My 10th Show in Zutphen / Netherlands, November 2004
A few days before this show I had a bath and the hair on my paws was cut back (as usual). The alarm rang just before 5 AM that Sunday morning. one hour more early than on weekdays when Mistress must go to work. She was ruing to have entered this competition but made herself leave the warm bed heroically none the less. We went to the car at around 6 AM. Mistress stuffed numerous things in the car and I was sure we would not need half of them ;-). We drove to a dear friend to pick her up since she wanted to see a conformation show in the Netherlands. The first time without her Aussies.
We got a bit lost on the last leg of the trip but we reached the conformation location just after 9 o'clock. My half-brother Merlin and his human were already there and we were happy to meet each other again. Mistress and her friend carried only half of the stuff we had stuffed in the car into the building. At the entry I had to submit to the veterinary control and Mistress showed my "EU-Companion Animal Pass". The vet had nothing to complain about (of course) and we went further in to get my papers. At those big shows every exhibitor gets a catalog in which all the dogs shown are listed. Mistress always reads that first.
She did not believe what she saw.Jack (my father) was to be shown that day in the champions' league!!! Today we would meet him "flesh and bone" - we only "knew" him from pictures. Mistress was extremely happy when he "finally" arrived with his human and my Half-sister Nina.
Daddy is a very handsome, loveable and friendly stud. Mistress says that he can´t deny being my father. I show many of his mannerisms, some "gestures" for example this "love me" I just have to have inherited from him.and also my will to work, the will to please Mistress is indisputably something that comes mostly from him, Mistress says.
There were very many "Show-Aussies". I went very nicely next to Mistress and presented myself correctly but let's face it: I am totally correct after the standard but I am not "the" Show-Aussie. I am more a working girl ;-) Mistress knows that too but she likes to present me at conformation shows.
After the judge had seen my gait, had felt me down thoroughly and had looked at my teeth he judged me "very good" (want to read the judges statement?). We spend the rest of the day surrounded by my family (Mistress found an other of my half-sisters) and at about 17.30 hours we began our journey home.
