The Days of Johann, an agility dog!: Introducing Rach, my new little bro!

We have been busy the past few weeks. And here's why!

I now have a new little bro, Rach (named after Sergei Rachmaninoff, to keep the composer theme going, you know :).

Mum saw Rach just after he was born on Facebook on the Eastern Herding Dog Rescue page.

She thought and thought....does she have time for a new puppy just now ('cause they are a huge time suck, you know :). She had just declined getting a new border collie puppy from some folks in Indiana.

But then just the week after she saw Rach, things started to lighten up with work. So she contact them.

The rescue immediately approved Mum as a potential adopter, since they were familiar with my blog. And they put her first on the list for Rach (who was then named Basil).

Then it was time to figure out if Rach was the right fit for our family. We love agility and really want whoever joins our family to like it just as much as we do.

When Rach and the other six siblings were ready for adoption, Mum contacted a friend of hers, Jim Poor of the Dog Sport Photographers, as he lived about an hour from where Rach was being fostered near Richmond, VA.

She asked if he was going to be near there anytime soon, and he said he was the next day! Wow....so Mum asked if he would be interested in evaluating a puppy for us as a potential agility prospect. He said yes right away and even asked if we wanted the Vollard Puppy test completed with him. Sure we said!!

The next day they went to see him for us, and just as Mum's gut had told her, he was amazing. They loved him and thought he would make a great agility dog. Even the foster family who does agility thought he would as well. And being the photographer that he is, Jim took some photos of Rach too (see below)!

So thanks to Jim, the rescue group and the foster family....Mum made the decision to adopt Rach.

Then that's when things got a little complicated. There was no way Mum could drive back and forth 17 total hours in one day to get him. And we need to be here to feed the kitties twice a day (they are 19 and 20 years old now).

So Mum contacted some folks about rescue transport, and after some back and forth found out that rescue groups won't transport dogs that are un-neutered. We didn't know that, did you? And since Mum wants to wait to almost two years to neuter, that wasn't going to work.

Mum thought and thought, and started contacting some friends on Facebook. Were they going to be an agility trial near there? She got some leads but it meant that Rach may have to stay with a family for almost three weeks. Maybe there was a better way? She asked and asked a lot of folks and nothing was working out. She just about gave up when someone told her about a trial in NC. Hmmmm...that's only an hour or so from Richmond, VA, and only about 3 hours from a friend of hers that competes in agility that lives in SC. If we could get him to SC, we could make a trip back and forth in one day and still take care of the kitties.

And guess what, it all worked out very quickly. On July 6th, the rescue group took him to the trial in NC, and then one of our best blogging buddies, Diana, was trialing there and she took him to her house after the trial. Then we met them at her house just about an hour after they arrived on Sunday.

Not only did we get to meet Rach for the first time, but we finally got to meet Diana, and Miley, and Java in person! How fun!

And our best hiking and agility bud, Diane and Rocco, made the trip with us, making it a super fun road trip. We had four dogs and two two-leggers packed into the Rover on the way home and it was fun!

Photo courtesy of The Dog Sports Photographers. This was during Rach's Puppy Test. Find them on Facebook too, Jim takes amazing photos.

Diana had her awesome camera and mad camera skills going before we got there and was ready the minute we arrived. She took these which we cherish so much, as well as the one with Mum and Rach above.