After the TDAA Nationals I left Springfield IL determined to drive no more than two hours whereupon I would find a hotel that accepted dogs and then settle down to a well-deserved rest with no alarm clock to rouse me from my slumber. I settled on a Comfort Inn which fit the bill, and has high speed internet to boot.

Heading home is a funny and exhilarating thing. I actually found myself looking forward to the reaction of my three pups who had been subjected to a long ordeal of a week, at appearing suddenly at their own home. Surely it must have seemed to them that home was a distant memory. I started the week with two days of seminars for big dogs, followed by two days of seminars for little dogs, and immediately launched into three days of the most intense competition you can imagine, at the Teacup Dogs Agility Association’s Third Annual Petit Prix.

My boy Bogie won his division for the second time in three years, while Hazard and Birdie wound up in 6^th place in their respective divisions. Well, you just can’t be unhappy with three national placements. I was plumb delighted.

Perhaps my sense of delight was blunted a bit by a young lady who was Bogie’s chief competition throughout the tournament. She led Bogie in points accumulated in the semi-final rounds throughout. And she was quite pleasant about it so long as she was ahead. She let me know that most of her weekends were spent in competition in the AKC where she had carefully honed her craft and had, in fact, qualified for the AKC nationals. I’m sure these tidbits were to explain why I shouldn’t feel bad about my dog losing to her dog. In the final rounds, when it counted, I kicked up the energy, finding a new gear. So Bogie was not to be beat.

This young lady (note that I’m careful not to mention her name… perhaps she’ll regret her conduct… ) demanded of the scorekeeping table that she examine the scribe sheets and raised a fair ruckus that someone must have made a mistake.

Lordy.

As I drive I watch the flocks of birds migrating generally to the south. It got me thinking of, of all things, the idea of democracy in nature. There is this odd theory in the world about how the hierarchy of leadership works. One school of thought suggests that the alpha leader might command or bully the herd or flock into its routine movements with is rather republican in its view of leadership. Another, more interesting view, is that the flock actually votes on the movement and 51% of the opinion will determine the direction of movement, which is essentially a democratic principle. Oh, and if the alpha leader actually wants to lead, he’ll have to move quickly to the fore, in the direction the flock is already moving, in order to actually be perceived to be leading.

This thought lead to briefly pondering the politics of Thomas Jefferson who, if you think about it, was the first abolitionist of merit in this country. He was quite an advocate for political and civil rights for black people in this country, as he was for women and for citizens who weren’t land owning gentry. Jefferson worked very hard to insist that the reference to God in our constitution were to the natural God and not to the Christian God. This point seems to be lost to us today.

By the way, at the TDAA Petit Prix Reverend Wayne Van Deusen started us off with a beautiful prayer that acknowledged our love and care for our dogs. Just to demonstrate that I don’t know as much about religion as I pretend… I told Wayne “that was a beautiful benediction!” He didn’t bother to correct me being a very polite and appropriate fellow[1]. I wonder about American Christians today, especially those who give blind and zealous support to the Republican party. These seem to be the kind of people who are more interested in giving support and credence to the ugly and vengeful bits in the Old Testament, ignoring completely the messages of love and forgiveness of the New. Sometimes I wonder why Jewish people aren’t universally ugly and vengeful (like American Republican Christians) because the Old Testament is all they’ve got. Maybe some day someone of the Jewish persuasion will explain it to me.

I really like Wayne by the way. He loves and cares for his little rescue Shelties in a way that few among us can ever appreciate. And I have never been so rude as to engage in a political and religious discussion which him. Frankly I don’t know his politics. How would that conversation begin? “Hey Wayne! Why are so many Republican Christians hateful homophobic buttheads?” Nah… I’m not going there.

On Monday morning I was on the road by 7:00 am. I know it was my intention to sleep late and long. But at about 5:30 am I woke up without any good reason or explanation. I think there was a dumpster doing battle with a dump truck. But I could not swear to it now.

I had obtained from the Live to Run Again Library at the Petit Prix a book called “The Time Traveler’s Wife”. And to explain my choice I should say that the library consisted mostly of tapes, while I have the capacity in my Suburban only to play CDs. So I settled on a title that seemed vaguely to be a science fiction. Surely if it were a movie you’d have to call it a chick flick. I don’t know what the proper name is for a book on tape/cd. Anyhow, it is a delightful story… and the only true difference between this book and what might be considered hardcore science fiction is that it is more concerned with characterization, making the players more than one-dimensional cut-outs than it is concerned with impressing the reader/listener with the awe of science and the juxtaposition of time conflicts and anomalies. While I am only on the third disc I believe completely that Bob Silverberg would have been completely impressed and just as delighted as I.

As I near home there comes that very moment when I can suspend studying the Mapquest directions over the top of my glasses (yes, I need bifocals) and can declare for all the world that I know where I am. And I can begin driving like I know what I’m doing and where I’m going. I am no longer a tourist. I have succeeded in finding my way home.

Camp starts the day after I arrive. I am drained of energy. But there is no rest for the weary, or for the wicked. There was a week-long camp the week before I started this journey. I had a day off to pack and then I was on the road. My intermediate day was spent traveling and then setting courses and, believe it or not teaching evening classes. This week will be spent teaching all day, and then teaching all evening. Friday, at the end of class I will run to load my dogs in the Suburban and take off for Parkersburg WV where I’ll get to trial in the AKC this weekend.