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| I bet you'd rescue him too! More about Trigger/Maxi in a few minutes. |
Rescue Dogs
For today's post, I thought I'd show you some pictures of real dogs in my life, almost all of them rescues.Pax was our first dog. My husband was a dog person; I wasn't, until Pax converted me.
Sorry the photo is grainy. It's a poor scan done years ago of an old album photo. This is Pax with my oldest daughter, now an adult, on the beach near Gibson's Landing, British Columbia. Pax was one of the sweetest dogs that ever lived. I have a vivid memory of my daughter pulling a bone out of her mouth, playing with it, and giving it back. Lovely gentle Pax!
This is Joey. He was advertised as a cocker/poodle mix at the pet store (I didn't know any better at the time). By now I was a single parent and Pax was living with my ex. I figured my daughter, who was 7, could have a dog, and when she went off to university, he'd be old and die and I wouldn't be burdened with a dog. Ha Ha. The joke was entirely on me. Joey turned out to be pure hell-on-wheels terrier, and he lived to the ripe old age of 18 years! Joey was the role model for Trigger in Who Is Candid?—a pint-sized escape artist with a Napoleon personality!
Once I moved from Canada to Alabama, the dogs started accumulating, all rescues! BTW despite having broken his back (it healed), Joey was still going strong! Our first rescue dog in Alabama was Soos, plucked from the side of a rural highway as a baby bundle of red fur!
Soos grew into a gorgeous, large Chow mix. She was the best dog and the best mama ever! She was impregnated very young on New Years Eve when we were camping out at a creek. Oops. Her five pups all found homes with family and friends. Jessie, the runt of the litter, is my daughter's dog, and has lived happily ever after in Alabama, Florida, New York City, and now Chicago! Soos died in her sleep of old age last year, having lived the ideal dog's life, hugely loved and with 100 acres of beautiful Alabama countryside to roam.
Fast forward several years and as many as nine dogs at a time (we did have 100 acres). Trust me, they were all spayed and neutered as young as was safe! The one who is still with me, having stuck by my side through twelve years in five states and two countries, is my beloved Gemma.
She's getting old now, aren't we all?, but is as gentle and loving and gorgeous as always! She's also been an excellent guard dog, and still loves to sit by the glass door and bark at passersby. I wrote a poem about rescuing her from the side of a highway in Alabama. My response to 9/11 was an overwhelming urge to rescue dogs. The poem appears in my second book of poems, Equivocal Blessings, and was anthologized in Whatever Remembers Us: an anthology of Alabama poetry. You can read it here, if you'd like.
The newest addition to our household is Maximilian, Maxi for short. He was rescued from the streets of Colima, Mexico, where I live, by a neighbor. The photo at the top of the post was my first look at him, by the side of her house.
Maxi is ten pounds of photogenic adorableness who has won over Gemma's and my hearts. He came to us skin and bones and scared, and in two weeks has been neutered, plumped up, and loved to bits.
He started with us as a foster, and even had an prospective dad-in-waiting, but when I saw how much Gemma loved him, I couldn't give him up! Maxi has brought new life to what will probably be her last few months. My gratitude and love for them both is unbounded!
These are a few of the fabulous dogs I've shared my life with. I can't wait to hear your stories about the dogs in your life! Please share photos too in the comments! Let's have a dogfest!!
And don't forget to download Who Is Candid? tomorrow when it's FREE! Woohoo! You can continue to follow Lucy's story here on the blog, with photos and personal anecdotes from stops along the way.
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