Tuesday, August 31

Of Autumn and Rosettes . . . .




The weather is beginning to change and I don’t just mean that Autumn has arrived.  Over the bank holiday weekend, we even managed to see a bit of sunlight ~ although unfortunately for my husband  the one full day of great weather was spent with me in hospital. Charley spent the day at home and was none too impressed either . . .

But getting back to the Saturday before all the nasty stuff started husband, dog and I went for a short stroll on the moors.  I needed to walk very, very slowly and with the help of one of my many sticks, but that didn’t stop Charley from racing ahead and sniffing at every bush, rock and piece of moorland furniture that was available.  After all that excitement we needed a cup of tea and stopped off at our favourite dog friendly cafĂ© in Princetown, the Fox Tor.


Then, as we were driving home the long way round we came upon signs for the local Sheep Dog Trials.  If you are not familiar with this wonderfully piece of human and animal interaction, then do have a look at the wiki page which gives you loads of info.


Having been brought up on the BBC series of One Man and HisDog as a youngster, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see these amazing displays in person.  So I convinced husband to stop off, and we watched several shepherds (male and female) work their beautiful dogs in the ring.  Let me tell you, those sheep are sneaky little devils!

But as we were wandering around after (another) cup of tea served by the lovely ladies from the village, we were accosted by some friends to take a walk over to the other side of the field to have a look at the local dog shows.  And before we knew it we had been talked in to entering Charley for the next competition! Bearing in mind we had come from a jaunt on the moor, he was a little bedraggled covered in burrs and mud, plus we hadn’t brought his grooming brush with us so we were not expecting to come anywhere in the judging. 



But the expert had other ideas!  Look at that proud boy (with an even prouder husband) displaying a bright red First rosette.  Charley was deemed best in condition, which I’m really pleased about as you can imagine.  But as the whole thing took ages,  I have a feeling that his show ring career was short and sweet . . . . .

 Charley was more impressed with his bag of treats than the rosette