Hi

I know it has been much too long, but in all honesty you cannot even start to imagine how busy our lives have been in recent weeks. It honestly does not take a rocket scientist to work out that mum had something special planned for us. And today it was here – the day we left to go to the Agility World Championships. Oh boy! What excitement.  That this is all very special was not hard to guess. Mum was so nervous for the last 2 days like I don’t think I have ever seen her.

Really she shouldn’t have worried. When travelling with me live is a breeze.

We went to the airport. Chippy and I were wearing our South Africa harnesses which of course are very special and look stunning on both me and even Chippy. This was of course old pie for Chippy and me, as we had flown to Port Elisabeth only a few months ago and knew what to expect – well we mostly knew. It turns out this time we weren’t allowed to be in one box together. That is fine by me, but I think Chippy got quite upset to be alone in his box.  Anyway, I’ll talk about that a little later. When we arrived at the airport, our other team mates were already there. At least part of our Team mates were there. Mum says the Large dogs, that would be the Border Collies Chad, Chase, Ostara, Freya and Ziljian had left on Wednesday already. That left the “a Team” of Ricki, Vibe, Emma our Team mate and Dylan to go with us. I don’t really socialise with them, and I had to show Dylan some teeth when she came over and wanted to be all friendly. She had stayed with us during WODAC and obviously thought she had a right to come into my space .... Don’t know what she was thinking. Anyway, it was obvious that everyone was just waiting for me to arrive. As soon as mum was ready to check in the lady at the First class counter waved us over – mum seemed very pleased with that. I am not sure why, but we were originally queueing for economy class.  Anyway, the lady was very nice and let mum’s heavy suitcase go through. Mum said it was just so heavy because of all the stuff she had to pack for us – Yeah, of course ..... she tells a lot of fibs my mum does.

After paying for us mum took us outside to stretch our legs a bit (mum said it cost an arm and a leg, but when she came back she still had 2 arms and 2 legs, so I am not sure who’s arm and leg she used to pay with). All the dogs were there, but now they kept a bit more to themselves. I think everyone was busy trying to calm their owners down – it was all very tense. They shouldn’t have worried, after all they had me there. Gail gave each of us a good luck charm which mum put onto our jackets. It blends in with the South Africa colours and looks very cute. When it was time we went back upstairs. Poor dad was there watching our empty crates ... I am not sure why anybody would have wanted to take the empty crates, but then you never know of course. A nice gentleman from ACSA (that is the airport company) came over. I did think he was looking for me, but it turns out he wanted to speak to Gail. Gail is Rikki’s mum and she did a great job arranging everything for our flight. Lufthansa must have heard that I was flying with them, because they sent a lady to meet and escort us through the security and passport control part and then walk with us through the whole airport to the boarding gate. You should have seen the commotion we caused – 6 dogs and their crates and their somewhat hysterical owners and all the airport staff traipsing through the International airport. Mum was very surprised. We were escorted through the” Special” section at security. Mum said she had never been through there. Apparently only very VIP people go through that part ... well OF COURSE only VIP go through there – she was travelling with me, was she not? They even got someone to push the trolley with our crates for her and all the dogs could walk with our owners through security. It was all quite a commotion with all the crates having to be checked, because of course they made a noise when going through security and all the humans having to unpack half their hand luggage for all the laptops and cell phones and whatever to be taken out to show. Anyway, eventually we were through. From there to passport control. They never asked for our papers – I have no idea why that was. They only wanted to see mum’s papers. I hope she has all her papers in order, because she just seems to have one little book. Chippy and I on the other hand each have a whole folder of papers. Imagine if we have to send mum back when we get to Austria, because she hasn’t got the right papers ... that would be terrible. Anyway, the paperwork seemed to have been OK at that point and when everyone was finally through (of course there we also went through the “Special” counter, you didn’t have to even ask) we had to get into the crates and were pushed to the boarding gate with mum walking next to us. I had a really good spot, because my crate was stacked on top of Chippy’s so I could see everything really well. You should have seen all the fans along the corridors. There was hardly anybody who didn’t stop and look at me (and the others I suppose, but I was in front, so they could see me the best). At the boarding gate we were kept separate from everybody right at the front. It was quite nice. Mum cheated a bit and opened the doors for us. So even though we were still inside the crates we didn’t feel so locked up. Time was moving on, and just as well, as mum got more and more emotional, and about an hour before take-off we had to get back into our boxes and were taken to the plane. Mum couldn’t come with us, but she could board the plane first, even before the business and first class people .... she says it really pays to travel with me.

So now we are on route to Austria to the World Championships. We had lots of fun in the past 2 weeks. We met twice a week with Gail and Ricki and one or 2 Border Collies to practise on some Astroturf. It was fun and different to what we normally do. The people there were very impressed with us. They normally play soccer on the Astroturf and didn’t know about Agility, but after seeing me they wanted to know if they could teach that to their dogs. I thought mum was being very diplomatic when she said that any healthy dog can do Agility. On the other hand I suppose she is right, any dog can do it, it just takes a phenomenal dog like me to excel at it and look so good.

We also practised a lot at home – much more than we normally do. Mum says she doesn’t want to have a bad conscience when we leave. I am not sure what she means by that, and I hope she now hasn’t got a bad conscience.

I am curious to see how the World Champs are. Mum says all the very best dogs in the World will be there to compete. She says there are dogs who are even better than Whisky! Phew, good thing we did some extra training!

Mum promised that I will be able to post frequently while we are travelling. In the meantime, please keep your fingers and paws crossed for us, you know what Agility is like, no matter how good you are you always need that bit of luck as well.

Love you all

Lollie