Since none of my dogs were running in any finals this time, I sat around and set jumps and took pictures of the Steeplechase Finals. Was a little sad and weird not to run any dogs in any finals at this show, but it’s just been that kind of year. So instead, I’ll provide the first official report about the Steeplechase Finals. You heard it here first.

Here’s my friend Sue. Always matches her do-rags to her socks at dog agility. I’m not sure what today’s theme was. It’s hard to tell her dogs apart. I think that’s Maddie though. But I might be wrong. Sue saved me a spot to put up my dog agility canopy thing this weekend. If it wasn’t for Sue, I would have had to sit all by myself 100 miles away on the other side of the field. That’s a real dog agility pal.

This is Karey. She is easy to find at dog agility because she always wears tie dye. Maybe Karey used to be a hippie? A lot of people in dog agility like tie dye, I’ve noticed. Because they were hippies? Or is a dog thing? Karey is also in charge of dog agility around here. If we didn’t have Karey, I’m not sure if we would have dog shows. I heard she stayed up all night wearing a headlight lampshade making scribe sheets the other night. That’s her dog Bump who is Hobbes’s brother. If they start barking at the same time, you can tell they’re related.

Here’s Rob. Hobbes is his dog. Rob is running Wings here who is like Hobbes’s sister but more like a Brady Bunch blended family kind of sister as opposed to Bump actual relative from the womb kind of thing. If it wasn’t for Rob I wouldn’t know jack about dog agility. I’m a lucky, lucky person to get to run Hobbes. I ran him in Pairs and Standard this weekend and Rob ran him in everything else. We were a little bit 5 faulty, but he did tables, dammit. Rob was wearing tie dyed socks and I wonder if they were a present from Karey? Or just that whole dog agility and tie dye thing?

This is Lisa. Both her dogs were in Steeplechase finals. I think this one might be Steamer. She is also a tie dye wearer. I’m not sure, ex hippie or just a dog thing? Maybe it’s just how people like to dress up for Steeplechase these days if they don’t want to wear a skort. Me and Lisa carried all the tables and put away the canopies after the dog show was over. Cleaning up the trial is the seedy underbelly of dog agility you never here about. You just carry and pack and carry and pack and carry and pack and don’t pack it wrong or Jim gets cranky.

This isn’t Jim. Jim is my other favorite dog agility teacher. I hold him partially responsible for Otterpop’s Masters Gamblers win the other day. I thought it was Jim when I looked at the photo but it was Greg. Greg is married to my friend Tammy and I was sitting in his chair in the shade trying to take pictures when he was out there running dogs in the hot sun. I should put on my glasses before I write anything down. If I squint real hard, I can guess that he’s running Tala out there. Not to be confused with Tania, who looked at this and was all, duh, Laura. That’s not Jim.

This is Ashley and his dog Luka. Ashley is my tallest dog agility friend. I started taking lessons with Jim because Ruby could never beat Luka and Ashley took lessons with Jim. Jim thought that was really funny as in ha Ha HA funny and suggested I move Ruby down to Performance. Ashley takes Luka to Europe soon to compete in a World Team event. We’re pretty sure they’ll win.

That’s my friend Kathleen and her dog JB. JB is Jim’s dog Sweep’s brother. Kathleen built forest agility, which is really Heart Dog Agility and is where I practice every single Monday. Kathleen is like one of the pioneers of dog agility in Santa Cruz. Except instead of a pioneer wagon now she has her own dog agility RV that even has internet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kathleen in tie dye.

There’s Debbie and Porsche. Porsche beats the pants off Otterpop on a regular basis. We still like them. Debbie is always very nice to us and is sure that we’ll get that last SuperQ some day but she still beats us all the time just the same. Debbie was wearing a track suit with long sleeves. Probably so she didn’t get sunburned.

There’s Sandy and Quill. I don’t know Sandy very well but Quill also beats the pants off Otterpop on a regular basis. There aren’t very many 12″ dogs in these parts. Even when Otterpop is running her fastest, she just can’t beat Quill. I’m always happy when I get to run AFTER Quill in Snooker.

Actually this isn’t even one of my friends. I don’t even know him at all. I don’t think he lives around here. But I liked his striped baseball pants and he had a dramatic falling down run the other day and just leaped back up and kept going. Maybe he’s your friend and you can give him this picture. He’s a sheltie guy.

This is Whitney and Cooper. She came over and introduced herself to me the other day so I’m just going to say she’s my friend. Those corgis amaze me, that their stubby little legs can get them going like they do. Neither Whitney or the sheltie guy wore tie dye, and they’re not from around here so maybe it’s sort of a within a certain mile radius of the Grateful Dead kind of thing?

So that’s the report. I missed a lot of photos because I was sitting in Tammy’s big fluffy chair under her tent and then I got too lazy to get up to get any other photos and that’s what kind of reporter I am. And actually, I have no idea who won or anything like that either. I know I saw Sue walking around with a fist full of cash afterwards. I’m gonna take a guess that most everyone in these pictures was. Fistful of cash or not, everyone’s a champion, righty-o? See everybody next time.