Fall Hound Happening 
(abbreviated FHH)

What, you may be asking, is an FHH. 

On October 8, 2000 MAHA hosted a fun day for hounds centered around our second AKC sanctioned "A" conformation match. The day began with an Agility workshop, followed by lunch, then the match, and last but not least, the grand finale, some coursing instinct runs. As you can see by the picture of our MAHA president it was a cold and windy day that took us all by surprise. As you will quickly see if you peruse the photos from the day everyone had a good time despite the cold!

What a great day!!! Thanks to everyone who participated - every single individual at "the event" was crucial, each in their own way, to the success of the day.

HUGE, HUGE, thanks to the Boyds who made the day possible by providing the site. The Town & Country Animal Care Center grounds were a perfect fit for the events of the day. The agility field was terrific, the match
venue lovely (especially the mums that Gail painted blue), and the puppy
coursing run area (formerly agility field) was great. The hit of the day may have been the power to the coffee pot and the heated rest room. It seemed most folks were cooperating and picking up after their dogs and I hope we didn't leave too much of a shambles behind.

Chuck brought the club trailer over Saturday morning and the grounds crew
(Boyds, Rapers, and Brenda) discussed the set up for Sunday. Sunday early
am the grounds crew was joined by Adele who helped with all the set-up
followed closely by Tim and Alisa, Kathy, Karen, Cyndi and crew, and
others. (Apologies to anyone I forget to mention, the brain is still numb as this is being written.)

The coffee was set up first thing - thanks Alisa. Yes, it was COLD!!! And yes, most of us were just a tad shy of dressed warmly enough BUT most folks had a good time anyway. 

The agility worked out perfectly. Many thanks to Cyndi and Adele who
introduced newbies to the joy of agility work with their dogs and to Alisa
and Jenny who manned the table to collect money and see that waivers were
signed. The number of folks who came to train worked out so that no one had to wait to try the equipment and there was plenty of space to work in.
Occasional bursts of out-of-control hounds racing through the agility
course was appropriate for the day.

David went and picked up the Bojangles chicken, biscuits, and some ice tea.
The lunch was the usual satisfying MAHA spread. Alisa made a mountain of
cole slaw, Karen brought pimento cheese and fruit salad, Brenda brought a
sheet cake, and the Rapers provided potato salad, PB & J, bread, saltine
cookies (recipe to run in the next newsletter), and sodas. 

Brenda and Alisa did a great job handing out the plates with chicken and
biscuits so that not too many folks took advantage of MAHA's generosity by
partaking in the meal without being entitled to. It looked like a
tremendous amount of Bojangles food but by the end of the day all that was
left was about 8 pieces of chicken and no biscuits or ice tea. All the sweets were gone and everything else pretty well decimated. 

The match went well. Thanks to Karen for proof reading the catalog. Bev  helped hand out armbands before judging began.  David served as ring
steward and did a superb job while I ran around with the digital camera
taking pictures. The spectators huddled under blankets but very little
complaining was heard. The word camaraderie comes to mind.

The match concluded a little after 4:30 and the drag line coursing worked
out well for the short sprints (although not so short for the Dachshunds).
It looks like we will have some keen coursing dogs to look forward to seeing at our coursing trials.

Exhausting but very satisfying well describes the day for me.

Again, THANKS to everyone,

Ellen