Saturday, January 3, 2009

The new year, and photos

Happy New Year everyone!

Last year was our first full year of competing in agility. Mika and I achieved many things; her very first title (ADC) in June, her AADC and AgNJ titles in October, reaching the Masters level, Mika's huge gain in independency and speed, and defeating her teeter problems once and for all. Last year was a year of huge accomplishments for us as a team, as well as a year full of new beginnings.

This year will be another great year, I'm sure. Mika and I will be competing at the AAC Regionals, maybe get her MADC title, and we *might* try some events
that we've never tried before like Snooker or the new AAC Challenge! Whatever happens, it's sure to be a very fun year for us. And Wall-e will begin his "real" agility training when the agility field opens again in the spring, and maybe run in some fun matches. I'm teaching him a running dog walk using Silvia Trkman's method, so the final result (if I train it right!) should be pretty impressive.

Well anyway, here are some photos I've taken over the past few days:


YES, I've FINALLY taken a half-decent picture of one of my fish! This is Merle, a male 3 year old red tuxedo swordtail. You probably notice all the spots in the photo; those are specks of algae on the wall of the aquarium. I didn't notice until after I'd taken the picture. Still a good picture though, I like it.


This is my 5 year old common plecostomus (a type of small catfish), Speclo or "Spec" for short. It's pretty hard to figure out the gender of plecos, but I've always thought of him as a male. This photo was taken with the flash.


Spec again, this time taken without the flash.




Sniffing.




What a little model. Always posing for the camera!

No Mika photos, none of them turned out very good.

We're going to practice agility tonight at the same place Wall-e has his obedience classes. I'll make the video sometime this month, whenever I find the time.

~Nat

8 comments:

  1. Good luck competing in the new year. I cross my fingers for the best possible results :o)

    Best wishes
    //Bente

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  2. Thanks Bente :) I know Mika will give me her best!

    ~Nat

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  3. A 5 year old FISH! Wow. I didn't know fish lived that long. Nice pictures of them.
    Cadie

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  4. Yep, he's lived a good life! I've actually heard of plecos living 10 years. They have a pretty long lifespan. :)

    ~Nat

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  5. Congrats on a terrific year of accomplishments for you and Mika! Can't wait to see what 2009 has in store, for her and Wall-e.

    Hey, I had a fish like Spec, years and years ago. I too thought of "him" as a he. Named him Angry because, well, he looked angry all the time. He was my favourite fish and lived to 4 or 5 years old.

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  6. Happy New Year! Sounds like you had a great agility year last year - congratulations on that! Good luck in 2009!

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  7. Thanks!

    "Angry," lol! That's hilarious.

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