Panda Does A Michael Phelps: Swims Great AND WINS BIG

That little black bundle of energy, cuteness and correctness, "Panda" (Ebbtide Your Wish Is My Command) wowed them in College Station, Texas today! Team Ebbtide -Texas Coordinator, Cathy Franklin, called ASAP after the Winners Bitch class at the New Hope ASCA show : Ms. Panda did, indeed, win First Place in a stellar 12-18 Months class, and then waltzed out of Winners Bitch with either a 4 or 5 point Major! The Coordinator wasn't sure of the exact number of points -she has now been schooled on such important matters. Incredibly talented owner/trainer/Senior Handler Nancy Pantusa showed those Junior Handlers how it's done and trotted Miss P again to a BEST OF WINNERS award in the Best of Breed class. Yee haw! Panda is a member of the WISH Litter, by CH Tri-Ivory Make A Big Wish and out of CH. Ebbtide Fern. Again, we weren't sure how many points Panda earned today, but they assure me it was 4 or 5 points. I'm still waiting for the exact number, Cathy & Nancy... and the Win Photo!

Update: Nancy says it was a 5 Point Major !!!!

In lieu of that, I offer the most recent photos of Panda and her Team, that I have:

In this photo, above, left to right: Trish, Panda, Cathy, Flirt. Not sure what they did with Nancy - oh, I remember: Nancy and I were off on a plant hunt at this incredible nursery http://www.wildseedfarms.com/ on our first leg of the Awesome Texas Vacation. Trish, Cathy & Susan (the photographer) were a bit bored and took photos while the gardeners in the group ooohed and ahhhed at plants. Back to Panda: Isn't she just beautiful? And her BFF, Flirt, who is also an Honorary Ebbtide dog. We love you, Flirty.

Once we arrived at The Ranch (look for a future blog about this), Panda, Nancy and I strolled down to Ebbtide Creek:

Nancy snapping off the leash at the creek. FYI: It was soda in the cup.

First Panda got her feet wet...

Then, below, she's doing the famous Fern-Bubble-Blowing-In-Water Trick (I didn't know that was an inherited trait):

Then she just went for a swim. Nancy says this was the first time she'd ever been in water:


Below: Panda NOT drowning (relax, Nancy):

Then she went back up to the creekbed where she decided to submerge her head:

THEN she decided to submerge her entire BODY! That black spot in the water, lower right, just above the rock wall, is Panda:

Turns out, she was rolling under water, in algae. Nice, Panda.

When she came up, she looked like this:

Here's hoping Nancy and Cathy send today's win photo soon, so we can see a pretty Panda!

A HUGE congrats to Nancy, Panda and many thanks to Cathy, Team Ebbtide Assistant #5 !