A rainey weekend

A RAINEY WEEKEND
I had taken the Friday off to prepare my dogs for the weekend shows, we had put the tent and stretcher to air before packing them, but as I opened my eyes that morning my sprits fell, it was raining so hard, the tent was soaking wet as well as the stretcher, the ground was flooded and half the drive had washed away. On checking my dogs half of them were dry and asleep in their kennels, but the others including Baxter were looking like drowned rats, to top it all I had a boarder bitch that had come for mating closed in the bathroom as she was going home that evening, I had to try and keep her dry.
Well I went shopping and came home and prepared our bags to take with us, it was still raining, I got the stretcher in and managed to almost suck all the water out with the vacuum and then blew it dry with my hair dryer, I then attempted to do the same to the tent but to no avail, the more I vacuumed the tent the harder it rained, I gave up in the end and folded this large soggy canvas mess into two black garbage bags and hoped that Saturday would be a bit dryer.
My boarder bitch was collected a 6pm and then it was time to bath and prepare my two dogs for the weekend shows, Tao loves her bath and was soon clean and dry, but not allowed out for the night, Baxter was another problem, although he loves the bath its the drying afterwards that terrifies him, first of all I sucked the water out of his coat with my vacuum but he would not allow me to touch his head, he screamed his lungs out drying him with the hair dryer, eventually I had him reasonably dry, I allowed him out to relieve himself and then called him back inside, he was again covered with burs, so once again out came the brush and the hairdryer, to get those sticky things out of his coat, it was not 1am and time to get some sleep before we left at 5 in the morning.
We awoke slightly refreshed and looked outside, Loa and behold it was still raining, pouring down, everything was underwater, we got the dogs settled into the car and para-glide down our drive, We were on our way, nothing could keep us from the shows, it's like a drug. The trip although wet was safe and we arrived in good time at the grounds, but to our dismay the field where we were suppose to show our dogs was under water in places a meter high. Cars were stuck in the mud, humans were fed up and dogs restless, we had to turn around and head for the Port Shepstone High school hall, of course we got lost going around in circles before we eventually followed some one who knew where they were going. Again chaos reigned, the hall although large felt crushed with dogs, humans and all their belongings, about 600 dogs, double the amount of adults and hundreds of kids, well we all settled down as best we could and the show went on.
Our judge I won't give her name, worked her way very quickly through the Bull Terriers that she judged before starting the utility group, she rushed the bulldogs in and out of the ring, we were the only two Chows, Baxter she liked enough to give best of breed and a C.C. but Tao she ignored, why I will never know as she is now starting to look lovely, even though her coat is still short, she walks like a dream and another judge not judging this day said she had lovely conformation and an excellent walk, head lovely and good bone, all that was lacking was coat "all Chows shed once a year.
Well once Saturdays show was over, I put away my disappointment over Tao and the Judge, and said I would never show under her again, and never have. We packed the car and set off for the beach, at least he rain had stopped and we could take the dogs for a walk, before settling them down at the Caravan Park in our wet tent for the evening. Once we had made our camp we thought a nice cup of tea would round up the day, Oops we had nothing to boil the water in but Baxter's dish, I had forgotten the kettle at home, so I fed Baxter and Tao and then washed his dish and soon we had a cup of very welcome tea, and supper, The stretcher was still wet, so I covered it with a blanket and by 8pm that night I was ready for bed, Rick slept in the car and I in the soggy wet cold tent, it was quite a long time before I fell asleep, as the noise from the traffic on the main south coast road was terrific, During the night while my two dogs slept peacefully in the tent on dry blankets, I heard a strange sound, we were being visited by a family of ducks, Thank heavens the dogs did not wake, they might have had duck for supper the next night. The following morning dawned, soft blue clouds floated above us, and no sign of rain at last it had cleared up, we had breakfast and then packed all our gear into the car, got the dogs settled and off we went for the second show this weekend. Baxter and Tao both did very well at this show both gaining their C.C points and Baxter again Best of Breed. Once the show was over we again packed everything into the car and headed for home, quite some weekend and one that won't be forgotten in a long time but this all goes to making dog showing the enjoyable sport that it is.