mistressofmuses | Entries tagged with fastcat

Despite it still being pretty cold, Alex took Bella to another FastCAT today! This will probably be the last one of the year; I don't think there are any others scheduled, though it's always possible that something will pop up.

This was a different organization hosting, and Alex didn't share any complaints about the organization today, so I'm guessing it all went more smoothly. He did say that they'd cleared all the snow off the course, though the grass was wet.

And she did so good! :D

Still hasn't quite broken the 10 seconds like I hope she someday will, but that's a great pair of times to close out the year on.

I thought Bella looked quite smug in this picture, but according to Alex, she was actually flailing and whining, because she wanted to go again, haha.

He also said their timing was good, because the wind picked up and it started spitting rain just as they were leaving.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: my apartment

The beaft.

Yesterday, Alex took Bella to a FastCAT. It was hosted by the same organization he prefers. (The events are generally hosted by a particular kennel club, but there are bigger organizations that also help to run them. "Harmony Dog Sports" does a bunch of the ones in our region, and Alex likes them. They tend to be friendly and helpful.)

It... sounds like this one was a shitshow from start to finish. The usual woman who directs it wasn't there, and it seemed the people who were kind of floundered.

He said that it took forever to get checked in, because people kept just walking up to the table and ignoring the big long line of people waiting, and the hosts didn't ever tell them to stop.

Then there was a group of people with five dogs, who all wanted to do "fun runs." (These runs don't get times recorded for the dogs' records, but are just for fun/practice.) But those are supposed to be held when the paid entrants are either done, or when there's a serious lull in the day. Instead, for some reason, they kept cutting to the front of the enormously long line with their whole pack of dogs.

Finally! It was Bella's turn!

Alex had gone down to "catch" her at the end of the run, with one of the organization volunteers releasing her at the start line. First, the guy releasing her let her go before Alex was inside the catch box, but Bella ran anyway, so it was fine.

And Alex was thrilled! It was definitely one of her fastest runs, and Alex said he'd be willing to bet she was under 10 seconds (which has been the thing I've really hoped for her to manage!)

...Oops, the timer malfunctioned. Oh well!

Oh well, she can go run again.

*Sigh.* Yes, she *can* run again, but now she's tired after having just done one, and she already has a second one that she's supposed to do. The dogs are limited to only two runs a day *because* it can be so exhausting... They'll let her have a re-do and still do her second official run, but that does mean she's doing three runs on the day. :/

She repeated her run, but Alex said she was visibly a bit tired, and it came in just over 11 seconds.

The line to get the second run in was super long, so Alex waited for a while, letting Bella get some water and a snack. The event was extremely busy and absolutely packed.

Finally she goes to do the second run, and the volunteer releasing her did a great job hyping her up in line! The second run comes in at 10.82 seconds. Neither score is terrible, but it's frustrating that she had a much better one - that may well have been a personal best for her - and she doesn't get credit for it due to the malfunction. I didn't see her run, obviously, but Alex is usually pretty good at guessing how fast they are, so if he says he thinks it might have been under 10, I believe him.

So Alex goes to get her ribbons... and the attendant says he can't find her first run's score. (Alex said he was just about ready to cry at that point, ha.)

...They did eventually find it. They wrote "Pit Bull" as her breed, but... FastCAT is an AKC event, and the AKC does not recognize pit bulls as a breed. Bella has to run as an "All American Dog," which is basically their no-breed "pet" registry. So, not mad that they recognize what she is, but... not sure why they wrote a category that does not exist per the organization.

Alex was then trying to go get the second score, and again with just tons of people cutting in front of him in line. (He was trying to leave enough room between her and any of the other dogs in the tent; a bunch of wound-up dogs in a confined area can go bad if any of them get upset about personal space, but people just kept crowding in in front of him.) He ended up getting so frustrated that he left without picking up her second score. It should still be recorded for her, it's just our sticker for the ribbon that he didn't get. I wrote the time down on a sticker later so that we have it, but still annoying.

That second one should be the "10.82" score.

Ugh. What a mess. I'm less sad than usual about missing her events.

We thought this would be the last one of 2025, but a different organization has one for December 6th. Still a weekend, so I still can't go, but maybe they'll have another shot before the end of the year.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Bella got to go to another FastCAT today!

(I was at work... had to go in early, with the understanding that someone would come in and cover the second part of the day so I could leave early. She did come in... and then said she had to leave early to take her fiance to the airport. *sigh* So I had a long day, having to go in early and stay late. But theoretically I get to leave early tomorrow! Still, would rather have been at FastCAT, ha.)

Beaft.

Look how good she did!

Neither is her fastest time, but this is the first time that both her runs have been under 11 seconds. Yay, Bella!

(Both pictures are from Alex.)

Alex said he might take her back on Sunday to run again, just to take advantage of the opportunities before it gets too cold. I think there are usually still some events being held over the winter, but if it's too cold, no one wants to stand around waiting to run, haha.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

(Bella's silly face from a few days ago.)

Today, Alex took Bella to another FastCAT! (I so wish that they were ever held on days that I have off, but they almost never are.)

She did well! Apparently on the first run she slowed down midway because she was distracted by the mid-field judge, ha.

I still hope for her to someday break 10 seconds, but the 10-12 second timeframe seems to be about her "normal."

She has another next Friday, so we'll see how that one goes, too.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Alex took Bella to another FastCAT today. :) Today was much cooler, only around 60°, though it was relatively humid.

She did great, but Alex said she was very tired after.

Her times were very good!

I think these are the best combined times she's ever had; the 10+ second one isn't her fastest, but most of the time if she has one run in that range, the other one is more like 13 or 14 seconds, so having the second one be 11+ is very good for her! (I still hope that someday she breaks 10 seconds, ha. Though I remember when I wasn't sure if she'd ever be faster than about a 15, lol.)

Immediate nap in the car.

AC still not fixed, but yesterday they did come by and were able to acknowledge that yes, it's not working, actually! They were supposed to come fix it today, but came by while Alex was gone. They left a note asking us to clean up the stuff stored along the same wall as the AC, and then they'll come replace the unit on Monday, so I'm guessing they were unable to fix the current one.

That "third party" maintenance triage company we have to use is 100% AI. Alex looked the company up, and they're based in India, providing solely "AI-powered" responses. Hence it being utterly useless, I suppose.

I was wrong about the name of the AI bot that's supposed to be "helping" us with rent reminders. It's "Westley," not "Ryan," but the point remains. "Westley" sent Alex yet another, different amount for the rent owed this month. When Alex again asked for clarification, "Westley" confirmed the lowest, new amount. We joked that maybe if we just keep delaying, it'll drop down to nothing.

The bot eventually said that we were given a $100 discount for a single month because we just signed a new 12-month lease, but they never mentioned that to us before or during or after the lease signing, and the physical bill was the old amount. And anyway, the newest number "Westley" gave us is close, but still about $20 off from the previous "discounted" amount "he" quoted us. Like, I wouldn't turn down a discount for a month, I'd love a free $100, but... wtf.

I've been fighting off some kind of crud for a couple days now. Woke up with a sore throat yesterday and started feeling worse (though still mildly) throughout the day. Today felt about the same as yesterday, so at least it's not getting steeply worse! Unfortunately I've got at least one coworker with covid, and multiple coworkers with allegedly non-covid crud. Trying my best to avoid it and lysol everything at every chance I get.

Slept a bit extra yesterday, and while I'm going to try and get some more stuff done tonight, it's possible I'll lose this evening to a nap again, ha.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

The whole dog show up in Greeley, where Bella ran a FastCAT on Thursday, ran from Thursday through the weekend.

Since she'd had a chance to rest for a couple of days, Alex decided to take her back today.

She did it!

Her first time was really good. Her second one wasn't great, but Alex said she was slowing down at the end of it. It was a hot day again, so not terribly surprising. He said they had some kiddie pools set up on the "go" line for the dogs to cool off in, but even so.

She was certainly completely full of energy again by the time I got home from work, lol.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Bella had a FastCAT today!

It was up in Greeley. Apparently there's a very big weekend dog... event going on. There were also in-hand conformation classes, and some agility courses, and things like that.

These pictures are from Alex:

She got her ribbons for her Trick Dog and her Canine Good Citizen from last week. ^^

Not her best times ever, but not terrible either. The 13+ second one was her first run. According to Alex, she really kicked into a higher gear about halfway through the second run; he thinks if she'd been at that speed for the whole run, she likely would have broken 10 seconds! 11+ is still pretty okay.

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I've got so much to catch up on, but I'm struggling! I had three nights of not enough sleep. Sunday to Monday and Monday to Tuesday I was over at my mom and Taylor's on the tiny loveseat, getting up early once the cat was ready for breakfast (or wanted 3am pets). I felt pretty okay, and we went on a pretty good hike on Tuesday... but then Tuesday to Wednesday was also short on sleep, as I went to breakfast with my dad on Wednesday morning before work.

It was all good stuff that I was really glad to get to do... but it wiped me out worse than I expected. I fell asleep for what I hoped would be a 45 minute power nap around 7:30 last night and slept until 10:00.

I had many intentions toward at least starting the catch up process tonight, but I'm afraid it's going to be another nap night, whether I want to be or not...

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: my apartment

On Monday, we took Bella to a FastCAT competition. It's rare for them to be on anything other than a weekend, so it was nice to get to go for a change! This is only the second time I've been able to go with her.

Alex let her go at the start of the run, and I caught her at the end. The first run felt really slow, but was actually a better time than I'd expected. The second one was a fairly decent time, though she'd started to slow down a little bit by the end.

It's Bella!

I was using the selfie camera to try and get a better pic of Bella in the car, but then we took an actual selfie. Sort of, haha. Me, Bella, and Alex. I am not actually choking her.

Five more pictures:

This event was at the Adams County fairgrounds, which had a nice little pond to look out on.

Pelican attaaaaack! (Half-flying across the pond to check out whether some people might feed it.)

Bella's times weren't amazing, but were respectable! Not her best times, but it wasn't *that* long ago that I didn't expect she'd ever get times like these, ha. (They accidentally wrote "2" on her first run tag, but the top one was run #1.)

Little Bella no-ears.

Too Many Pelicans.

After the FastCAT, we were reluctant to head straight back home. We ended up heading out east toward the plains a bit, just to kind of take a drive and see if there was anything interesting. We were hopeful maybe some dramatic thunderstorms might come up, but those didn't happen until later in the evening.

We did stop at a rest stop for a while, and I got to see a bunch of great-tailed grackles, which are quite different than the usual common grackles we get. They're much bigger!

Looking up through the branches of a tree, lots of grackle nests!

We also saw turkeys! And a hawk swoop down and come up carrying a snake, which was pretty impressive. (Sadly, no pictures.)

It was a nice drive, even though we didn't actually get any exciting weather.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Bella had another FastCAT today, this time sponsored by the Keeshond club. (As usual, I would rather have been there than at work. There is one in early June I get to go to, though!)

Her scores today... weren't great. Her first time was okay, 11.49. Her second one was pretty bad, 19.12. Apparently she got distracted at the start, and didn't actually start to run for several seconds, heh. Alex said the wait for both runs was pretty long, so she started to lose a little bit of her hype.

But she accumulated enough points to get her BCAT, which is the first title for doing the event! (Each run gets points, faster runs getting more points. The BCAT title means she got 150 points total in the event. The intermediate is the DCAT, at 500 points, and the highest level is the FCAT, at 1000 points.)

So here she is with her big fancy ribbon!

I also had her pose with her ribbons at home this evening:

A noble sport-beaft.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: my apartment

Back on Sunday, right after Alex got back from Kansas, he took Bella to another FastCAT competition. I wish they weren't always on weekends - I'd rather be doing that than work!

Second run was a new personal best! (I do not know why they're labeled 3 and 4; it's a max of two per day.)

And then she took a nap.

Alex bought a few prints from the photographer at her previous FastCAT at the end of February:

3 more pictures of the pictures from last time:

Running!

Tongue flailing!

So intense!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Today is Alex's birthday! :D

Unfortunately, I woke up with a sore throat, so I do not seem to have actually dodged the crud going around the office, despite my hopes.

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Last Friday Bella had another FastCAT. Alex was surprised to realize this was only her fourth.

(Photo from Alex.) Oh look, it's Bella.

Bella's times at the FastCAT! 10.76 seconds is her current best!

Her second time was slower, which we chalked up to lower endurance after a mostly sedentary winter.

...until later that afternoon after she'd taken a nap, and when she got up she didn't want to put weight on one of her back legs. She could walk on it, just very gimpy. I took a look when I got home, and it looked like it was just some muscle swelling. She probably pulled something during one of the runs, but was still so hyped she wasn't showing it. I was worried that she'd really be struggling on Saturday, since it seemed to stiffen up whenever she was laying down, then slowly improve when she moved around on it... but on Saturday she was absolutely fine, and barely even a little hitchy. So that was a relief!

( Five more pictures of four pets: )

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: my apartment

After the last FastCAT competition we went to in Estes Park, we'd checked for any other upcoming events, but there wasn't anything until February.

Last Saturday, Alex checked again just in case, to discover there was one that was reasonably close... that weekend. Finding out on Saturday meant it was too late for that day, but they were also running on Sunday. I had to work, but Alex could take her!

This one was presented by the Irish Wolfhound club!

The huntmaster from the one in Estes volunteered to release Bella so that Alex could catch her at the finish line.

Pictured after her two runs, apparently wanting to go again!

Her first competition each of her runs was over 30 seconds. Her second event, the one I got to go to, her first run was over 30, but her second was less than half that at 14.21, and I was very proud!

And how did she do this time?

SHE DID SO GOOD!

11.84 and 10.80 seconds!

She really seems to "get it" now, and that was way faster than I expected! I'm so impressed!

-

And speaking of FastCATs, I never got around to posting her professional pictures from the one in Estes. They had a photographer down past the finish line who photographed the dogs, and then you can buy copies if you want. We bought a couple, just because it was nice to have shots of her running. :)

Liftoff!

On the hunt!

Such intensity for the lure!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

Today we went up to Estes Park so that Bella could compete in a FastCAT competition. (Hosted by the Husky Kennel Club.)

FastCAT is the AKC's "Coursing Ability Test", where the dogs run 100 yards after a lure. One person lets them go at the start line, and someone else catches them at the finish line.

She went to one up in Cheyenne with Alex a couple months ago, but I was at work. Her times were... not amazing, haha. Her first run was 29.99 seconds, and her second was 35.69 seconds. Oof. She had been really distracted, and while Alex was there to catch her, a stranger was releasing her to run. (Which was helpful! But he didn't really psych her up or anything.)

So today, since it's a sometimes holiday for some people, they had a Monday competition! Which meant I could go!

Estes is lovely anyway, so that'll get its own pictures and post, but this one is just for the competition.

Bella did two runs today, and got her participation ribbons. :)

Here she is!

Her first run... wasn't great. They *very kindly* allowed her to restart, because the first time Alex let her go, she just sat down and looked up at him, like "aren't you coming?"

She did run after they let her restart, but stopped about halfway down the course to check out the van parked over on the other side. (I'm not sure what the people over there were doing, but it was something with the event, so they were there on official business.) We did get Bella to start running again, but her first time was 31.69.

(Everyone was very nice about her terrible time. [For comparison, the good scores are closer to the 8-10 second range, lmao. The best of the best are under that.] Everyone kept saying "Don't worry, she'll get it! She'll learn how it works!" and giving her little "Aw, Bella, you tried!" pep talks.)

We did her second run a little later, and while she did slow down in the middle (she may have been getting tired), she didn't stop and she did pick it back up when I kept calling for her. Her time on the second run was 14.21 seconds, which is certainly not *amazing* but I am *delighted* by for her! I know she could get a faster time, but I'm really happy with it, and it was definitely her best run, and the closest she's come to "getting it" in terms of what to do.

Her times on her ribbons!

( Three more pictures below the cut: )

Which is really all to lead up to the single best picture I have ever taken of Bella. I'm fairly sure it is the best picture that ever will be taken of Bella.

It captures her so well!

She often looks so noble. This is certainly a better representation of her inner dog.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: my apartment

On Sunday, Alex took Bella to her first FastCAT competition. (CAT stands for Coursing Ability Test, not anything to do with cats, lol.) It's basically having your dog run as fast as possible for 100 yards. Since Bella loves running and chasing, it seemed like something she'd enjoy doing.

She... was not very good at it, lol. Sounds like she was mostly just distracted, in part because they had a technical difficulty right at the start of her first run, which delayed her for a few minutes, and by the time she could go, she was more excited to play with the person who was releasing her at the start line. (Alex was at the finish line.)

But she got participation ribbons, lol. (Picture from Alex.)

Bella continues to enjoy wildlife rehab shows. She was very charmed by a seal! (And Cy as a pillow.)

Summer "Berry Mad" Refresher, having had a nice caterpillar from my mom's garden. She is quite round.

I wanted a picture of Cy with his current favorite toy (a crinkly rainbow bagel). The way he was gnawing on it made his head look weirdly shaped, lol.