2009 the year that was

“We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” – Edith Lovejoy Pierce

At the new year it is always a time to reflect back on what had passed and then to look forward to the future.  This new year we even have a new decade to work with, I started in dogs in the 90’s and now it is the 10’s, just seems weird.

So let’s get started.  We didn’t start 2009 off well, we lost our beloved Woo on the 5th of January and she was followed to the bridge by our old friend Dublin soon after which made a sad start to the new year but joy was soon to follow. 

Frost (Rockie Top’s Flying Snow) arrived at Solstice in February and then Lindy and PJ gave us four pretty babies on the last day of February.  We spent the spring and summer hanging out and growing up.  The young Solistice dogs did well over the fall and winter at the shows and each of the show puppies are now pointed.  PJ added a Rally title to his name in May which was very cool.

I had a chance to spend time with my some of my dearest friends this year which is always a treat.  My job is going well and I’ve lost 90lb so my non doggy life is going in the right direction as well.

We ended the year with some good news, PJ is the Daddy of two new litters at Arylan born on 12/21 and 12/26 so we are excited to see how they grow up.

What does the future hold?  Who can really say but you must have goals so here are some of mine:

1.  Continue down the good health path

2. Be excited about my job and the opportunities that present themselves.

3. Train some dogs, that’s right train them.  I’ve been lucky that the Cardis are such a bidable crew that they like to work with you but it will be nice if we do some formal team work.  Poor PJ got his RN title with very little instruction and practice, but he is a good egg and did what I asked him to do.  Frost is so smart that she needs some type of job and Bailey is a rebellion teenager and she wants to do what she wants to do right now so she needs some instructions.

4.  Re work our kennel and kennel yard so that I can house 8 – 10 dogs with out a lot of worry.  I don’t have 8 – 10 at the moment but I’d like to be able to house that many if needed.  (the granddogs come over and it will be nice not to have to swap dogs around when they visit.

5. Plant a garden (sort of goes with #1)

6. Evaluate my current dogs and see where I want to go next with my breeding program.  I have some ideas/plans and with young dogs I also have time but now is the time to start making those plans.

7. Spent more time with the people I love and less time with the people I don’t.  That includes worrying about the people I don’t love.

I guess those are the big ones.  I’m sure there are lots of smaller goals out there but if I get on with the big ones then the small ones will take care of themselves.