a dog, his sticks, high tide and water as still as pebbled glass - retriever heaven
Mama's been toolin' around in the iphoto archives once again, and thinking about my big red boy 'cause every little thing still reminds me of my dog, of that dog - my hero dog, my great big love dog. Jake. A large version of this first photo hangs on my kitchen wall. I made a calender for myself of photos of Jake and this particular photo goes with October - I love the image so much that my calender has been perpetually turned ahead to October, and has been for a very long time. I must get this image framed - it is the ultimate portrait of a retriever in paradise. Wet and dripping, his newly shorn summer I'm always in the water hair cut, happy and satisfied and just waiting patiently ... for that next stick to be launched.
This is, would be, his season - the height of summer and full on Stick Fetchin' in Deep Water Season - his Raison D'etre. My boy was a multi stick fetcher - never one stick would do, always two or three Please, he loved the challenge of gathering them all and bringing them back to me - retrieving - so I might throw them again, Please ?!? Oh and we think about our golden girl Emma Jane Louise too - we miss our pack Miss D and I, we think about Jake & Em everyday.
And speaking of Every Thing Reminds Me of My Dog - thank you to Rachel over at Raenovate who recently purchase our cut paper collage piece for her boyfriend (who also finds that Every little Thing reminds him of their dog) and she's featured my collage on her blog. I think it's so cool that the sweet Noodle dog lives on, hanging matted & framed on walls in homes in other parts of the world, making other people smile and reminding them always that dogs = love.
I love the look on his face in the next photo, the deep concentration and imploring of me Hey ! Are ya gonna throw that again ??
This made me tear up, Susan! Jake's face does say it all, doesn't it? Friendship, love, patience (okay, maybe they aren't all that patience where a stick is concerned!). You reminded me of my first dog, the dog I got when I was a teenager, when I defied my mother and just brought her home: a lovely black lab mutt that I named Cosmo. I STILL miss her. And there was our golden, Halley, that just about raised my kids. Sigh. Maybe I'll have to go through my photos today. :)
ReplyDeleteI wept for all of you this morning, Susan...and for myself, still missing the marvelous, inimitable, irreplaceable Bo..8+ years now gone but still alive in my heart and mind. We were so blessed...if only for a "season" it seemed! Hugs!
ReplyDeletehe's alive and well really..... living on in vivid memory...he'll always be with you Susan.....
ReplyDeleteand look at the size of those "sticks"...more like baseball bats they are!! What a great guy!
I can see why you love him so much. His face is full of love and joy.
ReplyDeleteJake is always smiling....nothing can ever compare to that broad, lazy...sometimes silly smile. If something goes wrong in the life of a golden's "human," he lollops up and says, "Well, what difference does it make? I'm here! Let's go throw sticks!" if you have had a dog like this, you know what I mean. I LOVE him!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are so bang on Martha - where Miss Winnie Dixon although sweet as can be she is often neurotic, worried and fearful (much like her Mama) - Jake on the other hand was the epitome of easy goin', laid back "Hey whatch ya doin'", life's a beach personality. If you believe the theory of matching neurosis attraction he was the canine Yin to my Yang and I loved him with all of my heart. He made me smile - always.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I always say to my human mom "what difference does it make"!
ReplyDeleteTail Wags to All.
~Moose
jake has such a puppy look in these photos since his hair is cut short. how lucky you are to both have lots of photos of him but also a willingness to share all that love with us!!
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing sweeter in the whole wide world than a happy dog. It is impossible to be grumpy with one around. Jake was obviously such a fellow.
ReplyDelete