Dogs are animals of integrity. We have much to learn from them.
Year: 2016
The final set of dog-tired pictures, plus one very special reminder!
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
Huge thanks to Larry and Janell for passing these on to me.
My final picture for today recognises that six years ago this very day Jean and I were married!
Happy Anniversary, my darling!
My mother was a remarkable woman.
Back in North-West London (Preston Road, Wembley) my two sisters, Elizabeth and Eleanor, are today hosting a party to celebrate my mother’s life. Many family members and friends will be at the house.
My contribution was to record a eulogy that I will broadcast to everyone using a ‘FaceTime’ link between here and Alex’s tablet that he will have with him at the party.
I wanted to share that eulogy with all you good people.
Flick!
Just like that!
How is it that I am sitting at a computer keyboard writing these words in this my seventy-second year of my life!
Where did it all go?
What did I learn?
But this is what I do know.
That it is only as we get into our ‘senior’ years that we can start to put our lives into some form of perspective.
When I look back at my life I can see many things that, in hindsight, I didn’t handle all that well. Yet that same backward gaze also reveals many things that I would never have changed.
That is the person that I am.
Or to put it in a more introspective way, that is the person that I was brought up to be. For each and every one of us rises to adulthood wearing a rather colourful psychological overcoat. Our life’s journey hopefully offers us the opportunity to undo our overcoat from time to time and take note of the shape and style of our underclothes.
That is the true legacy of my father, of my step-father and, most importantly, of my mother.
I was very privileged to have them as my guardians and parents.
Mum and Jeannie – photo taken 31st July, 2014 here in Oregon.
Reflections!
This the fourth day since my mother died.
They have been days of a great jumble of emotions.
But the over-riding emotion has been one of feeling very loved and cared for. Not only by Jeannie, of course, and by my son, Alex, and daughter, Maija, but also by so many of you from my Learning from Dogs ‘family’.
A dear friend, Richard, living in England was incredibly supportive. Richard and I go back nearly 40 years to when we first met. We were both selling Commodore computers for our respective companies back in the early 1980’s. (Richard used to be a typewriter salesman for Olivetti UK and I was an ex-IBM Office Products salesman.)
Anyway, Richard pointed me to this beautiful song by Beth Nielsen-Chapman How We Love.
It sums up perfectly what all your ‘Likes’ and responses to my post The End Of An Era meant to me.
Love you all! I will return to daily posts from this Saturday.
I will not forget your kindness when I needed it so much.
In memory of a great woman.
My mother was born on December 10th, 1919
She died a short while ago, at 21:22 GMT/UTC on Monday, November 14th.
That is 9:22 pm British time on the same day as the moon’s closest distance to our Mother Planet since 1948.
Or to find some poetry in the timing of the end of my mother’s life, she died 10 hours to the minute after that closest moment of the moon’s passing, that was at 11:22 British time this morning.
This photograph of the moon was taken last night from here at home in Oregon at a few minutes after 10pm.
My mother was born Elizabeth Foreman and after the death of our father, Frederick Handover, in 1956, she subsequently married Richard Mills.
My sister, Elizabeth, and I were born in 1944 and 1949 respectively. My mother and Richard were parents to our half-sister Eleanor, who was born in 1959.
Our mother was an incredible woman and her death is truly the end of an era for the family.
For the rest of my years, I will look up at the full moon and remember my mother’s amazing life.
Dear people, you will understand why I will be taking a few days away from blogging.
Wonderful reminders of how so many offer so much love to our animals.
On Saturday Jean and I spent the day at PetSmart’s store in Medford, OR., supporting another of their wonderful pet adoption events.
There were many dogs and cats available and even more wonderful people coming to find a new dog or a new cat for their homes (the final figures not available at the time of writing this post).
Yes, there are a great deal of people who are unloving and uncaring towards our beautiful animals. But never let that cloud the fact that there are countless people who will put their love for animals way ahead of their own needs.
So when Marg emailed me a link to a recent story on ABC News not only did I want to share it with you good people but it was the perfect story to follow Saturday’s adoption event. Here it is:
ooOOoo
Before a trip to doggy heaven, 18-year-old whippet Walnut was joined by hundreds of people and their pups for a walk along an English beach.
Walnut’s owner Mark Woods posted details about the dog’s final walk along the beach on Facebook, inviting dog owners to join him on a beach in Newquay, Cornwall to celebrate his pet’s life.
“He has had an incredible life and having reached the grand age of 18 is ready for his final sleep,” Mr Woods wrote.
“I would love it if dog lovers/owners and friends would join us for a celebration of Walnut on his favourite Porth Beach.”
Hundreds of pooches left paw marks on the sand and supporters used the hashtag #WalkWithWalnut on social media to pay tribute to the animal, who also became a media star in his final days.
“If #walkwithwalnut has done something, it’s restored my faith in the compassion of humanity, in a particularly dreary year,” one tweeted.
“Meanwhile, at Porth Beach Newquay, humans demonstrate proper love and solidarity on their #walkwithwalnut and Mark,” tweeted another supporter.
Mr Woods carried Walnut across the beach as his ill health meant he was no longer able to walk.
He told local media Walnut had provided much comfort over the years, seeing him through two marriages and three engagements.
After Walnut was euthanased the evening after the walk, Mr Woods posted a thank you to all who attended.
“Walnut passed away this morning at 11.56am … he went very quickly and in my arms,” Mr Woods wrote on his Facebook page.
“Thank you to the hundreds of people that attended the walk this morning and to all those that had their own walks with their beloved pets around the world.”
The whippet breed originated in England and have an average lifespan of 12 to 15 years.
ooOOoo
There were many videos taken of the walk lots of them being uploaded to YouTube. I chose the following one to share with you. Be warned, this will bring tears to your eyes!
Finally, let me return to the overall theme of today’s post: how much we return the love our dogs give us.
By including the following photograph of this woman, whose name we missed, chatting to Jean at the PetSmart event. Not only had this loving lady taken in many rescue dogs she also fostered other dogs as they awaited their new home. The terrier mix in her arms is her dog and, of course, was one time a homeless dog that she rescued.
Don’t our wonderful pets bring out the best in us!
Learning from Dogs 