My little 12 y.o. Papillon will start my day with little nose kisses as she does most every day. I’m also babysitting another little female Pap that is very affectionate. She thinks my house is her second home! I’ll have her for a total of 2 weeks and adore every minute of it since my oldest girl went to doggy heaven last year at the age of 16-1/2 years. No 2 legged kids but these little ones do a pretty good job of keeping me going.

I feel for you. I somehow managed to pinch a nerve in my back last Wednesday and it is threatening to derail me whenever I try to walk or sit!

We have 3 resident wild turkeys in the area. They are technically in the suburb of West Des Moines Iowa and can be seen most any day wandering in lawns, strolling down the sidewalk or in the middle of the street tying up traffic. State law forbids doing anything about moving them since they are wild. I have seen one robin, dozens of redwing blackbirds, cardinals and blue jays plus the common wrens.

Obedience competition is very different from what you saw. Obedience will require dogs working with their handlers and also working at a distance, sometimes with no verbal commands from the handler, only a hand cue as to what the dog should do next. One exercise is scent discrimination where the dog must pick up an article with its handlers scent instead of one of several the judge has scented! Lots more but my left hand is compromised and I’m having trouble typing tonight.

“Obedjudge” is because when I was younger I showed in AKC Obedience Trials and after several years of preparation and meeting the rigorous requirements was approved to Judge Dog Obedience at American Kennel Club shows. It was a long road but worth every bit of it. I met many people from all over this huge country and was able to get to many places I never would have seen otherwise. The dogs were all wonderful and judging all of these wonderful, obedient animals was a joy to behold. Seeing trained dogs so in tune with their handlers is a wonderful experience. I also enjoyed the training of my own lovely little canines. I ended my “doggy” career by showing and breeding Papillons, the court dogs of King Louis XIV of France. I’m now down to just one little 12 year old girl and not showing, breeding or exhibiting any longer. At the age of 84 it’s a little too much for me but I’ll never change my email “handle”.

Google shows February 14, 496 AD but that answer is not accepted.