So much happened this weekend, it's hard to decide where to begin with our trip to Dunedin for the Otago Kennel Association and Museum Trust benefit shows. It was a wonderful weekend with all the team doing something special... and then there was the Evil Enchanted Carport, but we'll get to that.
We took the full team, pretty much (except Ava, who was - as they euphemistically used to say in Victorian Times - temporarily indisposed). That left us with Ben, Narci. Serena, Zoey, Marsha and Nikita. Brittany and Cora came along for the ride and the treats, but they'll make their show debut in the coming weeks.
In Show 1, under Singaporean Judge, Stanley Shen, Ben took BOB, Dog CC & Intermediate of Breed, Little Serena took Reserve Best of Breed, Best Bitch and Best Baby Puppy of Breed. Narci took
Res Dog CC and Open of Breed, Zoey took Res Bitch CC and Best Junior of Breed and Nikita finished us off with Best Neuter of Breed.
Come the Group lineup and Ben Ben took yet another Reserve Best of Group and Best Intermediate of Group. Serena took the Best Baby Puppy of Group in a very strong field and Nikita took Best Neuter of Group.
We were pretty chuffed with those results, but the best was yet to come. In Show 2, under Australian judge, Kim Tosi, Ben took his 2nd Best of Breed for the weekend, along with the Dog CC & Best Intermediate of Breed. Zoey stepped up to take the Reserve Best of Breed, her 2nd Bitch CC and Junior of Breed. Narci took Res Dog CC and Open of Breed, Serena took the Reserve Bitch and Best Baby Puppy of Breed, while Nikita took Best Neuter of Breed).
In the Group judging, Ben won another Best Intermediate of Group. Serena, once again, took the Best Baby Puppy of Group and Nikita took Best Neuter of Group.
Nikita then thrilled us all when she went on to take the Reserve Best Neuter in Show!
Well. we could have gone home happy right then. This was probably Nikita's last All Breeds show (we'll still show her in the specialty shows), so for her to finish off her career with a Reserve Best Neuter in Show, is pretty special.
So, day 2 arrives, and to be honest, we were expecting pretty much the same results, but Narci was having a blast (he loves his roast chicken treats) so he totally rocked it in Show 3 and under NZ Judge, Geoff Whitfield, beat his showy little grandson, Ben, for Best of Breed and then Serena took a leaf out of her Great Granddad's book and took Reserve Best of Breed!
Zoey took Reserve Bitch and Best Junior of Breed. Ben took the Reserve Dog CC and Best Intermediate of Breed and Nikita once again took the Best Neuter of Breed.
We got to the Group lineup and figured surely our puppers couldn't take the trifecta and do it again, but they did. Serena took her 6th Best Baby Puppy of Group, Ben took his 15th Best Intermediate of Group and Nikita took her 22 Best Neuter of Group!
The judge then gave us a real fright by short-listing both Serena and Ben in the In-Show judging!
Marsha showed in all the shows too, and had much fun chasing Serena around the ring, but she was much more interested in having cuddles with the president of the Marshmallow Fan Club, Frankie, who bought her drawings, and fan mail and treats and lots of cuddles. Marsha thought this was wonderful. Who wants to be a show dog when you can be an adorable little girl's Pillow Pet, LOL.
Which brings us to the Evil Enchanted Carport.
We rented a great little house near the venue which comes complete with very pretty 1950's wrought-iron carport. The last time we stayed there, the central locking on our car stopped working, only worked sporadically at the venue, and ended in a very expensive key replacement a few weeks later. Fair enough, Exy (that's our car's name) is getting on a bit and things eventually wear out. Thought nothing of it until we parked up to unload the car at the same house, and when we were done - the central locking failed! Neither Jenny's key nor Tracey's spare were working!
Guessing there must be some evil enchantment on the carport. we hastily removed Exy and parked him in the street, where - like a miracle - the central locking started working again!
WTF????
When Haley arrived with Zoey, we generously offered to let her park in the carport before telling her about the enchantment (we figured she'd think we were nuts if the first thing we said to her when she arrived was "look out, the evil carport eats central locking systems!"). We did tell her eventually but it seems her brave little Mini is made of sterner stuff than our wussy X-Trail. De Luca's (that's the Mini's name) central locking kept working, although he did take a few extra clicks than normal to lock the car.
But the reach of the Evil Enchanted Carport didn't end there. Exy and De Luca are fine, now we are back home, but when Tracey went to unlock her car the following day to go to work (in Christchurch!!), the key to her car, which was on the same key ring as her spare X-trail key that was enchanted in Dunedin, wasn't working either!!!!
Seriously. If it's not magic, then someone needs to do a study on that wretched carport. Or maybe the enchantment was a good one that got us 3 Best of Breeds, 3 Reserve Best of Breeds, a Reserve Best of Group, 3 Best Baby Puppy of Groups, 3 Best Intermediate of Groups, 3 Best Neuter of Groups and a Reserve Best Neuter in Show and all the Enchanted Carport wanted in return was a central locking system or two for dinner, LOL.
