Hygenic tile, hygenic dogs.

I'll get to agility at the end of this. Sometimes we just veer a little slightly off track. But this was the kind of day it was. Featured here backwards, in order of reversal.

We didn't have to go to the emergency vet! I got Otterpop immobilized and poured a swallow of olive oil down her nose. And she started sneezing violently, and out popped a foxtail. This was after rushing home from halfway through a walk because someone stuck her nose into a foxtail, breathed deep, and sneezed convulsively all the way home until I could get to the oil in hopes of not having to go to the emergency vet for anaesthesia and scoping and yanking it out of her tiny nose.

This was while I was on the pain pills.

Just after Contractor Brian leaving me with the $25,000 bid to gut my bathroom. That would be the $622 per square foot bathroom. When he showed up to deliver the bid, I was on the phone with my dentist.

Who had just called to apologize and make sure I was OK and had gotten home.

Because earlier in the afternoon they drilled out a giant hole in my the space that used to have a front tooth to put the bionic rod in. Apparently this never hurts. It hurt like hell a bunch of times and I would mutter, HURT HURT with my cotton stuffed mutter gob until he would stop and give me more shots. More shots. Susie, assistant to the dentist kept telling me to breathe. They didn't mean for it to hurt but it was terrible. I almost passed out at one point. I had to sit in the chair a long time after it was done because I wasn't sure I could walk. Finally I told myself just cowboy up and get over it. That's how I made it home to the pain killers without passing out. Because a real cowboy surely isn't going to let a little mini mouth bone jackhammer ruin his day.

That was just after I finally surrendered to the vintage tile gods and realized I cannot do the stunning bathroom tile of my dreams and we will have plain and hygenic Deadwood style tile in the manner of the first indoor plumbing ever in Deadwood. No fancy glass color here. White and hygenic like a dental office.

And speaking of hygenic. The AKC took a poll on whether or not mixed breeds dogs shall be allowed to compete in the AKC against purely bred dogs. The AKC has determined that they shall be allowed to compete However, so as not to allow the unwashed mixed breeds to contaminate the more purely bred ones, they shall compete in seperate and slighly less equal classes. And not at any National competitions, local ones only. What a bunch of assholes.

Indefinite Listing Privilege.

We all did just fine on our Sunday of no agility trials. There was a low tide in the morning so the dogs got to run their tails off at the beach in the morning, and Timmy was able to walk all the way there and back. I worked on fun projects like pricing tile for the potential gutting of the bathroom-ouch. I discovered that our regular phone line doesn't work. And at the end of the day we all went for a walk in Pogonip. There are so many things out there to do when you're not sitting at a dog show all day.

If I competed in the AKC, I could have been to a very close trial, right in Scotts Valley. And if I were truly a good person, I would have volunteered to work there all day Sunday. Because it was put on by the dog club I teach agility for. I didn't work because I am lazy and really wanted a day off. But why don't I compete in the AKC?

Well, for one, I don't have purebred dogs. The AKC is designed for purebreds. So, if you have a dog that sort of looks like a purebred or even is one but isn't registered, AKC, you can do what's called an ILP. This stands for Indefinite Listing Privilege. Right there, the name sort of makes me feel creepy crawly inside. I can list my dog with them and it is a Privilege because they are closer to the purebreds. If I can convince them my dogs look enough like and meet enough breed standards of an approved breed, I can have the privilege of listing. My dogs are what they are. God knows what they are. They just don't look like a breed.

And then the AKC started this thing of maybe they will start letting non purebred breeds compete against purebreds in agility but under different rules and classes and would be kept Quite Separate. That is pending right now.

I don't hate the AKC in general, they taking a good stand against the really messed up "supposedly good" spay and neuter law for California. But the agility policy just reeks of classism, even though it's just dogs. Some of us need to get the dogs out of shelters, no matter what they are. I know I am one person that will never buy a dog. I could end up with a purebred through rescue, that is absolutely possible. But I am also going to keep pulling the sorta not so adoptable ones out of crappy lives too.

USDAA and CPE and ASCA let you run any damn dog, any time you want. No breed restrictions. So I am all for supporting them. Even if it means I miss out on a bunch of trials the other kids get to go to.