Peculiar

When the girls and I drove from Kansas City to Mansfield, MO, we past a few interesting sites. We were able to visit the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, we drove past Crazy Debbies Fireworks, and before those two spots, we drove through PECULIAR, MO. Now, I know we are in the middle of the country, and it is fairly sparsely populated, but come on. Naming your town Peculiar?

We made it to my friend Trish's house around 7pm. (Another late night, the girls didn't make it to bed until around 11:30.) What fun we had, catching up and letting the kids get to know each other better. Trish and Gene have one daughter, Madison, a funny, sparkling little girl that enjoys teasing and chasing the girls around in her wheelchair. It didn't take long for the Stringer girls to realize that they could run in a circle from living room, down the hall, through the kitchen, and by the dining room table back into the living room with Maddie in hot pursuit.

Trish is so busy, it is hard to keep up with all she does. She breeds yorkies and malinois, trains dogs for narcotics detection, plus keeps up with an active 4-year old. (You can check out her websites at www.blackhawkk9.com and www.tenderlovingkennel.com.) It was so fun to watch Trish work with one of her Malinois at drug detection. She let us come into her training barn and watch VJ work, after he successfully found all the hidden drugs, I was given the opportunity to handle him - WOW! That was fun. Even with an inexperienced person at the end of his leash, he did his job with style, never missing a beat or a hidden drug.

Next up, I brought Abbey into the training barn and Trish helped her to begin to distinguish the scent of cocaine, and after a few minutes, Abbey was alerting to cocaine! It was so fun! I've always said that Abbey doesn't have a very big brain, but she proved me wrong this day. She did so well, and I was having so much fun with her that I'm hoping to find something like this in California to begin training her for more scents and see where we go with it. I brought Eli in next, and he did well. He was so eager to work, he loves to try and please me.

Later, after dinner, I was then given the opportunity to be a "decoy" for VJ, wearing a bite arm. Talk about an adrenaline rush. I had been loving on VJ during the day, we worked together in scent detection, and yet once given the command from Trish, he was ready to attack me. The power in his neck and jaw was incredible. He didn't spare anything, and was quickly enticed to bite me - on the bite arm of course. I'm in awe of this powerful animal and his abilities.

We all had fun, golden dogs included. We took Abbey, Eli and VJ's sister, Jade out into the field and played ball for quite a while. Everyone was exhausted, including the people & kids. Katelynn was in love with a new pup Trish had - Turbo Turd. :) He is a blue heeler (Australian cattle dog) and jack russell mix. He was so small that even Beth was carrying him around. Katelynn was very patient, but firm with him. I love seeing her grow in her ability to relate to dogs! Working with Abbey in flyball has definitely given Katelynn confidence.

As always, this trip ended all too quickly. Only one full day to visit really isn't much, but we do pack them full.