Merry Christmas from Ranger and Lawood Papillons

Merry Christmas to all from Ranger and Lawood Papillons !!!!

And a Happy New Year 2010...........

Happy Birthday Mrs Opal and Mimi

Mrs. Opal (Laura's Mom) and Mimi just happen to share the same birthday. Mimi is now one year old. Mrs. Opal is ... (you'll have to figure that one out for yourself) I'm not messing up my source for the bestest hot dill pickles in the whole world.

Reelfoot Lake Trip

Laura's sister, niece, and nephew traveled all the way from Washington state for a visit in November. We packed up after church and made a relaxing trip to Reelfoot lake for a great mid afternoon lunch of catfish and all the extras at Boyette's restaurant. It made for a nice afternoon and also a nice backdrop for some family photos.

Another Loss -- 11/30/2009

Sadly we lost another member of our pet menagerie yesterday. We had to put down one of our house cats due to cancer. Kit Cat was 15 years old. To look at her, she really didn't look like an old cat at all. She didn't really show her age at all. (I wish I could be so lucky)


Anyway, Kit Cat is the grey and white cat pictured on our Blog Spot header nosing Mimi when she was just a puppy.

AKC Champion Jansu Coppertone (Sierra)

On November 19th 2009 we lost one of our older female Matriarchs. Sierra was 13 years old and was only a week and a half away from her 14th birthday. Sierra had medical issues, but all in all was in very good health up until the very end. She was one of our more feisty papillons and really added to our sometimes challenging, sometimes hillarious mix of Papillon personalities. She had several very nice litters of puppies over the years and as a good mother, she was second to none. You literally had to force her kicking, growling, and snapping to leave her puppies and go outside for her breaks. She would then be bouncing at the door wanting to get back to her mothering duties.

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She will be certainly missed......

Toy Dog Show in Olive Branch MS

Well vacation's over and the old Blog has gone back to the Dogs.

We traveled to Olive Branch MS for a one day toy dog show Sunday Nov. 1st.

Cruiser snagged his usual Reserve Winners Dog.

Mimi won her class and also won Winners Bitch, and Best of Opposite over two specials. She has won points in her last two consecutive shows.

Mimi also won best of breed papillon in the puppy sweeps and got to go into the group ring where she won a Group 3 placement.

Vacation Is OVER :(

The view from our Mountain home away from home.

We got rained on most of Friday. Saturday we had to pack up and be out of the room by 10:00.

We traveled from North Carolina back to Tennessee and stayed Saturday night in Pigeon Forge and spent Saturday night in downtown Gatlinburg. After one night in Gatlinburg, I remembered why I like the NC side of the mountains 1000 percent better than the TN side.

Now this is what I call a House Dog

Now this is what I call a House Dog....

I made Laura turn around so I could see what I thought I saw and to get her as a witness.

Linville Falls

Linville Falls .. We hiked one side of the gorge and decended down steep rocky/root laden trails down to the river level to view the falls from the bottom. We then hiked back up and out and then hiked the other side of the gorge. Did I mention gorges are deep and hard tough hiking ???

Linville Gorge Hike

Thursday Oct. 22

Today we hiked to six different spots in the Linville Gorge area. All are different sides of the river and different views of Linville Falls. Gorge hikes usually mean steep rocky hikes and this one is no exception. In our neck of the woods back home we only have hollows, bluffs, and gullies. We have no concept of a gorge. This thing was a baby CANYON and very deep. It was a tough day of hiking.

NOTE TO SELF .......

NOTE TO SELF........When the rangers put up a sign it means what it says.

Wednesday's Hike

Today we hiked at Grandfather Mountain. We parked at the lower parking lot and hiked the trail to the summit. We tooled around for a while at the summit, then hiked back down to the car. Then we hiked the 2 mile Black Rock trail. We saw lots of wildlife. The Black Rock trail was not all that long or but it was almost totally covered with large rock and roots that you had to negotiate. It was a foot, knee, and leg killer. We then hiked a little over 1.5 miles on the Woods Trail to finish up the day. Let me tell you these mountain miles are killer.

We had a nice dinner of Fresh Mountain Trout to cap off the day.

Banner Elk Oct 21 2009

Well today we hiked up to a very nice overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is called Rough Ridge. We also went to see Blowing Rock. Then hiked 2.3 miles around Price Lake. We've been walking after work everyday for over a month getting ready for the mountains, but these mountain inclines are already taking their toll on our legs.

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Laura taking a break....

It's Monday and we cruised up to a nice little town called Blowing Rock. We hiked a trail there called the Glen Burney trail. It was a little less than a 4 mile round trip hike but the whole thing was down hill, which means the return trip is all UPHILL. Any way we finished up our hike by walking through down town. That's the neat thing about North Carolina mountain towns, people still come downtown on the weekends and just walk around and hang out.

We Made It !!! And before the SNOW....

Laura and her brother John.

Me and Laura

Back porch snow pile up.

Well we made it up to Sugar Mountain in North Carolina Saturday afternoon. None too soon too because it snowed Saturday night. We went from shorts and t's to long pants, thick shirts, and long johns.

Dogless Vacation

Next week, Laura and myself will be going to the mountains of North Carolina for our annual Fall get away. We're just going to try to get some R&R and do some hiking all week long.

This will be a dogless vacation ( the kids are staying with Grandma). So I'll be posting pictures of us this time instead of the dogs.

Tuepelo Dog Show -- October 10 and 11 2009

Mimi Win's a Group 2 placement in the Best Bred By Toy Group !!!

Did you say Cheese ???

Mimi on a mission.............

October 10 and 11, we went down to the Memphis Agri center for the Tupelo Kennel Club Dog Show. This show is usually held outside but this year due to the amount of rain that we have been having lately, it was moved inside the Agricenter building. The conformation rings were set up in the atrium with lots of sunlight, windows, and glass ceilings. It was pretty nice.

Cruiser took second place in his class Saturday. Mimi took first in her bred by class Saturday and won Reserve Winners bitch also.




As for Sunday October 12, Both Cruiser and Mimi won their Bred By classes. Cruiser took Reserve winners Dog.



Since they were having a Best Bred By competition on Sunday, this meant that Cruiser and Mimi would once again have to go in head to head against each other to compete for Best bred by Papillon. (Which also meant the I have to go into the Show ring with one of our dogs) I don't mind going into the show ring, I just don't want to mess anything up. Mimi went back into the ring for Winners Bitch and guess what ???? Mimi took Winners Bitch and snagged her first points.


Since Laura was showing Casper as a special, I had to go in with Mimi for Best of Breed. Even with Mimi's disadvantage of having the severe handicap of me (the worst handler possible) at the other end of her lead, she took Best of Winners, Best of Opposite, and Best Bred By (by default). Thus Cruiser didn't have to go back in for Best Bred By.


Mimi went in for the Best Bred By group that afternoon and won a Group 2 placement in the Toy Group.




Way to go Mimi.......