OH $hit! She is turning it on!!!!

I'm so proud of my little girl!!!!! It has been a long journey, and there have been a lot of ups and downs, but it's on now! Sayda weighed in at 607 grams when I decided to go fly today. When she caught and carried the starling, she was at 587 grams (so quite a bit more than then), but she was bating and talkin like crazy, so I decided we needed to fly. Headed right across the river first, but we just didn't find any pigeon slips....TONS of starlings, but no pigs. Headed out to west Tulsa around where the dumpsite is and what not, and again....no pigs...just starlings. Found a NICE slip on three crows, but they where mixed in with the starlings, and i just didn't want to take it. Continued on, and we headed down the access road that runs along 44. Tons of pigeons up on the wire by "the pigeon spot", but none where on the ground. Lindz needed to leave for work at 3:30 PM, so around 3:10 or so, I gave up and decided to give her a bagger. Did great on that, but I only gave her half a starling breast on the lure, and then hopped her up for a leg. We where heading back toward the high way (which passes by the pigeon spot), and guess what???? Yup...ten of them where pecking around on the ground. As we where approaching, another five or so flew down, and Sayda started bating like CRAZY. I was like...what the heck....so I decided to fly them. Incase you don't rememeber the setup, I will refresh your memory. There is a building whose parking lot is sorta dug into the side of a hill....it has concrete walls surrounding it. Anyways, the access road to this building runs just to the left of the top of the wall, and the spot that the pigeons are always at is hidden from view when you start driving down the road. Sayda had seen them going down though(plus we have done this slip before), so she new EXACTLY where she was going. Slipped her out of the window, and she cruised in low, and then dipped hard below the wall. The pigs saw her coming when she crested the wall, and all scattered up into the air. Sayda had gone below the wall (so I couldn't see where she was), and then she came shootin STRAIGHT up into the air underneith the group of pigeons. She flew up between 10 and 15 feet into the air, shot her feet out, and slammed the pigeon from underneith...they cartwheeled through the air, and came to rest on the ground. I lept from the car, and jumped down from the top of the wall into the parking lot. They where fighting it out on the ground, and then I see her shoot a foot out and secure it's head. I get about five yards from her, when out of no where, a cat comes shooting out of a bush STRAIGHT for Sayda. I'm thinkin there is about to be a dead cat if I get there quick enough, but the cat closed the distance quicker than I did. I'm yelling and waving, and the cat hesitated JUST for a second. That was all Sayda needed, b/c she released the pigeon, flipped around, and shot a foot out and grabbed the cats nose. It wasn't a committed grab...she just footed it, but that (combined with my arrival) was enough to send that pussy runnin! Sayda flips back around, and starts looking around everywhere in the pile of feathers (I guess she was thinkin this bird would be attached to a string like the others, and it SHOULD still be there....nope!). It was pretty funny...you could pretty much see the wheels spinning in her head like WTF?!?!?!?!? I know I just had that pigeon right here.....all that's left is a pile of feathers.....where did it go???? She footed around the feathers for a good minute or two, before she gave up, and hopped to the fist for a nice reward. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO....I'm gonna count it. I wasn't going to at first....but I'm going to. She earned it. She caught it IN the air, brought it down, and had it under control....there was no way she would have lost it had the cat not tried to jump her, and had I somehow made it to her quicker....it would have been in the bag.....I'm counting it....talk noise if you want, but I'm counting it! So recap...first slip last time...caught a starling. First slip today...caught a pigeon! The ball is finally roling! Didn't feed her too much, so as long as it's not too crazy windy tommorow, I'm going car hawking with Jeff in the morning. Fingers crossed we will catch another one!