After planning for nearly a full year the Jersey Rag Racers put on the WRA and NOTRA National race meets the last weekend in September, including a conformation fun match on Friday. I got to be in charge of the match and after all was said and done we had 100 dogs go into the ring to be judged! That's larger than a lot of regional specialty shows and it was daunting - most definately not a one person task and I never could have done it by myself, but thankfully Dr. Lisa Costello, DVM took care of the trophies and I had several stewards to assist in getting all the participants into the ring at the right time. We started at about noon and finished up just as it was getting dark at about 7:30 that evening. WOW.

Saturday morning roll call for the WRA (straight track) meet began at 5:30am - in the dark! We actually had to wait until it got light to start the racing. I think we ran about 118 dogs which is probably a record. I had Aren and Marseille entered and Aren finished 94th and Marseille finished 112th and got the "Reserve Turtle" award for being the next to last dog to finish all the races. A great awards banquet on Saturday evening and LOADS of great ribbons and trophies.

Sunday morning roll call for the NOTRA (oval track) meet started again at 5:30am in the dark. I entered Derby & Kira in this event and out of the 107 dogs that ran, Derby finished #56th which I thought was pretty darned good! Kira finished 103rd and was the only dog to finish all the races with a zero score for the day, so she got the Turtle award and lots of great loot, including a commerative blanket embroidered with the event and the date and everything. I had both Kira and Marseille's pictures taken but I haven't gotten them yet. Kira was cold and I don't know if we even got a picture of her that is worth looking at. The awards were again fantastic and Kira got a really big ribbon for being the Turtle.

By the time I got everything packed up into the van on Sunday evening it was nearly 10:00pm when I left the site and after midnight before I got home. It took me most of the week to recover and to catch up on my sleep a little bit, but such is the life of us poor working stiffs! I certainly had a good time and was happy to be involved.

~~Joanne