November 15, 1999

I've lost my voice due to a cold/cough that I've been packing around for a few days. So, I'm going to have to get my 'talking fix' in by updating my journal today!! I don't know what I'm going to do if the phone rings. I hope it doesn't last long, as I'm scheduled to do 5 or 6 school talks over this Thursday and Friday. I'd hate to have to cancel.

Other then the cold, everything is going well. We did a 43.5 mile run on Friday, 20 miles on Saturday and then Sunday spend the day doing health checks and vaccinating the 'A' team for kennel cough. For our health checks we bring the dog into our well lit garage weigh them, check their feet, teeth, gums, ears, look for harness rubs, etc, etc.. Of course, we do check them every time we are putting them away after a run, but it's a good idea to get a really good look at them up on a table every now and then too! Just for interests sake, I thought I'd give you some weights on the dogs. Our smallest dog is Joey, who weighs in at 38.5 lbs. On the other end of the scale is Mork, at a whopping 65 lbs. Average weight on the 'A' team is 49lbs.

I spent some time at the vet's again yesterday. Striker has been coughing for almost a month. We had tried some antibiotics, but they didn't help, so we had him put under so Dr. Jackson could take a good look down his throat. Turns out he has tonsillitis. So he is on a different antibiotic. I hope this clears it up quick. His attitude has not been affected by his cough and he is not at all happy with not being allowed to run!

I almost forgot to tell you about 'Take Out' :) On our Saturday run Mark discovered an abandon little grey and white kitten on the side of the road. It was meowing it's head off and Mark flatly refused to leave it there. It was quite the trick trying to keep 2 - 12 dog teams under control while trying to grab a half wild kitten. But we accomplished it! I will long hold the memory of Mark's team moving down the road in front of me with a kitten perched on his shoulder (the kitten kept crawling out of his jacket, climbing up his shoulder and attempting to leap off the moving quad). So 'Take Out' now joins 'Grisle' and 'Kibble' as the resident yard cats!

Well, I'm going to go drink another gallon of orange juice and see if all that vitamin C helps me shake off this nasty bug!