8 State Hurricane Kate

On September 25^th, Bandit and I hit the road on our way to the Australian Cattle Dog National Specialty in Shartlesville, PA. Chase and Cayenne stayed in Minnesota with our friend Becky. My decision to make the trip came right down to the wire. The day after I entered Bandit in agility, obedience, and cattle herding, he pulled up lame on his back foot. The diagnosis was a soft tissue injury that affected him in full extension, like when jumping. Rats! I had to keep him on leash for a couple of weeks, with no sign of further problems, and hope that he would be ok in time to compete. Then the day before we were to leave, I had problems with my truck. It couldn’t be fixed in time to go, but my dad offered to let me borrow his truck for the trip. I also wrestled with the cost of the trip, considering the price of gas. But I planned to sell books at the ACD Specialty and at book signing events in Pennsylvania and Indiana along the way. $5 per book sold would be donated to the participating animal welfare organizations.

The trip was sort of a vacation for me. I didn’t blog much along the way, but am reconstructing the trip after the fact.