Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010 - Good news and bad news

Since I have both good and bad news, I'll start with the good news first.

Hardee and Jim had the best weekend in agility that they've ever had.  On Friday, they qualified in all 3 of their runs for their first triple Q (qualify), taking placements in all, with two 2nd places and a 3rd place.  On Sat., they double Qd, with a 1st and 2nd place.  Today, they only Qd in their jumpers run with a 2nd place, but on their standard run, Hardee made all his contacts which is success in our books...YAY!  Hardee and Jim have the double Qs they need to qualify for Nationals, but just need 6 more points.  We wouldn't go to Nationals, but it is nice to know that they could have, given Hardee gets those 6 points in 2 weekends from now at our next trial.  I'm so proud of them both.  Hardee just LOVES agility!!  It brings such joy to me to see him run.

Hardee and I had success in the rally ring also.  Rally was Sat. & Sun, and we double Qd each day for our 2nd and 3rd legs towards our RAE (Rally Advanced Excellent) title.  On Sat., we got scores of 98 and 100 for our runs, and on Sun., we got a 99 and a 98.  We had many ring conflicts, but we worked them out and made all of our runs before it was too late.  I was very proud of Hardee in rally also.

Now obedience was another story.  We are in Open A, and on Sat., it was HORRIBLE all the way around.  Jim stood ring side and had treats in his pocket.  Hardee would not concentrate on me, and only wanted Jim's treats.  Today was a better performance.  I banned Jim from the rally and obedience side of the field, and out of a possible 200 points, we had a 195.5 score going into our long, out of sight, sits and downs.  The group sits and downs are the very last part of our competition day, and by today, after 3 days of being at this trial competing in 3 different venues, HH was very tired.  During the long sits, the dog next to him went down, and the judge said Hardee looked over at the dog when it went down, contemplated it for a second, and went hmmmm, I think I'll lay down also, and down he went.  Disappointing, but not unexpected given everything he has done for us this weekend.  He gave us his all.  Hardee was a champion this weekend, and we are so proud of him!

Now onto the bad news.  Besides all the signs that I blogged about in my last post that caused me to call and schedule H's next CT scan earlier than planned, our most precious boy has now started to bleed from his nose again....an ominous sign.  It is not dripping out, but comes out when he sneezes.  Jim is working out of town this week again, so H and I will head to SoCal tomorrow to face this alone, again.  I do not fault Jim.  If he wasn't working, we wouldn't have been able to make arrangments to pay for H's care.  It's just that he's not been able to make any Drs. appointments, surgeries, CT scans, or radiation treatments, etc.  I fear the results on Tuesday and wish Jim could be there with me.

I know that some of you will question our decision to work HH this weekend.  To us, it is still about balancing quality of life with rest.  Hardee would not be content to sit home, and he loves to work.  Anyone who saw his runs this weekend cannot say he wasn't happy to be there and loved what he was doing.

I'm asking all who care for Hardee for help.  We need your prayers, your good karma, your positive thoughts, your healing vibes, whatever it is you can give as far as well wishes, to send them Hardee's way for a better result for Tuesday's scan than what I fear.  It would be greatly appreciated.

Until then, we will love him as much as we can, and celebrate each day that we have with our most precious boy.  As always, it is all about joy and all about Hardee!!!  You know we wouldn't have it any other way.  And as Christy says, "everybody loves Hardee!"