MY 2ND COMPETITION

Yesterday was a normal flyball day, after lots of great Flyball adventures. Yesterday I showed everyone I can do 8 Overs with single hops in between, that I can catch the ball when the box pops it out, that I can do really good Cross Overs with my friend Connor and that I am trying to be brave when we practise Measuring Stick. But I didn’t want to do Over, Around-Catch-the-Ball and Over because there was a big noisy truck spraying the soccer ground close by and I had to watch that truck very carefully to make sure it didn’t come even closer and hurt anyone (especially me).
It was fun to be at normal training after going to the BoorowaIrishFlyballFling and then to Albury to see Noni. When we first set off for the BoorowaIrishFlyballFling I thought the adventure was to drive for a while, stop and find Flyball friends. We did that 3 times – first we stopped and found Alex with Molly and Connor, and Jenny with Missy. Then next time after driving we stopped and found Linda and Lisa with Pjevs, Susan with Mocha and Chloe, and Sian with Doc. Then we drove and stopped again and found everyone else – Ian and Sandy with Kaos and Rosie, Debbie and John with Maverick, little Connor and Jessie and Larry and Gail with Digger.

They were all together in a kind of park with other people and other dogs and caravans and tents. My mum took me for a long walk with Alex and Molly and Connor and when it got dark all the mums and dads sat in a circle and us kids wrestled in the middle. Pjevs and Chloe do nice wrestling but Doc kept wanting to do something awful to my bottom and I didn’t like it. I had to snap at him to make him stop and Sian told me I was a Good Girl, I was allowed to tell Doc I didn’t like that wrestling.
While we were playing everyone kept talking about a new dog ‘Fabio the most beautiful dog in the Cosmos’. They all laughed and laughed about Fabio and I though he must be a fun dog, I looked around for him everywhere but he was nowhere to be seen. I don’t know why they kept talking about Fabio every time Mocha squeaked his little squeaky bark.
I was sad when my mum put me in my house in the car and drove away. I thought we were going home but instead we went to another place, called a ‘motel’. It was big room with a bed and a table and chairs and a television and a bathroom. At first I was scared but when my mum brought my house into the room I knew we were staying there for a while so I ate my dinner and pretty soon, even though I didn’t want to, I went to sleep.
Very early in the morning we went back to the camping place and then to another place and as soon as we got there I knew this was the proper BoorowaIrishFlyballFling. Our big Sydney Psychos tent was there and our new pool for playing in when we get hot, and there were other teams in their coloured t-shirts and I could see the orange flapping fence that means we have to do ‘Team Ready, Watch The Lights’ inside it.
When my mum said ‘come along Ebbi, let’s go with our team’, I knew we had to walk a long way past a lot of other people and dogs I didn’t know and go inside that orange flapping fence. I was ready to walk down the back and sit and watch my team do ‘Team Ready’ but I saw my mum talking to Ian and she always has some surprises after talking to him. My mum gave me to Lisa and then she went to the end of the hurdles and called me and I ran to her but she took me straight back without saying Good Girl and I realised I had to do Overs like at training. So I did my Overs real fast and my team was happy and then I saw Digger do them too and then we both sat at the end of the ring watching our team racing.
I can’t tell you how many times we did that, just like at HolroydPetFest, except I was with Digger this time instead of Lance. In the middle of the day, we stopped and put on our Indian Feathers. I had been practising Indian Feathers at home, so I wasn’t scared and I didn’t try to eat them like the first time. Everyone in my team put on Indian Feathers and our mums and dads put on new clothes too, with big purple Cowboy hats. The new clothes were for the BoorowaRunningOfTheSheepParade. Everyone was dressed up, but Sydney Psychos were the only Indian Feathers and Cowboys.


Just before the parade started I thought I wanted to run away from the huge noisy truck and the car with wool on it and the noisy motor bikes and the horses and other things I hadn’t seen before. It was too much like the SydneyRoyalEasterShow where everything was terrifying. But I looked at Molly and Connor and they were happy and Pjevs was happy and so I thought I would try it.
It was noisy and hot walking along the street, with millions of people watching us and cheering. They laughed the most when they saw Rosie sitting in a little wagon behind Ian on the bike, and little Connor in his tiny cowboy hat and Missy in her Doggles and Indian Feathers.
At the end of the parade I was glad to jump in our Sydney Psychos pool before going to my house. I wanted to sleep for the rest of the day but there were more Flyball races and my mum kept waking me up to go with my team and do more Overs. In between we had to stand behind Ian and Jennie while they talked to a strange man from the ‘Getaway Show’. His friends had HUGE cameras and they wanted us kids to bark and we were happy to bark for them. (I didn’t look at the cameras too much because I don’t like them).
Boy it’s hard work at competitions. I did everything my mum wanted me to, except for the last time, when she asked me to go Over, Around and Over before the race started. Lisa wasn’t there and I didn’t know the man at the box and I was scared of going Over to him so I ran away instead, right out of the ring. My mum came out too and found me and took me to play in the oval and she wasn’t mad, she told me she knew I was scared of that man and next competition we would make sure there was someone I knew on the box.
She told me that one day I would have my first real race, like Kaos did this time. Ian was over the moon with happiness and kept talking about Kaos getting his first points. I don’t know what that means but it must be good, Ian was so happy.

When the competition was finished we went to sit in the dark like we did at Kioloa. We wrestled a little bit while people talked boring things about ‘who-came-first’. Even Jessie was nice to me while we were sitting in the dark! She used to snap at me all the time but she is nicer now. Maybe she was scared like I used to be? The boring talking made all our mums and dads happy: our team came 2nd and now I have a red medal as well as a green ribbon for coming 1st. Our other Sydney Psychos team came 3rd, and they have medals too.
I had no trouble going to sleep in our motel that night. I was sure we would go home in the morning so you can imagine my surprise when we finally stopped and we were at Noni’s house! I went there at Christmas with my mum and Beazli. This time I was allowed in the house all day, even though it wasn’t the hottest-day-on-record like it was on New Years Day. Maybe it was because I have a red medal.
We stayed at Noni’s house for a week, and every day we went for two long walks as well as going to visit my cousins. This time I got to play with the cousins – they look like little Connor and their house has a big garden like a park and next door there is a big proper park as well. They have squeaky toys and a soccer ball but they can’t play soccer like Molly and big Connor. The cousin called Jasmine chased me a lot and the cousin called Gizmo just looked at me – I think he’s too fat for chasing.
One of the days we went to visit the cousins my mum showed her sister Debbie how to put a stake in the ground with a long rope attached to Gizmo’s harness so that he could run a little bit without being on a lead. My mum told me the cousins are 5 years old and have never been off-the-lead before because Gizmo usually runs away. I played with Jasmine off-the-lead and she didn’t run away, and Gizmo liked the long rope. I knew he would because I used to like the long rope that Ian gave me when I first started learning Flyball.
Maybe next time I visit Noni and my cousins we can all play off-the-lead, without too much running away.
I don’t know what was the best thing about this Flyball adventure, all the things I did, or coming home. Beazli howled and cried and chased me and wrestled and followed me for hours after we got home. I think he missed me! I wonder when the next competition will be?