2018 Summer Highlander Article

What a wonderful summer we are having in the beautiful Pacific Northwest! Luckily the weather was very moderate July 20-22 for our Specialty, but more on that later. Here's what we've been up to since you heard from me last (end of April):

May 26 we had our first (and hopefully not our last) Conformation Workshop and Puppy Party at Hallie Gould and Roland Smith's home in Battle Ground, WA. We had a good group in the Conformation Workshop taught by Bill Monohon and also had a guest participant, a French Bulldog. What a cute little guy, and so brave surrounded by all the Cairns! We all, novice thru well-seasoned, came away with some wonderful "tips and trick" for the conformation ring. Next was an exciting puppy match so we could all use our new skills. Then, once we were tired and hungry, came the Pot Luck Lunch. CRCTC provided the hot dogs, hamburgers and buns, our host, Roland Smith, was the chef of the hour. The rest of the yumminess came from members! I just love, love, love potlucks! Thank you to Ilene Kaplan, Vicki Havlik. A huge thank you to Hallie Gould and Roland Smith for organizing this event. What fun we all learned, ate and had fun. A huge thank you to Hallie Gould and Roland Smith for letting us use their wonderful home and property for this event!

Our Semi-Annual Garage sale was Saturday, June 9. Members, family members and friends cleaned out their garages and closets and came up with some fabulous items to sell. TV, nice BBQs, books, china, sound systems! It was great! This year we had some competition with Portland's famous Rose Festival so not a lot of customers but we always have a great time. The Rose Festival is a 100 year tradition lasts about 10 days and has many activities around the Portland area ending with the Grand Floral Parade that happened to be the same day as our garage sale. Also the weather was Portland-true and we were blessed with a rain/wind squall that Dorothy and Toto would have been thought appropriate and the wicked Witch would be wary of. This fund-raiser is always great fun and we earn some good money. Our thanks to Roland Smith for organizing and Bobbie and Neil Fykerud for the use of their beautiful home as well as all the hard working club members that helped price and sell.

June 16 was our Barn Hunt Practice. This always draws Cairns and other breeds from near and far to hone their Rat skills. Several breeds were represented but not surprisingly, Cairns were in the forefront. We welcome all breeds and about 30 dogs participated in our event, doing several runs each! The weather was really on our side — perfect temps and a breeze to keep us all refreshed! Thanks to Ilene Kaplan (Chair) and Vicki Havlik (Co-Chair) for organizing this fun event and to Hallie Gould and Roland Smith for the use of their lovely home.

The Cairn-i-val (our Specialty) was on Friday, July 20 at the Stumptown cluster in Portland! Our judges were: Specialty: Marly Lucier, Sweepstakes: Pam Nicolai, Obedience: Laurie Beck, Juniors: Caleb Campbell. What a wonderful time we had! Our entries were so great that we had 5 point majors in both dogs and bitches, what a wonderful gift our Cairn friends gave us this year by entering! Our raffle and auction, as usual, had wonderful items including pottery by the talented Debbie Dean of Clay Rabbit Pottery! Thank you to Ilene Kaplan and Vicki Havlik for doing a fantabulous job as Show Chair and Co-Chair of this great specialty. Many more thanks are due to Cindi Marshal, Barb McNamee, Linda Kinney, Peggy Appel, Brad LaBroad, Missy Hanson, Debbie Blanchard, Fran Wright, Betty Hann, Darlene Chester (Obedience Chair) and Dena Wolfe (flowers). There are so many others in our club that work in the background to make this event fun, it truly takes a village! More good news, No dogs were side tracked by the decorations this year  

Saturday, July 21 was the Kidney Ultrasound Screening Hosted by CRCTC at the Expo Center during the Stumptown Cluster all-Breed show. What a steal at $65 per dog, 19 Cairns, 3 Corgis, 1 each English Cocker and Irish Terrier for a total of 24 dogs took advantage of this wonderfully important test. Thank you, again, goes to Ilene for organizing the kidney ultrasound screening.

Saturday, July 28 was our annual Earthdog test where Cairns can be Cairns. Two tests with 32 Entries for the morning test was beyond our expectations, especially in the 95 degree weather! Many Cairns, a Welsh Terrier and some Dachshunds were all present, got a whiff of some rats and barked happily! Thank you to our Judges: Michelle Kutzler, Marie Quarles, Tim Carey and Laurits (Dix) Dixon. Thank you to Darlene Chester (Chair) and Peggy Appel (Secretary) for braving the heat and being patient with those not prepared with their entries. Thank you to Marie and Tom Quarles who, as always, were our host and hostess at their lovely home.

Sunday, July 29 we hosted (2) Farm Dog Certification tests. The limit of entries was 20 per test, we had 17 entries both in the morning and afternoon tests and I believe all passed! With weather topping triple digits we worked hard to get everyone tested and on their merry way home before the worst time of day (heat wise). Our judges for the day: (morning) Laurits (Dix) Dixon and (afternoon) Tom Quarles. Thank you to Ilene Kaplan (Chair) and Vicki Havlik (Secretary) for organizing this event and to Marie and Tom Quarles for the use of their lovely home. This event is very labor intense and these people worked very, very hard.

Looking forward on August 11 will be our annual Toto Trot. We invite Cairns from all over to join us in a walk with our Best Pals to show the world how wonderful they are. This year thanks to Brad LaBroad research skills we will be at a new location, Commonwealth Park in Beaverton, OR! A $20 registration fee will be charged, and all proceeds will go to the Pongo Fund, Oregon's charity fighting animal hunger.

Check out our website for more information on club activities: www.crctc.org