Summary of 2012, and planning for 2013

My last post was in September? Well then!

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! :)

It's been quite a while...a LONG while! I've been incredibly busy because of school, so I've only just now found the time to blog.

Quite a few things have happened this year. I'll start off with the most major event.

On November 14, Mika underwent surgery to have a mast cell tumor removed from the back of her left hind leg. She also had a lymph node and a chunk of muscle removed from that leg in order to make sure that all the cancer cells were taken out. The tumor was biopsied and found to be a Grade II tumor (there are 3 grades). Our vet says Mika has a great diagnosis, though, because all of the cancerous tissue was removed, and there were no cancer cells found in either the lymph node or the muscle. Mika's doing great now, and only has a scar (and a bit of a different shape to the back of her leg, due to the removed muscle) to show for her surgery!

Our vet found cataracts on Wall-e's right eye on November 22. She's not 100% certain of the diagnosis, since she doesn't specialize in eyes, but she's almost certain. They're too small to be removed right now, and they aren't affecting his vision, so we're going to keep an eye on them (pun not intended, ahaha!), and in May we'll bring him in again to get his eyes re-examined.

On a non-health related note, Wall-e got his first three titles this year. In CKC, he got his Ag.N.J. (Agility Novice Jumper) on July 15, and both his ADC (Agility Dog of Canada) and SGDC (Starters Games Dog of Canada) on July 28.

Mika didn't trial very much this year, but we had a great year together nonetheless in terms of running together as a team.

As for 2013, here are some things I have in mind:

- trying out a new indoor venue in February
- for Mika, focusing on Steeplechase and Masters Jumpers (her favourite classes) and Starters Snooker (we haven't Q'd in this yet, even though we've gotten really close!), with some Masters Gamblers mixed in (I find that running in Gamblers keeps me motivated to maintain my dogs' distance skills)
- focusing on Masters Jumpers for Wall-e (he hasn't tried it yet), but running in the rest of the classes as well
- most importantly, enjoying our time together! I've reached the point where honestly, if I stopped trialing, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Simply spending time with my dogs has become more precious because of two reasons: less time with them than I used to have, and the realization that neither of my dogs are young anymore. Trials are only a small part of making the most of my dogs' lives.