On September 10th a few of the MAINEiacs headed north to Dieppe, NB for the FAME tournament!  Rebeccah, Staci, Lisa, Victoria, Martha and Joey all made the drive!  We were also joined by Dave and Liz from Weston Whirlwinds.  Saturday was not one of our better days of racing for sure.  We had some set backs but we also had some GREAT moments!  Our green dogs were outstanding!!  Flossie and Sammie did a great job!  It was nice to see Flossie having so much fun...even over 14" jumps!  Sammie was so solid I was able to use her as part of the solution for Sunday's racing and she held down a full time spot!!  Sometimes two -1 day tournaments are a total blessing!

Saturday night Acre made his debut in the lanes!  Runbacks on the flat for the tug and he did a great job!  Very proud of my little boy!

Sunday we cleaned up with titles!  Karmela saved the day, went in for Leap and earned her FM, Lucy earned her FDCh-G, Flossie her FDCh, Sammie got her FDCh as well!  We also helped Addie from WW to her FMX!  Congrats to all the title winners.

The MAINEiacs has reservations at the Berry Box II again this trip and it's quite possibly our favorite place to stay!  Thank you Kathy for all of your hospitality and letting the MAINEiacs invade your space!!

Huge thank you's to everyone that helped out over the weekend. Especially Push Play who let us borrow their tennis balls and Cheryl Deacon from FAME for the squishy balls...since I left the ball bucket at the door in MAINE!!

Another Thank You to Cheryl Steadman for my AUSSome Winnie-the-pooh puppy cake!  It was delish and so much fun!!!

The FM/WW team ended up doing well and we had a great time!  Hope we can hit the lanes together again some day!

 A small group of MAINEiacs made the trek to PEI again this year for another amazing weekend!   Lisa, Martha and honorary FMer' Stephanie and I packed up the vehicles and headed north on the 1st. Happy Canada Day!

This year we camped...that's right...happy campers! Thanks to the weather it was a wonderful weekend.  In fact, we plan to camp again next year!  We crashed the sites of FAME for the weekend. Thanks to Lou, Barb, Kathy & Carl for lending us the space.  Fireside chats have a whole new meaning now thanks to FAME. 

Friday was our tourist day and we spent it at Infinite Expressions Tattoo in Charlottetown.  Lisa, Andrea (FAME) Stephanie and I all got new ink!! 

What the Fuzz?! ran in open all weekend.  The team ran very well and although we were out raced a few times we still ran clean and had a great time.  The team line-up was Sally, Dash/Kai, Leap & Lucy.  Zedd from FAME was our back up dog. I had a blast running Sally.  Dash and Kai ran strong all weekend.  Leap was great and played strong right to the end of the day on Sunday.  The star of our show was Lucy!  A green dog coming back from an injury and she rocked it!!  Not only was she amazing in the lanes but she a wonderful pup in the crating area too!  Great job Martha!!!!

What the Fuzz?! placed 3rd both days and we were all very happy with that.  My own personal star of the weekend...KESSIE!  KessieMonster ran with Push Play in Open and was "supposed" to be just a warm up dog.  She was doing so well we, okay Cheryl, decided to put her in.  She was great!  Even quite & focused for a heat or two.  She ended up earning her FD and FDX!

To top off this amazing weekend we stopped in Sussex on the way home for a visit with my new puppy!  He's adorable and I can't wait to bring him home.  So glad Steph and Lisa were there to meet him

It's been 3 months since my last post.  Many things have happened some good and some not.  The delay in posting has been due to one major event so I will briefly tell you about it and move on to the good stuff.  In March I lost my heart dog, Bounce.  It has been one of the hardest things I ever had to deal with and I struggle each day without him.  I can't thank my teammates and flyball friends enough for all of their continuing support.  I couldn't survive this without them.  I miss you to the moon and back, Bounce.

On to the good stuff...

In April the team traveled to one of our favorite tournaments, The MAINE COAST RUNNERS Spring Fling!  The venue is great, hotel is close and we always have a good time.  This year their entry was so big they had to go to a two ring tournament.  My least favorite flyball tournament format. MCR asked if we could co-host and run the second ring.  Since they have done so much for us the team eagerly agreed to help them out.  FM rocked ring one!  I never even had to worry about who was covering the table...they had it totally under control all weekend!

In race 6 our OPEN team, "To the moon" ran a memorial heat for my sweet boy, Bounce.  We ran Layla, (Bounce), Leap and Chance.  Lori from Prepare for Take-off wrote and read a wonderful tribute for him. It was an incredibly hard moment in my life but exactly what I needed to say goodbye to my flyball boy and keep playing this sport that I love.  Thank you to Scott and WMM for allowing to run only 3 dogs that heat. Again, the flyball community is amazing and I thank each and every member of R13 and R10 that has shown me what friendship is all about.

After race 6 FM was back to business.  All of teams ran great! All of our NEWBIES on Open teams were awesome too!  Some had great warm-ups and some ran their first heats.  So good to see the new dogs up and running.  Thank you to White Mountain Mayhem for supplying so many warm-up and part-time spots for us...including KESSIE.  Someday that little screamer is going to run!!!!

We walked away with many titles:
Chance FMX
Lark FMCh
Molly May FMX
Shilo 30 FGDCh
Kaiser FDCh-S
Lucy FDCh
Bodhi FDX
Sammie FD
Flossie FDX

Just a few weeks after Dover a few of us headed North to FAME! We ran an open team with Cheryl and Indi from Push Play!  We had some of our best times ever and ran quite a few times under 20 seconds...which is huge for us! Lisa, Victoria and I made the trip up.  We stayed at the "Berry Box" with Kathy Berry and had a grand time.  We ate well and slept well and it was awesome!!

What the Fuzz?!  Sally, Shilo, Leap/Xena/Karmela, Indi.  We went undefeated all weekend, with a best time of 19.04 and a new FDCh-G title for Leap!  Such a great time in the lanes in R10!

I think that brings us to "now."  Our next tournament will be a small team traveling to PEI in July.  We are also hoping (okay, I'm hoping I can go) to send a team to Foxboro in July.

A small group of MAINEiacs traveled to Fitchburg, MA. this weekend for Weston Whirlwinds Mardi Gras Madness tournament...and it was madness for sure!  Two ring venue's are never a favorite of mine but our dogs took it all in stride. 

What the fuzz? took second place in open division with Bounce, Sassy, Leap & Lucy. Shilo played on Saturday but was not feeling well so Lucy stepped in to save the day!!!  Joey and Lucy did a fantastic job stepping up and running with the big dogs! Sassy and Bounce ran very consistent all weekend and had lots of fun in the lanes!! Congrats on the new FDX title for Lucy!!  Our little Leap also held it together in her first full time spot and earned her FDCH-S title!

Bring it! ran in Open with Sally, Taboo (from Dirty Dogs), Karmela, Bounce and Flossie!  This was a nice little team and I had fun running Bounce with them.  Karmela was awesome and seems to be back on track!  The star of our little team however was not a dog but a handler....WELCOME TO FLYBALL ANDY!!!  Andy got to run Sally all weekend, he did a great job...and he's hooked!!!  Flossie had some really great warm-ups until she decided Mardi Gras was not really her kind of scene.  We'll try again in Dover with Floss with the hopes that she more of Spring Fling kind of girl! Bring it! came home with a second place finish in our open division!

Both teams came home with new TUGGIE awards, ribbons and magnets...not to mention all the goodies from our welcome baskets!  I'm at flyball to play with my dogs and have fun with my friends but I'm not gonna lie...I LOVE FRILLS!!! Weston know how to do frills!!!

Another highlight of the weekend was all the great food!  From the new menu at the hotel restaurant to stopping at Cracker Barrel on the way home. YUM!!!

As always it was great to have our friends from FAME to race with too!!

Big Thanks to Lorraine from CMJ for running Shilo while his could still run.  She did a great job with him and still has her knees intact!!  Thanks to Michelle and Taboo...AKA Bear for running with us in open!!! One more BIG thanks to Anne from CMJ for boxloading for FUZZ!  An excellent job as always!!!

The Flyball MAINEiacs Go Green Dogs tournament was a complete success!  I was unable to do much of anything for set-up on Friday or during the tournament on Saturday. Out of commission with what turned out to be Sciatica.  This awesome team never missed a beat though.  Members jumped in anywhere and everywhere they were needed!!  Huge thanks to Alyson for walking my dogs all day and running Shilo!  Thanks to Alicia and Steph for running Bounce...my little "momma's boy."

The NAFA lights were a disaster but once we got them figured out racing ran smooth for the rest of the day.  All the teams adjusted quickly to the short runback area and aside from so less than perfect starts everyone was very happy with the space.  Cindy did a great job judging with no relief judge in sight!  Thank you to Cindy and WW for being such troopers!!

Thank you MAINEiacs for being such an awesome group of people!  You make me very proud!!