Sam's last road trip

Sam's last road trip, originally uploaded by Maureen Shaughnessy

March 1989 - May 2009
his spirit has gone to the Light ...



Sam went with us to the high desert in Utah last week ... we knew he was very close to dying yet we could not bear to leave him, so we took him to see our teacher, Brant Secunda, one last time. Brant gave Sam a blessing on Wednesday at midnight.

Sam's spirit left his body at 10:00 Thursday morning. As he breathed his last breaths, I lay on the floor next to Sam, my face just inches away from his eyes: he looked at me til the very end. Tim had his hand on Sam's heart and we both told him over and over that it was okay to leave ... that he had been the best pup ever and that we loved him more than anything.

the last thing he knew was the sound of our voices and the touch of our hands stroking his head, gently scratching behind his good ear and touching his heart.

Sam died peacefully and naturally
surrounded by our love...

I miss him so much. My heart has a hole now. Yet I know he is in a good place.

I took this last photo of Sam sleeping on the back seat of our car on the way down to Zion, Utah. His face was so white!


Go to the Light, Sam, go to the Light like an arrow

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I will write more later when I can.

Walking in Gold: Finding Healing in Nature

Yesterday, Sam and I took a hike through the Montana gold -- that ecstatic autumn aliveness when aspens turn and skies stay clear blue even as temperatures drop below 50F and there is new snow on the peaks.

We walked along a meditative runnel through aspen and chokecherry groves, marsh grass and spent wild iris seedheads. The sage pumped it's heady volatile oils into the breeze. Rabbitbrush brightened the dry, grassy hills with pillows of yellow-white, backlit seeds.

We found "our" redtail tree -- an ancient aspen tucked into the creek bottom where a pair of hawks raise their brood each spring on an ever-expanding platform of twigs and limbs.

I half expected to find a redtail feather gift, under the abandoned nest. No such luck. But I did have the luck of a whole hour lying on the gold with my companion and best friend ... Sam taking in all the sights and smells of grove-wetland-autumn-turning. And me, absorbing healing rays of sunlight and marveling at the trembling frame of sky leaves above me.



Sam is going to be 20 in March '09. He is really slowing down lately. We think it might be canine Cognitive Dysfunction. He has most of the signs now. There are times when he walks into the kitchen or my office and just stands there looking a little lost, as if he is thinking, "Now, what did I come in here for?"

Routines are much more important to him than ever -- yet he often refuses to sleep on either of his two comfortable beds -- he prefers to squeeze himself into small complicated places like under our kitchen table between all of the chair legs. If breakfast is delayed, or I don't take him for his morning walk right away, he may stand in one place for an hour -- literally -- just staring, waiting for the expected promise to come true.

Sam sleeps alot, like most elderly dogs.
An hour for each year of life - 20 hours a day.
The remaining 4 hours are divided like so:

• 1 hour walking slowly, rationing his pee so he can leave as many business cards around the neighborhood as possible.
• 1 hour lying with chin on floor watching me without moving anything but his eyes
• 1/2 hour sitting on the front or back porch watching the world go by, smelling its' enticing fragrances and savoring the breezes in his coat. Sometimes this involves staring at one or more deer as they wipe out our vegetable harvest. It would be too much trouble to get up and bark or chase. heh.
• 1/2 hour pacing
• 1/2 hour either waiting for his meals while panting (I often can't tell if the panting is from enthusiasm or anxiety) or working on a cooking pan or mixing bowl project (meaning, licking it clean of all molecules of taste/smell)
• 1/2 hour lying next to me on the bed in the morning. This is coffee-newspaper-cuddling time for Sam and me after Tim gets up. :-)

Twice a month we have a slight change in the routine: those are the days we mix up his homemade raw food in a huge bread bowl. Sam knows when I get out the cuisinart and cover every inch of counter top in our tiny kitchen with vegetables and nuts, that eventually he will get to lick that bowl. Yummmm. He watches me the entire time I'm cutting, chopping, stirring and scooping. This is doggie heaven! (do you remember getting to lick the cookie dough out of the mixing bowl when you were little?) It's like that.

His coat is shiny and smooth. His zest for life seems strong. His breath stinks and that ear infection still gives him trouble. He has more cysts and lumps and warts as time goes by. But overall Sam is still chugging away happily. His vet said yesterday that when Sam makes it to next March, she will be having a champagne party for him at the clinic. He will be there for the toasts to a very very old gent.

~~

My head knows Sam is not really immortal.
But my heart wonders ...

~~

Sam is beside himself while waiting to lick the bowl

Today is the day Maureen makes my Healthwise Homemade Raw Food Cakes and I know the routine. It's just excruciating to wait!

When I smell the chicken broth and rice cooking -- yummmm, slurp, drool) and Maureen gets out the cuisinart and a big pile of veggies and the big, big bowl ... then I know pretty soon I get to lick the bowl. And the peanut butter jar. And the poached egg pan.

You might think I'm more handsome and distinguished this way ...

Links:
Maureen's Recipe for Sam's Healthwise Raw Food Cakes
About Sam's Dog Food
Pet Food Recall

Worried about Pet Food? Make Your Own!

Recent news of a recall of major cat and dog food brands made me even more appreciative of the benefits of preparing a homemade raw-food diet for our 18 year old retriever, Sam. If you read the list of brands being recalled, you might wonder if there is any commercially available food for your beloved pets. I bet there will be a run on raw meat, eggs and oatmeal over the next few weeks!

Now I worry about the millions of cats and dogs in families across Canada and the USA, who have been fed the commercial pet foods that were recalled this week. Some pets have died of kidney failure after eating food made by some of the major brands.

Menu Foods, the Ontario, Canada-based company that produced the pet food, said Saturday it was recalling dog food sold throughout North America under 48 brands and cat food sold under 40 brands including Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba. The food was distributed by major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Kroger and Safeway.

The company said it makes pet food for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.

Our cat Sadie, died in late January after an acute and very sudden kidney failure. She lived at Tim's woodworking shop -- and was loved by everyone who came in contact with her. We nursed Sadie for a week and finally had to make the decision to euthanize her when it became clear she would not recover. It was really sad -- and we were left wondering how the kidney disease could come on so fast! Now we are suspicious that the food Tim was feeding Sadie, Special Kitty Meat Pouches, was the cause of her sudden disease. Special Kitty is on the list of Cat Food Brands being Recalled this week.

Unfortunately we haven't come up with a recipe for raw cat food that our other cat, Baggins, will eat. He's pretty picky. My mom feeds her cats exclusively a raw food diet that she purchases from my sister, Dr. Moira Drosdevech, a holistic veterinarian in Kelowna, BC. I may just have to redouble my efforts to concoct something Baggins will eat. I don't want him to suffer the same illness Sadie had.

Many of my readers are familiar with my frequent posts about Sam -- our flatcoated retriever who, at 18 years old, has outlived all the other flatcoats I know. We have been feeding Sam variations of a homemade diet for many years. Currently he gets 100% homemade diet. Sam relishes his "Healthwise Raw Food Cakes," and I'm convinced that this homemade organic diet is largely responsible for his longevity.

We were amazed when Sam turned 16 a couple of years ago .... now that he is 18 years old, we consider him kindof a "miracle dog."

Awhile back, I wrote a blog post about homemade dog food, including a list of ingredients I use for Sam's Healthwise Raw Food Cakes. That post also had other notes and recipes for homemade dog treats. Over the years, I have refined my dog food recipe and recorded the amounts I use so I could share it with my readers. The dog and cat food recall has motivated me to write out my recipe today, knowing that thousands of pet owners will be looking for what to feed their pets until the commercial pet food companies can convince us their foods are safe!

Here is my tried-and-true recipe with some photos I took during preparation. This is a document you can print out and use for your own pets. For write me an email for permission to reproduce the recipe for anything other than personal use. Thank you and Enjoy!


List of Dog Food Brands being Recalled
List of Cat Food Brands being Recalled
List of FDA consumer complaint numbers, to report a suspected link between your pet's health and the food you have been feeding.
Google search results for recalled pet food stories

My Recipe again, for Sam's Healthwise Rawfood Cakes

How to Age Gracefully

How to Age Gracefully
originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

How to Age Gracefully

keep smelling, stay
interested in all the
messages that come alive
like signs,
there are sighs and songs
in every blade of grass and
breath of wind

keep moving, even
if only your eyes
look everywhere,
there is beauty and
movement to watch
like leaves that lift
and fly like birds

~ ~ ~

Maureen Shaughnessy

all we need to make us happy ...

all we need to make us happy
Copyright 2006 by Maureen Shaughnessy
originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

We act as though comfort and luxury
were the chief requirements of life,
when all that we need to make us happy is
something to be enthusiastic about.
-- Albert Einstein

Sam, at age 17, still has enthusiasm about going for walks every day, or sitting next to me, taking in the beauty through his seasoned eyes.

Our Dear Sam

HomeMade Dog Food for Sam

Sam has had some kind of ear problem for most of his life. We have tried everything we could think of to treat and prevent his ear problems. In the last few months, the yeast infection in his ear got so bad he developed a bacterial infection which was resistant to everything we had tried. Finally, our vet, Tia, suggested we take him off of all commercial dog food (we were giving him a combination of commercial organic natural food and my homemade dogfood) Instead we now give him something totally different: a homemade diet of veggies and protein from rabbit, llama, venison or salmon along with some white and brown rice. The food is protein-based rather than grain based. Sam's vet especially suggested we avoid corn, soy, wheat, beef and lamb. Hmmm... we had been feeding him a high quality organic lamb/brown rice food for years.

She also changed the treatment for his ear to one of cleaning the ear flap oogey stuff four times a day with witch hazel (very gentle and non-irritating on the sensitive ear tissues) and applying a custom-mixed cream (an anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, emulsifier and moisturizer all in one) after cleaning the ear. We began using this 4x a day and his ear looks so good we've decreased the treatment to 2x a day. I can hardly believe the difference! We have also completely eliminated wheat, corn, soy, lamb and beef from his diet.

It may take months on his new diet for Sam to show significant signs of improvement, but this venerable, 17-year-old flatcoated retriever seems to be immortal. Tia says, sorta tongue-in-cheek, that he could live for years. Besides, he's worth every bit of extra effort if it makes him more comfortable and happy. So, although I am sure this is not a perfect canine diet, and I will be making adjustments to the food I prepare for Sam, here is what I'm currently feeding him. I freeze most of it in meal-sized, 1-cup balls.

Sam's Veggie Salad aka Sam's Healthwise Rawfood Cakes
(makes enough for one to two weeks for a 70# dog)
3 cups brown rice or barley, cooked (so you end up with about 8 cups cooked barley or rice)
4 to 8 large carrots, chopped finely
1 large zucchini, chopped finely
1 large yam, steamed lightly and mashed
other veggies and fruits as desired **
2 T nutritional yeast
2 T finely ground egg shells
2 T each finely ground flax seeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds
2T olive oil
1/4 cup peanut butter

Chop everything (except the rice) in a food grinder til very fine. Then mix by hand and freeze 1 cup balls of the mixture on waxed paper on a cookie sheet. Thaw 2 balls of rice salad each night for two meals a day.

At mealtimes I mix 1 ball of salad, 1 egg, 1/4 cup cottage cheese or yogurt and 4 oz ground raw turkey, chicken or rabbit or raw salmon. Once or twice a week Sam also gets some organ meat (heart, liver, etc) I moisten his food with hot water and sprinkle on some acidophilus.

Dogs like humans, need the proper nutrients to stay healthy. So, to make sure he's getting the minerals, vitamins and other nutrients he needs, each day, Sam also gets dog multi-vitamins, glucosamine and VitC tablets (with peanut butter to make them tastier)
Meats we feed Sam(ground up)
rabbit, turkey, chicken venison, buffalo, liver and heart - not from lamb, pig or cow (contains taurine - we give this once a week)

Veggies we use for Sam's rice-salad mixture (I try to use a variety of veggies to give him good nutrients)
carrots, cabbage, yams, broccoli, kale, chard, peas (with the pod) green beans, winter squash, zucchini, parsley, pumpkin, apples, raspberries, blueberries and cranberries

Sam is a happy dog ... well treated and very healthy! Below, Sam is being weighed by his favorite vet, Tia. Sleeping in the garden where he belongs with Buddha and sharing "his" bed with our cat, Baggins.


There seems to be tons of information online about dog foods. One website I came across that will provide hours of reading in the future, is The Dog Food Project It also seems to be relatively objective about the benefits of feeding dogs either commercial dog food or homemade food. Check out their article on the myths of feeding. I plan to dig deeper into that website as I have time.

The following further information about raw meat/homemade food diet for pets is derived/paraphrased from Pet-grub.com, A Hassle-Free Guide to Wholesome Natural Pet Food, a useful website about natural health for dogs and cats. I found it to have so much information it was a bit overwhelming at first, so I have paraphrased and distilled some of the information pertinent to our dog's diet-for-allergies. I highly recommend if you are interested in changing your pet's diet to raw meat and homemade food, that you read the entire website. There is so much information there, including recipes such as the following for dog biscuits. You can also sign up for Jesse's newsletter by email.

Jesse writes, do NOT use veggies in the nightshade family: potatoes (yams are ok) green peppers, chilis, tomatoes. Also, do not feed your dog or cat onions or garlic.

Supplements on Jesse's list for dogs:

• calcium supplement made with finely ground baked free range egg shells
• probiotic beneficial bacteria such as acidophilous
• pancreatic or vegetable enzyme for digestion
• flax seed meal or sunflower seed meal for essential fatty acids
• Vitamin C from a food source, such as rose hips (Nutribiotics Meta C is made from rose hips) for absorbing calcium, among other benefits of Vt.C
• Dog Treats: (cats like these too)ving Sam salmon oil with each meal.
  

Katherine DeBarnes (Jesse's dog) Favourite Biscuits
rice flour 6 cups
water 6¼ cups
spelt flour 2½ cups (the original recipe calls for corn meal, but Sam is allergic to corn, so I substituted the spelt flour)
oat meal 2½ cups
eggs 2
ground cinnamon 3 TBSP
alfalfa powder 3 TBSP
kelp powder 3 TBSP

In a mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then add the water and mix. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and make into a dough. Roll the dough and cut some biscuits. Place biscuits on a tray and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I like to roll the dough on cornmeal or bulgur to prevent sticking. I also use this on the cookie tray.

This is a hard biscuit to roll as brown rice has no gluten. As a result you may need some practice to make this biscuit, but on the other paw this biscuit is good for gluten intolerant dogs and because it will break easily, this biscuit is excellent for training purposes.

Jesse's advice about adding warm or hot water to your pet's food:
Feed your pets meats with normal fat content add hot water to the food to volatize the odor, moisten and warm the food, since cold food shuts down the digestive system. All of which helps to recreate and simulate the warmth, moisture, smell, and taste of a fresh kill in the wild, like cats and dogs had before they were domesticated.

Poetry Thursday: Solace

Solace Originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

Solace

June first, not yet summer
in Montana, more than spring
today I do not have Sam with me
when I come to our meadow
today I am practicing
not having him.

Can I slide into the future,
without making a ripple
or sucking in my breath,
the way some people ease themselves
into icy water
one toe at a time?

It's not any easier this way.

In this copse of twisted trees
most are garbed in green while
others wear the pall of winter:
bone-wrapped branches,
bleached blades.
Looking forward, glancing back
Inhale ... exhale ...

My solace is silken bunchgrass
on a cheek, or dancing
aspen leaves ...
like whispered prayers moving
on a breath of air
they remind me to breathe.

--- Maureen Shaughnessy

I wrote this blog post for Poetry Thursday. Check out other poetry posts for this week by clicking this button:

This is also something I did for the Utata Thursday Walk project:

I left a rather loooonnng comment on Liz's Poetry Thursday post. Thought I'd share what I wrote here, since some people don't read the comments and might be interested:

I'm smiling and chuckling as I read your post, Liz ... along with all the the comments about reading in the bathtub. We live in a tiny (900 sf) house (well, tiny by North American standards...) with one bathroom, no shower -- just a big old tub. Before all of our kids left home, it was the only place in the house to get any real privacy, so it became not only the evening reading-place for every one of us ... but also for our boys, their story-spinning place and imaginary-world-action-figure-play-place. I never really worried about ruining books by reading them in the tub. Every well-loved book on our library shelves truly looks well-read, some of them have that tell-tale puffy look books get when they have absorbed a certain amount of steam.

oh well.

So I still read in the tub. Anyway, I loved your whole post, Liz. Of course, you know Stafford is one of my favorite poets -- in my top 3. And Kathleen Norris - she's up there too.

I love this line, from Mark Mitchell's dedication on The Sleep of Grass, where he is writing about the many poems written and dedicated to William Stafford, to his memory and legacy: What you have now is a piece of lost mail pursuing an elusive address. One that is nowhere and, as Dorothy Stafford says, "is everywhere now."

The idea of reading poetry aloud ... is coming back into it's own, is being revived from the days of the staid, serious poetry reading ... in the performances of more recent poetry slams. Slams have their drawbacks and aren't for everybody, but one thing I'll say about poetry slams: they encourage poets -- both seasoned and new poets -- to write with the spoken word in mind. For me, saying my poems and thoughts as I write is the best way to establish the right rhythmn, line breaks, word-juiciness and alliteration. Saying a poem while I'm writing it makes it more like a song, connects me with its' emotion and heart.

Standing in the light, waiting for his time

My constant, soul-full friend
Originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

A couple of days ago, I took Sam out to the fairgrounds for his afternoon walk -- it has become one of his favorite outings. He loves the wetlands, the secret aspen meadow, the old barns and the duck pond for many reasons. Not least of those reasons, I'd venture to guess, is that the fairgrounds is a literal soup of good smells (at least for a dog) and in spring, those smells are bursting from the warming duck pond like something delicious baking in a oven!

In case you haven't already read some of my other posts about our flatcoated retriever, Sam ... I'll fill you in.

Sam helped me raise my boys when I was a single mother trying to be everything for them. He filled in as companion adventurer for Mickey and Gabe on their hikes and play in the hills around Helena. He kept them company on their paper routes, traipsing the dark early morning streets of our neighborhood as they delivered the news. Sam would lead the way, showing them which houses took the paper and which ones had "bad-dogs" to watch out for ...

This gentle black dog comforted Mickey when he was out of sorts, and listened with complete attention and unconditional love, to anything anyone wanted to tell him. He taught all three of us compassion, empathy, connection and discipline. He was part buddy, part parent, part goofball and part life-lesson for those boys. He helped me raise them and for that I am always grateful.

Sam is almost 17 years old now. He has outlived most other flatcoats I know of ... and surely outlived all of his friends of the same general size: big. Everyone who knows Sam is awed by the fact that not only is he still alive -- he still loves his life and has spurts of energy and exuburance. He's slowing down though. Someday he won't be able to take these daily walks with us.

*

Sam is getting so he doesn't like going in the water the way he used to. Maybe it's too cold for his old joints. Maybe it's just too much trouble -- when you're an old guy, you shouldn't have to get wet and cold and tired just for the sake of chasing a few ducks. Or chunks of bread.

I get so sad everytime I think of my sweet companion, Sam, leaving us someday.

Any day now.

I don't know how I will be able to bear his going.


*

I haven't taken many photos of Sam lately, though I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because he is kindof tangly and dirty and raggedy these days and I haven't wanted to record that side of him ... so today I shot almost a hundred frames. As if I were trying to save him. As if I were trying to memorize exactly the look in his eyes, the shape of his back and wagging tail. The wake he leaves in the water's surface, as he slowly paddles out to the deep parts.

I will be glad someday to have this set of uncomplicated photos:


Originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

*

Sam cooling his belly in the water
checking with me to see
if it's okay to go

He turns and pushes through
the element he was born to love,
swims out deep enough to
lose touch with the bottom

Sam looking away,
into the distance
(to him, those ducks may seem unreachable)
Maybe he is dreaming
of giving chase or wishing
he could retrieve
a bundle of feathers for me

my handsome, constant,
soul-full friend

standing in the light
waiting for his time
biding this afternoon in
the sweetness of spring, light, water ...

his world quiet with deafness,
yet filled with a symphony of smells
and the sparkling dance of sun and sky and wings.


I love this dog with my whole heart.

New Year's Day Tradition

On January 1st, we kept a tradition Tim and I have been keeping since we married: we spent the day making a pilgrimage for good luck and healing in the coming year. We made offerings sitting near a fire in the back garden (in the snow) then drove down to the Boulder River about a half hour from home, to spend the afternoon and leave our prayers and offerings.


Sam accompanied us, of course. He had waited near the fire, as usual, for us to get going. He always knows when we're preparing for a pilgrimage (which for him, means a hike) and gets excited to leave .



The Boulder River today was icy, dark, swift. We stayed back from the banks a bit not wanting to chance falling through the blue ice. The day was warm and we could see where the ice shelf that lined the river had fallen, leaving a raw crack, like a wound. The center of this river runs free most of the year because it is fed by several hotsprings in the valley. This is a sacred spot to the tribes who frequented the Boulder Valley every winter. We have come here many times to pray so it feels like one of my homes in Montana.

Waiting for me to "sign" it's time to go ...

Sam is about 99% deaf in his old age. He's been getting progressively more deaf over the last year or so. We know he still here's something because he comes skidding out into the kitchen when we fill up his food dish. He hears loud clapping, too -- that's the main way we get him to come when he's not looking at us. Or, on walks, if he gets too far ahead, which isn't often these days, we toss a tiny pebble at him to get his attention.

Mostly if Sam can see us, then sign language and lip-reading works. Otherwise, he either ignores us totally and goes about his business as if we are the ones supposed to follow him around .... heheh. Or, he listens to our intent -- he reads our minds -- I am convinced dogs and other animals have the ability to read our intentions. That's why horse whispering works.

Well, Tim and I practice dog-whispering. And Sam is highly skilled at human-whispering. He tells us what he wants not only with his body language and expressive eyes ... but he "beams" at us. That's what we've taken to calling the intense stare and "loud" mind-talk he sends our way when he really really wants something ... like the last bite of that juicy sandwich you're eating.

Here, Sam is conducting several kinds of communication: he is watching me intently for cues to "what's next." He is beaming at me, his desire to get going: "Enough of this sitting around while you shoot photos, already!" And he is reading my mind to see if it's time to go yet. Check out those eyes at the large size by clicking on the photo and going to the "all sizes" link right above the photo on my flickr page.

Gaze

Gaze
Originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

Our 17 year old dog, Sam, accompanies me on every walk, and since he has really slowed down in his old age, I have time to stop often to shoot photos. He likes to sit next to me -- right up against me, leaning in, whenever I sit down to watch the beauty around us. I have always believed that animals, like us, actually do appreciate beauty -- I've watched him sit and face the sunrise or a distant view from the top of the mountain ... just as if he were taking it all in, quietly sharing the moment with me, his human. He will sit for long moments, as long as I stay watching ... his attention focused on something I can only imagine and hopefully share.

I like to sit on the cold ground with my arm around Sam's shoulders up on the hill above our town. In the evenings, when the cacaphony of daytime noise begins to settle out, begins to calm down ... then we two listen to the sounds of the city: traffic, dogs barking back and forth, children playing, ravens calling, crickets singing, geese honking on their southward journey. I know he sees and hears the wondrous beauty of his world. I know he loves these moments as much as I do. I know he is deeply glad to be alive. His enthusiasm for life inspires me, even when I'm feeling blue. He leans into my chest, as if letting me know he'll hold me up when it's his turn ... my dear companion, Sam.

We humans so often think we have an exclusive appreciation for art, beauty, poetry, emotion ... I believe we share this ability with all creatures ... or that we could share it if we would only allow that we are not the only ones to see!



This photo is also part of my set, Last Light.

Tribute to an old-soul friend of mine

Sam, just hours after his spring, 2005 haircut

I thought I would post some photos of my trusty companion, Sam, who is 16 (human) years old this year (2005) That means he's over 100 in dog years. Definitely a senior, and a right spry senior at that. He still enjoys life, wags his tail, loves walks (although he seems to love the first half of the walk more than the second, going-home half...)

I am going to write some of his story here on my blog. I'll add to it as I have time. It's a remarkable story and Sam has been an incredible old friend for a long time. He's getting really old. We don't know how much longer he'll be with us. But... you never know with anybody, right? I mean, I could die tomorrow. Or tonight. So could he. So could any of us. Life is too precious to let it go by without expressing appreciation.

So here, I am expressing appreciation for a friend who has loved me -- loved Mickey, Gabe, Tim -- unconditionally. No matter what. He beams love to us. He also beams at us: "food, please, just a mere scrap of that thing you're eating."

It seems to me, people usually wait until someone dies to share their feelings about that person, or to share a tribute to that person. Why not do it while your loved ones are still alive?

It's like flowers ... why wait until a funeral to bring flowers? Bring flowers whenever you think about it! While your husband, wife, mother, sister, grandparent, friend .... are still alive, to enjoy the flowers. So, I'm writing this tribute (and it's a work in progress, mind you) about Sam while he's still quite alive -- and kickin.


Sam, on the day of his spring haircut.
He looks younger and older at the same time. Younger because he just isn't covered with all that shag ... and older because you can see how skinny he is and you can see all his lumps and bumps. Signs of age, I guess. sigh.


Sam likes to go with us on our pilgrimages to the river. Here he is with me, his favorite "alpha dog" a couple months ago. Late February, same hike below:


Why fight over the chair, they've just learned to share it.

to be continued......

obidiah

Gabe, your description of the Temple of Stars at Burning Man and that Obidiah's name was in there, burning ... made me miss my sweet O. He kept me company during some dark times.

at the bird bath

very senior citizen