Ontario Regionals (Nepean Equestrian Park)

I'm proud to say that my timing was great this weekend! Not in the rings, of course, but outside them as I wandered from ring to ring to ring to ring to ring to ring (six ring circus) trying to catch as many friends' runs as possible. Got to watch some of my favourite agility dogs in action plus a bunch of other great agility dogs I'd never seen in person before.

All but the littlest, shiveringest dogs seemed to thrive in the cool temps, which would have been perfect for Walter too. Saturday was a cool, breezy 11 degrees for most of the day, "warming" up to a high of 16 in the late afternoon. Sunday was more of the same but with the added bonus of hail and a bout of heavy rain. Doesn't get much cooler than that for this time of year; normal would be a high of 22.

Parts of the site were a bit swampy given all the rain in the last few days, but the rings seemed in good shape. The oodles and oodles of goose poop blanketing everywhere didn't seem to distract the dogs at all.

Brought Walter and his well-wrapped foot for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon to hang out and get used to the site in case he gets a spot in the one-day qualifier in July. Apparently there will be quite a number of people applying for it this year, so no guarantee we'll get a spot, but oh well. I'm sure Walter would be able to get over the disappointment. ;-)


"Ha! All you suckers have to run around and work up a sweat while I can just relax here with my bo-bo and soak in the sympathy. And the sympathy treats." :P


At the top of the bank that overlooks four of the rings.

No Regionals debut for Walter this year

Back in December, I wrote "If all goes well next spring and Walter remains healthy and injury-free, it will be a lot of fun to run him in what would be our first Regionals."

Well, fortunately, Walter has remained healthy, but unfortunately, he hasn't remained injury-free. There were some complications with the healing from his recent lumpectomy, so he's now looking at at least another two or three weeks of recovery time, which means we definitely won't be going to Regionals this year.

Still looking forward to watching friends' runs since Regionals is right here in our hometown.

B is for benign

Great news: Walter's latest lump tested to be benign, though to my surprise this lump wasn't infundibular keratonizing acanthoma which he's had several times including most recently last December. This latest lump was a benign histiocytoma; the lab is confident that the whole lump was removed, so there's no need to go back and take any more out. Phew!

Poor lumpy Walter

Walter developed yet another lump, this one on top of a toe. It grew a lot quicker than lumps he's had before. It was removed today so now he's got a great big bandage on his foot. Looks pretty dramatic but as usual the lump was just sitting under the skin so the only chunk of him that's missing is the lump and some skin, no bone or muscle or anything like that.

Walter is such a good, patient patient. But the poor guy: After having been in twice for two blood draws earlier this week, this morning while waiting in the reception area he dove under the chairs every time a tech came out to bring the next patient in for their appointment. But he's always so good at the vet's, so scared but doesn't put up a fuss, nobly going along with everything they do to him. Quite different from Ms. Lucy, Drama Queen Extraordinaire!

Needless to say I scratched him from all of the agility trials and fun matches he was to be in over the next few weeks. And given the location of the incision which doesn't lend itself to fast healing, there's a good chance he'll need to be scratched from Regionals, last weekend of May. Bummer since it's in town this year so it would have been our first time participating. Disappointing, yes, but it was a stressful week and day not without a few complications and worries so I'm really just so relieved that the lump is gone and Walter can start to heal. There is however a chance they may have to open him up again later on if they didn't get enough of a margin (depending on what the biopsy shows) but they took off as much of the area as they could given the limited amount of skin in that area available for stitching him back up.

Now it's a matter of keeping the wound dry and limiting how much he flexes his foot so we're all camping out in the living room for the next week, sleeping on the floor so there's no jumping on and off couches and beds and going up and down stairs.

One thing's for sure: if by chance he heals up super fast and gets the vet's ok for entering Regionals, he sure won't have been burnt out from too much practicing! Lol.