So Mel has been trying to run my dogs ever since I broke my knee. He was starting to get them to run for him but then we stopped going to trials and he didn’t work them. It has been almost 4 months since I had surgery to repair my broken knee cap but it is still difficult for me to get around let alone run.

Unfortunately, I had polio in my right leg and broke my left knee cap so I have very little strength at all in either leg. Add to that my significant weight gain since being unable to exercise and I am reduced to a big fat blob who is unable to do much of anything, let alone agility. Just getting out of a chair is a major chore these days.

I watched this past weekend as Mel struggled to get my dogs around a course. Isabella only ran a partial course all weekend and Charisse wandered around like a dog with Alzheimer’s. She had no idea what she was doing or why. It was very hard to watch and the more embarrassed and frustrated Mel felt, the more she wandered. He tried but she is a tricky one to run.

So, after looking at the course map on Sunday, I decided that I could get my slow fat ass around it even with my sore knee and lack of condition.

Before the knee break, even though I was fat, I was in great condition. I could go all day and never tire. Now, I can barely walk from one end of the Global Warmer to the other without having to rest. It really SUCKS to be me right now!

Mel told Uncle Jef that I “hadn’t so much as taken ONE running step since February and now I was planning to run a course!” They laughed at me and Mel worried I would fall and really get hurt (or embarrass him, I am not sure which).

We discussed calling the horse ambulance since they have a hoist to haul in the downed equines that can’t move. There was no way anyone on the grounds was strong enough to haul my fat ass up off the ground! We needed the wench winch!!!

I figured I would go out there and do a few obstacles and leave. I just wanted to make Charisse happy. Mel hovered like a stage mother. Uncle Jef laughed at me and said he couldn’t wait to see what I was going to do and that they would all have to wait until they stopped laughing to call for the ambulance if I went down and others gathered for the freak show about to take place on the course.

I tugged Charisse into the ring. She was a happy girl to be going to the line with her Gramma again (even if I was a mess she didn’t care). I put her in a sit but she was too excited to stay so she got up and shook. I asked her to sit again. She did and I continued my lead out. It was Tire, A-frame, pinwheel (with a tunnel staring them in the face) back left to the dog walk. I thought I would just do those things and leave. HUH! Once I released her, that incredible feeling of agility came back and there was no way I was going to leave that course.

We made it past the tunnel trap and on to the dog walk. Then to a tunnel and back to the weaves, to the chute, over a jump, past another tunnel trap, to a jump with a rear cross to put her into the tunnel, out of the tunnel 180 left over a jump to a tight pinwheel and back to the table. I had made it past the hard spots. I knew I was home free and I couldn’t believe it! I led out from the table to a 180, did a lead out pivot over the first, post turn to the second and on to the teeter. I did a rear cross at the teeter and sent her on to the final jump, a triple.

You would have thought I got a MACH! The cheering was amazing. I got tears. Mel beamed and Uncle Jef smiled and just shook his head. My friends ran over and hugged me. I hugged Charisse.

WOW WHAT A RUSH!

God how I love agility!

So, then I thought, if I could do that, I would try the jumper course. After all, I did have a double Q on the line! Everyone said there was no way I could get around that JWW course. There was a LONG run clear across the entire arena to a 270. They said I would never make it. They said normal people would have a hard time making it. I led out, teasing the judge about making a poor old crippled fat Gramma with a broken knee run that far, stopped and set myself for the release. It was three jumps to a tunnel and back to the weaves. We were cookin! Then a pinwheel to a serpentine and another pinwheel in the other direction then across the entire arena. I sent Charisse out to the pinwheel and I TOOK OFF WALKIN! I walked as fast as I could, I even got in a few running steps! I told her “go on” as she flew past me. She was awesome! She ran by all the trap jumps that were placed on each side and I did a rear cross as she got to the last jump in the line. She turned wide but got the 270 and I took off again for the tunnel at the other end of the ring. She nailed it. Then I tried to post turn while she was in the tunnel and my leg didn’t work! HOLY CRAP! I couldn’t turn!!! I said a naughty word. It slipped out before I could think. Luckily the judge didn’t hear me. I hobbled around and told Charisse to “GO ON!” again. She did. I couldn’t believe it! DOUBLE Q!!!!! I looked up at the clock – 34.36 and the SCT was 43. We were very slow but we still got 8 MACH points. Not bad. Not great but not bad.

Mel hugged me, Uncle Jef high fived me and everyone else just shook their heads. I shook my own head! I couldn’t have written a script as good as this!

It all felt so wonderful. I was on cloud nine. Charisse was a happy girl. We were slow slow slow but who cares!

While I was still enjoying the moment, somebody came over and said, “Do you think she made time in standard?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Of COURSE we made time I thought. Then I started to second guess. It had been so long since I had done agility, perhaps we didn’t make time. We were very slow for sure in both runs. CRAP! Everyone who heard said that we made time for sure and that, even though I was slower than molasses, Charisse was not.

We went back to the motorhome to pack up. Mel went to get stickers. When he came back I asked him what my time was in standard. He said I got 10 MACH points AND a third place! LOLOLOLOLOLOL I guess all the fast dogs crashed.

He went on to say I got 3 MACH in JWW! I said “WHAT????” I knew my time was 34.36! I took my sticker and hobbled off to the score table. They said luckily, the time machine was still on so they could check it. Sure enough, somebody had thought the 4 was a 9 and changed it. They fixed my time and I got my 5 extra MACH points and I was happy once again J!

The surgeon said it would be a year before I could run agiltiy. My knee hurts like hell and my muscles are sore from the little amount of fast walking I did but I couldn’t care less. I’M BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!

God how I missed my big jility and playing with my great girlz.

Helen King

http://www.youtube.com/user/helenmel

www.recipetowin.com

www.jility.com