Thursday, April 2, 2009

I thought I had more.........

.........crates!

When I met Lynn Stoltzman she had TWO dogs and had a garage literally piled high on one side with all kinds of crates...soft sided, wire, plastic, metal, small, big, short, long. I couldn't believe she needed so many crates!

Fast forward over four years and you will see my dilemma. I swear I buy two crates every time I am at Fleet Farm. I figured I had 20 crates. Surely that is enough? I don't have 20. I have 13. Two are Mitchams, one is at the FMKC Canine Academy and that leaves me with 10 crates. 10 crates for 6 dogs to travel to Topeka and back. So 6 crates for the grooming area. Check. FOUR crates for the hotel? I'm borrowing a crate from my sister too so I have 5 in the hotel. Ell and Zoe can sleep together....well...they won't be IN the crates very long and they will be sleeping on the bed with me, but STILL? I've never take ALL my corgis to something. Granted St Paul in Jauary I had Mitcham instead of Sadie, but still...I need more crates! Maybe some will have to stay in the grooming area.....

Most of the shows or trials I have gone to typically require only two crates for the back of the car, two for the hotel, two for the grooming area. And I don't trust the soft sided crates at all after watching a Brussels Griffon use his like a hamster ball.....so I have the metal collapsible crates that are wonderful for stacking, but a pain to carry around (hence the purchase of a cart a year ago). I just can't believe I don't have enough crates! What is wrong with me?! I figured I had plenty of crates for at home, the car, the Canine Academy, the expedition and the hotel.

What brought this all on? Well I have NATIONAL fever :) JoAnne has been packed for what seems like weeks so I figured I would pack the crates, the dolly, the chairs, the table and my suitcase and show clothes (it is only 9 days away until I leave) and leave my grooming supplies and totes packed for the most part and ready to pack onto the cargo carrier right before I leave. I better pack and be ready because something could happen in the mean time and I could not have time and then be rushed to leave and be late for something. Heaven forbid I'm late!

Maybe they have a fleet farm along the way I can get a few more crates LOL.....

5 comments:

penni said...

I swear that if you leave all your crates together in a nice quiet place, they will procreate -- then you'll have plenty of crates.

coopercreek said...

It's almost a requirement to have 3crates per dog. One for the car, one for the hotel and one for the show site. So for 2 dogs I own 7 crates. Still not enough. I keep 2 strapped in my van for the dogs to travel in, and 2 in the van under the platform for show sites, and 3 at the house for the dogs to use. (I have my son's dog, too).

I found a couple on Craig's List. One was $12 and one was $20. I like to find them on there cause it's so much cheaper. I used the wire fold down ones like you do.

Sarah said...

Garrett, how about Xpens with lids? That's my new favorite, and it's easier to toss in a few Cardigans and they have some space to move around. :-) I know what you mean, though. I had all these crates with my rescue, but somehow, I think I never replaced them when I sent a crate home with a dog!

solstice kennels said...

Say it with me "Hi, my name is Garrett and I'm a crateaholic" I have a ton of crates and I still not have enough. My other issue is that 1/2 of them are giant crates for the GSPs that I have only one of so not the 400 and 500 crates are the kennel sleeping crates and I now need more Cardi crates.

Qwaynt said...

Have fun at the national Garrett I hope Sadie Q's in all he agility runs

A long time coming!

 It has been a long time. Too long in fact. We lost access to our farm website and ebonwald website when WEBS.COM was closed by VistaPrint. ...