These past few weeks have been so nonstop and exhausting. My weeks have been full of homework, papers, and midterms, and then my weekends would begin bright and early with a drive across Houston to whichever local AKC trial was going on that weekend; WiFi by my side. I ended up taking about 8 months off out of this qualifying year, in part for financial reasons, but also because I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving poor Motion home, sad and alone, with his healing knee. (In truth, he probably would have just slept upside down in his crate as he does, without a care in the world. Still, I could not shake the image of this stealing the light from my poor boy’s eyes.) The fact of the matter was, I did not want to be around agility for quite a long time, and I don’t regret taking the time that I did. Quickly, fall began to pass us by and I realized I would need to make a huge run of trials if there was any way I wanted to head to Tulsa this March. (I did, and I do.) So off we went. I don’t know that this would have been even remotely possible if I had not lucked into this phenomenal new job. Somehow the universe conspired for me so that I now live in a city where there is a local trial nearly every weekend, and I have a job where I primarily work weekend nights. It’s draining, and leaves little time for much else, but I can enter a full weekend trial and never have to ask for a night off work. And so, that’s just what I did for the past month. Amazing how the universe works sometimes.
Against everything; time, money, age, my truck breaking down in the midst of 48 hours of rain (thank you Kara), my little monster did it. I think she knew she would all along. I wasn’t so sure, and she’s probably rolling her eyes at me right now for ever doubting her.
Strange it was, all of those solo trips with my girl. It all felt a bit like we’d traveled back in time, back before Motion brought his light into our lives. One Saturday, as we left the ring, someone stopped us to tell us that our run resembled a beautiful dance, that not a single foot of our six combined was an inch out of place. It’s in those moments that you can feel your teammates heartbeat within your soul. Sometimes it slips my mind, but in these past few weeks I was constantly flooded with fond memories of where we’ve been and what we’ve done together. Her magic is grey in the face, but it still shines ever so brightly; I mustn’t forget. But then, someone at every trial would say “and hey, how’s Motion?” There’s no answer for that. He’s happy, the light is still fully glowing in his eyes. My gut tells me something’s not quite right with his leg, but I have no evidence of that either. Soon, we’ll head up to GCVS for his next checkup, and I’ll update on the matter then. But for now he is playing lots of fetch and occasionally we toy with jump heights and dreams of San Jose.
Until the new qualifying period rolls around and my gut has some better information regarding Motion’s knee, we’ll be on a short agility hiatus to allow more time to finish the semester strong and develop a game plan for what’s to come.
agoodadventure 
Love you sis!
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