Somewhere Off 34th Street

(excerpted from "A Note of a Sportswriter's Daughter: Companion Species," in Helene Moglen and Nancy Chen, eds., Bodies in the Making: Trangressions and Transformations (Santa Cruz, CA: New Pacific Press, 2006)

December 11, 2005

In the season of recalling miracles on 34th Street, Kris Kringle must take a back seat to a marvel that happened closer to home. It happened to me and Cayenne in California's decidely non-metropolitan Central Valley. Such a marvel will never happen again. Maybe I dreamed it. I hesitate to tell you in case I wake up. Maybe I'll write again later. No, I must check to see if reality holds. Here goes....

Cayenne and I got 4 Qs out of 4 runs (ExB Std, ExA JWW) at the Sacramento Dog Training Club's AKC trial at Rancho Murieta Friday and Saturday. .

There, I said it. The sun is still shining, and so I'll risk telling you the rest. If the earth shakes, I'll stop.

Only international competitor Sharon Freilich's Rip, among all the Excellent class dogs of both A & B sections, was faster than us in three of the runs. In the 'Jumpers with Weaves' run on Saturday, we were less than 0.5 seconds behind Sharon and Rip. Oh my. Now I will wake up for sure.

Recklessly, I forge on.

In the remaining run, an ExB Standard, we were 5th, behind a bunch of scruffy big name Border Collies, including both of Sharon's dogs (Rip and Cirque). Three seconds separated the 2nd-5th place dogs. If Cayenne had not wanted to discuss the latest scandal of the Bush administration while I was earnestly suggesting a down on the pause table, we might have been 1st and definitely 2nd. So, we got two 1st places in our ExA JWW and a 2nd in our other ExB Standard (behind Rip, or did I already mention that?), all with tight turns, serious focus, weaves to use in a teaching video, & blazing times. (I will not mention, although perhaps this is the reason the sun is still shining and the earth not shaking, our less-than-perfect start line holds.)

Am I happy? Is Cayenne a Klingon Warrior Princess? Oh yes. How do I know? Because the sun is still shining.