What are you looking at? You don't look so great wet either.

You smell like wet human. I hate that smell and I am downwind.  - Madi

When I get this freakin' cone and cast off, mark my words, I am gonna bite your ass for this. HARD.

Shanti Baby. Can chew up her cast but can't reach her chew bone.

I so sad. I cannot drink dis water. The ice cubes have melted.

Someone please call the dog police.  And hurry. - Maisy Moo, a bit perplexed by the luke warm water

Yes, I have a new cast on and that is why I cannot drive.

But it doesn't stop me from hogging the driver's seat - like ever.  - Shanti Baby

I look good. Like Black and Yellow, Black and Yellow. 

Mom! You're finally home. You have been gone for weeks and we are starving.

What??  You just went to the store and came right back? Well, it's not like any of us wears a watch... - Sam, Buddy and Maisy.

(Shanti is not in the pic because she didn't care that I had left)

Live more as dogs do- playful and no grudges. Be happy with each day.

Remember
Inspired by Theo Dorgan's poem "The Angel of Days"

And what did you do on earth?
I descended daily into the hush - if only for a moment,
but sometimes for blessed hours at a time.
I followed the shimmering threads which lured me
into the night, full of wonder at all that was unfolding.
I opened myself wide to gratitude,
to the delight that there was anything at all,
much less pink-petaled peonies
and generous handfuls of red berries,
the incredible sweetness of things,
or the way dawn and dusk could reveal
my own new thresholds,
how a walk by the sea can change
everything,
and that I could be so well loved, and love in return,
that I could dance on earth's forest floor
and say "yes" to life from the belly of sorrow.

And what was the best of it?
I was saved by beauty again and again,
the golden glimmer of sunlight
across wet pavement revealing a luminous world,
and the stone ruins of churches and monasteries,
with their arches of ancient longing holding
ten thousand prayers, ten thousand paths to hope.

And what would you have changed?
Only perhaps to have worried less about what might come,
which never did
in exactly the way I imagined.
And to spend less time in front of screens,
offering more of myself to the elements of wind and rain and mud,
to roll with playful abandon in the wet grass, the way dogs do.

And what will you do now?
I will reach across the veil and whisper the word
"remember" to anyone who will listen.

© Christine Valters Paintner

(More) Ghost Images of Sam....

Here is a picture of a human and Shanti. Just as I snap, you will see a ghost image of Sam, creeping into yet another one of many pictures. He haunts many of my good shots of other dogs, people, events. Brown hazy images make it into many of my shots.

Here is a self portrait and you can see the ghostly image of Sam standing in the background....

He is everywhere, always watching us. Spooky.

I was hugging a new hound mix rescue named Hank and wanted a good picture of him for adoption.  As you will see if you look closely... Sam's ass made it into the picture.  Yep, that's his nubbin.