Monday, August 30, 2010

My Dad's photograph and My latest dog connections

  My dad won a blue ribbon at the Sherman County Fair.  No, it wasn't a picture of me.  Here it is.  My mom used it in her Story Sparks newsletter (you can sign up at www.jkbooks.com) too but that was before we knew it had won the blue ribbon.  My dad's a modest guy and didn't want my mom to bother entering it.  But see, it's a perfect shot with those clouds and the harvested wheat field and windmills.  The area in the front is called a scab patch.  It can't be farmed but let me tell you, it harbors great things like pheasants and little lizards and mice and all kinds of intriguing things.
    My mom left me at home for a week with my dad while she had book signings and events on the Oregon Coast.  That was kind of hard, to see her drive off with Caesar and not me.  But my dad's back was hurting him so I kept him company at home.
    One of the places my mom stayed on the coast was near Tillamook on the Trask River.  One of the first books my mom read when she knew she was moving to Oregon from Wisconsin umpteen years ago was a historical novel called Trask.  So she thought it was fun to see where that story was set.  She stayed with a writer and artist friend who had two dogs, too. Molly and Hobi.  My mom thought Hobi was a great name as she had already had a dog in her work in progress (that what she calls a book she's writing) named Hobi but she spelled it Ho-Bee instead.  Here's Hobi's picture.  Maybe one day I'll get to meet her.  Molly wasn't interest in a portrait shot. Both dogs are rescue dogs which I think is a wonderful thing.  Not that they had to BE rescued but that there are people willing to be kind and patient and let the bad things that happened to them go away.  My mom says memories aren't meant to hold us hostage but to transform us in the present.  I like that and I'm real glad she knows people who take in rescue dogs.  Maybe one day she'll take on in, too.
       And how can I forget to introduce you to Jasmine.  She's a Samoyed who belongs to my mom and dad's faux niece and nephew.  They call them faux because they're not really their niece and nephew but Cindi's mom and dad are like my dad's brother and sister-in-law and Carol is one of my mom's best friends.  Cindi and Joe live in Redmond.  It's hard to believe, but I outweigh Jasmine by about 30 pounds.  She's all hair!  But like me, she easily accommodates, and is submissive.  Who needs a fight?  No shots of me in this one but Caesar is looking good!  You can just see the edge of Joe in the corner.  They're good guys and I loved the chipmunks in their yard!  Jasmine has to be "furminated" every now and then because she has so much hair and and Cindi says the groomer comes out wearing goggles and coveralls, like something from ET because of all that wonderful hair.  I don't shed but Caesar does.  It's good that we're all different, isn't it?
    
     That's my latest dog update.  Remember, it's a dog's world, really.  Life is good.  I hope yours is too.  Woof!  Woof!