2009 Review: Kim

My goals for 2009 with Kim were:

• Kim to win out of Grade 4 (not on points)
• Kim to get her Agility Warrant Silver award
• Kim to win out of either Novice Jumping or Novice Agility under the BAA
• Kim to get her 15,000pts (Gold Award) in BFA Flyball

I thought the Silver Warrant and the Gold Award were out of reach, but I proved me half wrong. We got our Silver Agility Warrant, and Kim won out of Grade 4 in February. We are still some way off our BFA Gold, and we never made it out of Novice. We were starting to hit our stride when she began having acupuncture treatment for a tight lumbar muscle, and then she had a lump removed from her back. Things ground to a halt for a while.

Somewhere along that road, she lost her love for agility. She still got plenty of top-3 places in Grade 5, had a couple of good runs, but the crazy unpredicatable Kim disappeared. She plugged on for a while longer, I worried endlessly, and then I cried the day she said she didn’t want to do it anymore, which sounds a little bit like something died. It didn’t, but the nature of agility flipped right over, and these days agility is always on her terms these days and not ‘ours’. We’re calling it semi-retirement right now, because at special shows Kim does come out to play. I think her next one will be Newton Heath, at Myserscough in February. And then maybe Waldridge Fell in May – I’d like her to run with Cat in Juniors, I think she’d enjoy that. She’s always liked running for other people, they give her the love she thinks she deserves (are you up for that, Cat?!)

Flyball though is still very much on both our terms; Kim is running just over 5s Singles times, she’s relishing the occasional opportunities to race in higher teams, and breezing through the days when we’re in the low divisions. We play games, see how close we can push our changeovers before getting a light, seeing how tight we can turn around on the line when we do (I shouldn’t admit that as I know my team captain Katie will read this and be horrified!). Kim and I always have a blast at flyball, and she can still teach those baby dogs a thing or two.

She is happy and healthy; her heart murmur has gotten no worse, we’ve worked through the lumbar problems, there are no more lumps to scare me. She isn’t quite an old lady yet, but she’s nearer old lady than anything else, and she’s getting grumpier with everyone else and more affectionate with me.

So. Just one goal now, for 2010. We won’t achieve it in 2010, unless something crazy occurs, so it can just rollover and over, our one last thing. Once we reach this, we’ll call it a day; no more goals, nothing but running for running’s sake, and only on the days when Kim says that’s ok.

• Kim to get her 20,000pts (Ice Blue Moon Award) in BFA Flyball