Home from Missouri and loaded with loot!

Well, not exactly loot, but I did get several ribbons. Here’s how I did:

Big Air: 2nd in Senior Division

Extreme Vertical: Just a participant ribbon. I suck at EV.

Speed Retrieve: 6th place

Iron Dog: 4th place. This is something I’ve never entered before. It’s only for dogs who do all three disciplines (Big Air, EV, Speed Retrieve). There’s a formula for how many points you get for your place in each event. Then they add everything all up, and that’s your Iron Dog score. I think I’d kind of cool!

But guess who else got a ribbon. HOPPY!!

No, he didn’t jump. He was his usual dock-sniffing, mama-kissing, crowd-pleasing self. He had everyone totally entertained. Even the announcer was laughing at him, and the judges were complete cracked up.

So, what did he get his ribbon for? The host club for this event (Gateway DockDogs) gave participation ribbons to the dogs who never went off the dock.

Here’s a photo of us up on the dock…me with my three ribbons, and Hoppy with his one little ribbon. We were so proud of him!

I do think, however, that he was a little jealous of me and my ribbons. Look at him giving my ribbons the once over. I’m sure he was thinking, “How does she do that!”

Well, brother, first you have to start jumping!

As it turned out, he was such a hit with the crowd, this kid came over to our tent and wanted to play with him. So my mom let the kid take Hoppy out and they played for a while.

Then, the kid brought over the Chase vest and asked if he could take Hoppy through the crowd collecting for the charity “Chase Away Canine Cancer.”

Look at the great Chase dog!

That’s Hoppy with the kid who adopted him for the day.

The good news is that he had been such a hit up on the dock, everyone willingly donated to the cause and put money in the vest pockets. The kid said that everyone who donated received a kiss from Hoppy!

What a HAM!

But he did collect quite a bit of money, which is a good thing. Chase Away Canine Cancer is such a worthy cause.

We don’t have any photos of me dock diving. My dad, the photographer, didn’t go with us this time. I will get some from other people in a while. If they are any good, I’ll post them later.

But for now, I’ve got to get to bed and get my rest. Guess what Spud and I are doing tomorrow. Going for another dock diving TV news story!!

Can’t wait. I’m beginning to like this celebrity thing.

See you on the dock,

Sally, the Captain of Team 3 Dawg Flite

Proud member of Dixie Dock Dogs

Technorati Tags: dogs,dock diving,dock jumping,dock dogs,dog cancer,cancer,speed retrieve,extreme vertical,iron dog

Calling all Team 3 Dawg Flite fans....please come in.

Do I ever have news for you! Well, it's exciting to my mom and me anyway, and I just know you will be excited as well. It's actually two announcements. (Please read through this post. It's IMPORTANT!)

1) We are going to the Nationals this year! Yipppeeee! The Nationals are in October in Ohio.

and....here's the really good one....

2) My mom and I are participating in the DOCKDOGS JUMP-A-THON at the Nationals! Now, how cool is that. What is a jump-a-thon you ask? It's a way we are going to raise money to fight canine cancer. We are asking for pledges for so much per inch of my longest jump at the Nationals.

For example, if I jump 15 feet, that would equal 180 inches. And if you pledge $.10 per inch, then your donation would be $18.00. Get it?

Now, here's the really, really good part. ALL of the donations go to the charity "Chase Away Canine Cancer." I'm sure all of you Team 3 Dawg Flite fans have either lost a dog to cancer or know someone who has. Our family tragically lost our Basset Hound, Lucy, to bone cancer last year. I know cancer is high on the list of the cause of deaths of Labrador Retrievers, and I want to beat this terrible disease. Please help me do this!

How can you help? I'm glad you asked. Go to this link to make your pledge. To help you decide how much to pledge, let me tell you that my current average jump is 18'8" which is 224 inches. So, I should jump somewhere around that...hopefully longer!

Fans, I'm really, really, REALLY wanting to raise a lot of money for this cause. This is extremely important to both my mom and me. So, consider it carefully, and if you can pledge any amount....anything at all, no matter how small (or large!), please help us.


Thanks on behalf of all the dogs out there who have...or have had...or will have cancer.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Please let me thank you in advance for any pledge you might make. When my mom looks at the list of "pledgers," most of the time she doesn't recognize the names, so she can't personally thank them. So, if she doesn't recognize your name, please consider this our offer of gratitude for helping us out with this cause.

Sally, the Captain of Team 3 Dawg Flite
Proud member of Dixie Dock Dogs
Help me fight canine cancer!

Oh Martha? Where are you? (for everyone, but especially Bassets)

I might have mentioned before how we used to have Basset Hounds when I was younger. We had two of them. Lucy and Buster. They mostly stayed on the back porch. Lucy was older and didn't like me very much because I was an active, playful puppy and she was an old dog who didn't appreciate my puppy antics. Here's Lucy in her younger days...long before my mom and dad got me.


Buster liked me, but couldn't keep up with me. He had a crippled leg and just couldn't maneuver very well. Here's Buster in his younger days.


Well, the other day when my mom was taking a break from her video editing, I grabbed the computer and started looking around. And look what I found! A really cool video of me when I was a puppy....and it's got Lucy and Buster in it.

Click To Play

We don't have Lucy or Buster any longer. One day about a year ago, I heard my mom and dad talking about Lucy, and they kept mentioning the words "bone cancer" a lot. That evening, my mom spent a lot of time with Lucy...giving her all kinds of treats and food that she never got before. I wondered what was going on.

Then the next day, my dad took Lucy for a ride in his truck, but when he came home, Lucy wasn't with him. And I never saw her again. I know she didn't like me, but I still miss her.

My mom and dad (especially my mom) were very sad for a long time. I even saw her crying sometimes. But it was poor Buster that was upset the most. For days and days, he kept howling out on the back deck. He would go lie down under the deck where Lucy liked to sleep and just stay there.

They even started taking him over to our day care. And soon, Buster started being happy again. He was his usual playful, happy self. I even started playing outside with him more.

But misfortune was about to come to us again. One morning, my dad went out to feed Buster, but couldn't find him. He called and called for Buster to come to the back deck to eat. When he found poor Buster, he (Buster) couldn't walk. Something had happened to his back.

My mom rushed him over to the vet, but there wasn't anything they could do. He was paralyzed from the waist down and was also very sick. I don't remember what my mom said was actually wrong.

Buster never came home again either.

I think about Buster and Lucy every time I go out on the back deck. I can even still smell their scents occasionally. I wish I could run around with Buster and jump all over him again. I even wish I could hear Lucy snap at me again!

But now you know why my mom and dad love Basset Hounds so much. I love Basset Hounds, too.

See you on the dock,
Sally, the Captain of Team 3 Dawg Flite
Proud member of Dixie Dock Dogs

My Grandaddy

It's been quite a while since I've posted, but we have been very busy with some not-so-pleasant things. While my mom and Spud and I were in Destin at that dock jumping event, my dad had to go down to Griffin, GA, to take care of his dad who is very, very ill. I overheard my mom talking to my dad on the phone about my grandaddy being in something they called a "hospital."

Now, usually when my mom talks about Grandaddy, she is all happy and upbeat, because everyone loves Grandaddy so much. I especially love my grandaddy, and he really, really loves me. He was up visiting my mom and dad the weekend they went to pick me up from the breeder, back in December, 2006, and went with them. So I've known him just as long as I've known my mom and dad. Here's a photo of me as a little puppy with Grandaddy that weekend.

I really liked sleeping in his arms, because he was so gentle and loving with me and made me feel secure.

Here's a video of me when I was a little puppy. I was only 9 weeks old, and I was retrieving already. In this video, you can see Grandaddy outside playing with me. He thought I was cute!

Click To Play

As I grew older, if he was up here visiting with us on my dock diving practice days, he would always come to watch me practice. He was so proud of me!! He even bought me a special bag with my name "Sally" right on the bag for me to carry my towels, throw objects, treats, and other things I needed.

I always got very, very excited when Grandaddy came to visit. Every morning when I got up, I would run right back to his room and wait for him to get up. Sometimes, if I could nudge the door open, I would run in there and give him a big kiss to wake him up! Here's a photo of Grandaddy loving me just last Christmas. He didn't feel real good, but we didn't know he was getting so very sick.

See how much my Grandaddy and I love each other.

Now I keep hearing my mom and dad talk about how they brought him up here to where we live, but he's not at our house. He's in something they call a "nursing home." And he's getting cared for by some people they call "hospice." I hear the word "cancer" used a lot.

I don't know what all this means, but now when they talk about Grandaddy, they are not happy any longer. Everyone is very serious and somber, sometimes even sad. I know he's up here in Athens (which is very near us), and I keep wanting to go see him, but they won't take me.

But all of this sudden activity involving my mom and dad taking care of Grandaddy is why I haven't posted in a while. I promise I'll post more very soon. I need to post the results of our event in Destin. (I'm waiting for pictures from friends.) Right now, however, we are all concentrating on helping Grandaddy. Please remember him in your thoughts and prayers.

See you on the dock,
Sally
The Fire in Team Fire and Ice
Dixie Dock Dogs