Ava is going to be 8 this year... now that is not horribly old for a dog, but cavaliers life spans are usually 9-12 years. The breed has some pretty significant health problems which attribute to the lower life span of other small breeds.
I never noticed Ava getting old, but it hit fast and hard this last year. She has lost most of her hearing, I think some things she chooses to hear and chooses to ignore, but for the most part she is deaf (I learned just how deaf they day I all but vacuumed her while she slept, Ava has been scared of the vaccum her whole life)She has the old dog bark starting, a little white is starting to cloud her eyes and white hairs are springing up everywhere they never have been before, I have been tempted to do some doggy gray coverage. She recently has been diagnosed with a collapsing trachea, another common breed problem.
Ava has been my agility buddy for a long time, she started running with James, but soon discovered playing with Mom was way more fun. I have never expected anything out of Ava, her and I played because I wanted too, while I still had Daisy, Ava had very little interest in agility, she would walk off the start line back to her crate or leave mid course. Then I lost Daisy, I had so many plans, Daisy was going to go to regionals and then nationals in Calgary in 2010, I had to have her put down in 2009. I was crushed. The plan had been to take Ava along to regionals just because I was going anyways, didn't expect her to qualify, then all of a sudden all my eggs were in her basket. Well she did it, we worked hard that year and she qualified and went to Nationals, I even have ribbons hanging on my wall that she won. I had fun with my girl.
A couple weeks ago a friend posted on her blog about the AAC top dog list. I had never heard of this, so off I went in search of it. I had never looked at the stats pages before, just my dogs pages to keep track of q's and titles. So I spent a quiet morning while the kids were at school going through the pages, and I found out some pretty cool things about my Ava.
She made the top dog list in 2010 and 2011, in 2010 she was the #2 cavalier out of 9 on the list, in 2011 she was the #3 cavalier out of 12 on the list. On the overall top dog list she is the #4 cavalier out of `4 on the list. Then I looked at the breed specific stats, there are 213 cavaliers on the list only 6 of them have their Expert Jumpers Bronze, Ava is one of those cavaliers, and the one that makes me happiest is the SteepleChase title, only 2 cavaliers have that, and my Ava is one of those.
Ava owes me nothing in life, she never has, she is the dog that I couldn't imagine not having in my life. She has been there through everything with me, I can always count on her cuddle when it is needed, and even when it isn't. She was only 2 when Lexi was born and she wasn't going to be the baby anymore (and she was my spoiled baby, came every where with me and I carried her around every where) I thought she would take it the hardest, but she could have cared less that she wasn't the baby, she loved Lexi and Bella both immediately when they came home and continues to love her kids. Lexi is now running Ava in agility and Ava can be a bit bossy, but so can Lexi so they make a good team, the things she does for Lexi on course that she has never and would never do for me amaze me, she would follow that kid anywhere. And Bella does her best to run her too, Bella is hard with her speech problems but Ava humors her and follows her around the course.
I have two goals for Ava this year. I want to run her at Regionals this spring and run her at Nationals this summer. Ava will never get her ATCH, I have come to terms with that, she needs 4 master gamble q's, they aren't going to happen, she has never liked distance, and with the hearing loss it is two strikes against. But one more Nationals would be the icing on the cake and then my plan is to retire her. Lexi is working hard to learn to run Storm and Blossom and as much as James hates to admit it, there will be a puppy in our future. I love that Lexi loves this sport so much and I love that she got her passion from running Ava.
I always joke that before Daisy died she had a talk with Ava and gave her the trade secrets of having the patience to run agility with me, and I am pretty sure Ava is being a bit of a snob and holding out on sharing those secrets with Blossom and Storm. It is so hard to break in those new shoes when the old ones have kept you comfy for so long...
***********************************************************************************
Just a quick note to add on of happiness for the future. Blossom's title certificates came for her Starter Game Title AND her Agility Dog of Canada title. 4 trials this year, (two half trials, two full trials) And Blossom made the AAC Top Dog list for 2012. Pretty cool for my little dog... May be Ava has shared the secrets with her, hopefully she shares them with Storm soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment