Silken Fest 2023

I will start this out by saying that we had a fantastic time in California! And we owe a lot of thanks to everyone in the Silken Windhound Community that work tirelessly to make Silken Fest happen each year. I also want to thank the sweet group of women who were my roomates for the week, Brianna, Kaylie, and Ashley really helped to make the week even more enjoyable.

Wednesday 3/15/23- we began our journey by driving the entire 1,018 miles from our home to our home-away-from-home in California. We started in Wyoming with our high winds (60+mph) and slowly drove west. We encountered rain and snow as we neared the border with Utah and this continued past Salt Lake City. We love springtime in the Rockies. After the rain let up we continued through the Nevada Desert, and on into the Mountains of California where they have received record snowfalls. It was a beautiful Drive, but a long one.

Thursday 3/16/2023- Calcifer and I set up my Art booth at Silkenfest and he participated in SPOT testing, and the health clinic. We watched the Veterans and Puppy sweepstake show, or as I call it the cutest show in the world. We met several wonderful people in the Silken Community. Overall a wonderful day.

Friday 3/17/2023- I donned my green blazer and my shamrocks in honor of St. Patrics day- and Calcifer and I prepared to enter the show ring. First we got to watch round two of the baby puppies- puppy fever is in full swing. When it was our turn Calcifer behaved so nicely and Dr. Carmen Battaglia awarded Calcifer a 2nd in the American Bred class, The dog who won our class was a lovely boy, Whisper. We waited in hopes of an oportunity to compete for Reserve Winners Dog, but Wisper did not take the win. We definitely ended our conformation show on happy note anyway. I am so proud of the lovely dog Calcifer has grown into.

Saturday 3/18/2023- On Saturday we got to watch the girls show, best of breed, and the special classes. Almost the entire Silken community was moved to tears when the BISS was awarded to Pip and her mom Hilary who have moved mountains to battle and defeat Pip's lymphoma in 2022! What an incredible story!

After the show we had the Silken Fest banquet. I won Reese a very nice collar in the silent auction. A nice time was had by all and we had a chance to visit, give our thanks and to see awards given to some very deserving running dogs.

Sunday 3/19/2023- Our final day of Silken Fest was Calcifer's ASFA debut. The weather was dismal (50 degrees with rain and wind) and as a result the trial ran very long. Slow set up, and complications related to the weather made for many starts and stops. Calcifer did not run the full course in either of his runs and scored 101 and 100 for a total of 201. I believe two factors have led to this outcome: first Calcifer has only ever run a practice course that is about 500yds. The full course was around 800yds. And secondly although he has run a figure 8 pattern course he has never had to run past me during the race- he quite both runs shortly after passing me. For the future, I think I will only be entering him in ASFA singles rather than practice runs.

Monday and Tuesday I split our return trip into two legs and we made it home safely Tuesday afternoon. It was a busy week, spent with wonderful people and beautiful dogs. I cannot wait to see many of the same folks or new faces in OKC in July!