Tally-Ho!

Kev and I are both competitive people. He was always active in sports, even now as a referee. I danced competitively through college. Whether it was scoring the highest in the classroom or on the field, we both are type A personalities and we like to win. Maybe that's why our friends don't invite us to watch their kids play Little League. Well, there was this one incident when we did heckle the opposing t-ball team and might have embarrassed a few parents, but the kid was hogging the ball from the other players and he wasn't as good as he thought he was. Needless to say, when I decided to take the girls to our first lure coursing event Kev had to remind me to check myself before putting the racing jacket on either of our two children.

Roxy was a great racer. Seka, not so much. So naturally I thought that Roxy would take to lure coursing like a duck to water. Unfortunately, Roxy would rather make her rounds through all the spectators and get lovin' than chase any plastic bunnies. Roxy in fact showed the world that not all greyhounds like the lure and laid down on top of it to make it stop moving. When I attempted to slip her and encouraged her to chase the three white plastic bags attached to the pulley system, she ran back to the ex-pen and waited on me to let her in. So it seems that Roxy prefers to be an "athletic supporter." At least for now.

Surprisingly enough it was Seka who ran the course like a pro. After her practice run on the long 930 yard course on Saturday afternoon they allowed me to change out Roxy's entry on Sunday and put Seka in her place. The Sunday course was shorter, only 640 yards, but the turns were much harder and I thought that she would absolutely have a hard time with it. But as long as she came back in one piece, I didn't care. She had so much fun on Saturday, how could I not let her do it?

But she proved me wrong, and had little trouble with the course. Making the turns beautifully. Keeping her eye on the lure in front of her. Running as fast as she could go, but not so fast that she couldn't maintain control. It was truly amazing to see her perform. Breathtaking, as my girlfriend Patti describes it. In that moment you suddenly realize that you love an elite athlete and you're so proud of what he/she can do. They're not performing for you out there. They're not chasing those silly plastic bags because you told them to. They're running because they love it.



So, Seka came home with a blue ribbon on Sunday after scoring 310 cumulative points (156 in her first run and 154 in her second). The video posted is of her afternoon run. Oh, did I forget to mention that 31o was a tie for the highest score of the day! (And yes, there were more than two dogs running.) Is that my type-A, competitive personality creeping in? Or just a really proud mom? I can't quite decide. I've not started smack talking or thinking of any heckling that applies to lure coursing yet, so I think I'm doing pretty good.

But it's official, we've got the bug - our next lure coursing event is May 3! Let the training commence. (Insert Rocky Theme here)