the anticipatory sadness — and then I would dare to feel hope and then back to anticipatory sadness. Repeat. I begged Sparkle to send me her great-grandchildren. It has been exhausting, as you can imagine.

When the ultrasound confirmed pregnancy, I just cried. I have cried a lot lately. Not surprising. We even saw a heartbeat!!!! ❤️

One of the things that happens when you have had a lot of bad news is that you do not always trust the good news. I feel that way, and I know it is 100% normal and understandable. It is also understandable and okay to need reassurance.

And so on Monday we will do another ultrasound with our Idaho Repro team, just to make sure it is real.

I do believe it — I already nominated the litter for the 2026 Futurity — but I just need to see them again, and make sure they seem to be settling in and growing (given the short cycle issue).

I just want to be sure the best news is really and truly for real.

Happy Saturday, friend.