My first BCOA National was a really cool and somewhat surreal experience. On Thursday, Zoni competed in the 6-9 mo puppy AOAC class in Sweepstakes and she won her class against five other puppies, including her sister, who got 4th. It was such a long and hot day in the tent. Zoni was completely wilted by the time we got to best puppy, so she walked on that one and didn't make the initial cut. I practically had to carry her around the rest of the day, she didn't want to walk anywhere. Within 2 minutes of getting back to the room she was like this…didn't even curl up in the bed.
On Saturday, we competed in the same class in conformation with a slightly different mix of puppies and she won her class again!!!! And her sister got 2nd! I was in complete shock and in a daze after that and I was so happy for her breeder too. This time I took her up to the room and kept her in the air conditioning until winners bitch. She was still pretty perky this time but I was a complete fumble fingers when we got in the ring and could not keep her stacked on the ground for anything. And of course the judge appears right behind me right when I loose her stack again. Oh well….at least the junior handler (she must have been 10 or something) right next to me with a cute and tiny little b/w bitch made the intial cut for winners bitch.
Nicole took this picture right after winners bitch of Zoni. Zoni deserved a nap after that day.
It was totally wild that she got two 1st placements…or even one for that matter. I know the probability is pretty low that we'll ever place again in the future, but I'm definitely going to try and keep going to Nationals. It was such a great experience meeting lots of basenji people and meeting more of Zoni's extended family (I'm going to post pictures of them later).
And it was a weird experience having people come up to me asking when she was going to have puppies....and I kept thinking "she's just a baby, I don't even want to think about that!" But I'll just take that as a compliment and won't have to deal with that for a couple of years.
.... time for a new crop of youngsters, and I couldn't be more proud of how you all are investing your time and your heart in our breed...sniff....
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