It's been a year, and I still miss her so much. She was everything a Shepherd should be, balanced in mind and body. OFA excellent, too. She loved to show, she loved to work - everyone there was clapping and oohing and ahhing for her. She would hit that ring like a house on fire; and throw her legs out and grin. She loved it. When they tell you, "Show dogs show because they love to show off..." if she could drive, that would have been her bumper sticker.
I thought of her today, at work. One of my customers walked in and asked for nail polish for dogs. I laughed and said I just used to use mine on my Shepherd, no issues. Ali was sitting there one day watching me paint my nails at the kitchen table, and I said, "Put your paw up, I'll paint yours." (I was kidding.)
Darn if she didn't put her paw on my knee and wait there as I painted every nail. Then the other paw, and when we went in to class that night, she was busy handing her paw to everyone she met just so they could admire her toenails. No lie. My trainer just stood there and eyed us and said, "Wait, is she wearing nail polish? Wait, do you have matching nail polish, hahah! What did you two do, girls night out?"
I said, "Yeah, we sat up all night, watched movies, and talked about boys."
After that, the minute I would sit down with a bottle of nail polish, there she was, waiting her turn.
She was a great dog. I think all my show dogs will compare to her. If one of them has a quarter of her attitude, I'm good to go.
On a totally unrelated note, they had a live chicken on Good Eats. Simon took one look at that and went running at the TV, staring at it. He's still confused, and I think he's trying to herd that chicken back out of the TV and into the pen where it belongs.
