Gonzai Gallery

Last week, well, that was rough without national/world events piling on. Work was tough, I wasn't sleeping and I was rather stressed. So I hit the dog show over the weekend for a well-deserved break.

The reigning national champion Clumber Spaniel. Clearly mellow.
A Sheltie, 'stacked'.
A lovely Aussie Shepherd.
There's bad hair days, and then there's this.
Keeshond fluff. I've owned two Keeses, great dogs.
A Berger Picard. Never even heard of the breed before.
Peekaboo! (Long-haired Chihuahua.)
I felt like this dog last week. (Chinese crested, powder puff.)
How soft he looks.
Scary thought of the day - that Dane is a puppy.
Poofy Chow.
This Wheaten is ready for his close-up.

Well, that was different. Usually I either go to these things alone (and I spend hours, take a ton of photos and buy more than I probably should) or with Mom, where we don't make it through the whole expo. Today Mom and I went with my buds Jim and Jeff, who were new to this whole thing and forgot to bring their dog. That was a good move, it turned out, because the place was both packed and a madhouse of dogs. Not much non-dog this year, in fact, the petting zoo shrank and didn't include ponies, cows or alpacas, the only small rodent I laid eyes on was sugar gliders (barely), the reptile section shrank, no mini horses this time and there was a whopping 1 ferret present. There was, however, a 23 pound rabbit. Meep.

It was also a good thing there weren't that many critters for me to photograph, because the guys were perpetually on the move. They rarely gave anything much more than a glance and unlike Mom, didn't stop to visit every dog on the way. The guys did want to check out Dock Dogs (they concluded their Dobie would never pass muster at it) and agility trials (they're giving some thought to trying that one.) We found watching the handlers walking the course to be most amusing, I dubbed it a disorganized flash mob and Jeff declared it Zombieville.

Jasmine, a long haired chihuahua. Chihuahuas and golden retrievers ruled the place.
The wild animal display featured baboons (too far away for pics) and a kangaroo in repose.
This guy is brightly colored. His neighbor was a good dancer, but that made for blurry photos.
And in the end, even the fans are dog-tired.

Yup, that time of year again. The biggest dog shows of the year in the area came to the State Fairgrounds this weekend and of course, I went. It didn't go smoothly - usually I park at the light rail and walk in the back, and I've never been asked for an admission fee. But I knew I was going to have a lot of bones and such forth this time as I was buying for my friends' Dobie Dexter as well as my own pups, so I thought maybe I could park closer if I went in the main lot. WRONG. Turns out they don't charge admission because they charge for parking, and spectators...park in another zip code. First thing in the morning, that wasn't a problem. After the show, when I'm lugging four bags of doggie goodies? Way too far. I am in pain. The feet from walking and the arms from hauling. Sheesh. Back to the light rail for me. But Dexter should be well-stocked, my mutts are well-stocked, I met lots of lovey-doveys and except for the walk back, it was a good day.

Anyway, we're not here for my griping. No, we're here and waiting patiently.
 
( for Dog Photos! )

So yesterday when posting about the State Fair, I was griping about memory cards. The reason being that for the first time ever, I ran out of memory before I ran out of battery in the camera and I forgot to bring an extra card. The reason I needed/wanted another card? Ben & Jerry.

No really, this makes sense.

This is a 3 year old Jersey cow. She had a rough day yesterday.

She was on display at the State Fair because they figured (correctly) that she was going to give birth imminently. What they didn't know was that her calf was going to be a breech birth, or that he wasn't alone. They had to call in a vet, who shoved the baby back into his mama, then grabbed both legs and yanked him out. How rude.
( Babies! )

I must share ( this photographer's work ) with you.

A sample:

The Baltimore Sun is running an amateur photo contest and this is one of this week's submissions. ( Linky to Contest )  I'm considering sending one or two of my dog show photos, but I have to do it tonight, as today's the deadline.

Yep, it's Independence Cluster weekend. I went today and went wild with the camera. For the second show in a row, not very well. I've got this awesome camera which takes incredible pics anywhere but at a dog show. At a dog show, half the pics are out of focus and another quarter are bizarrely tinted. Yes, I did change the setting to 'Dogs & Kids' and I use both hands, but still the blurry. The tinting could probably be fixed by using a flash but that tends to bother the dogs, so I don't use it unless absolutely necessary.

I will probably post some of the better shots from time to time though. They're cute :)

Like this little guy.