This is my first Academy Award-style thank you in my Gratitude journal. You know, of course , certain times during the 31 days of May I must thank my family, my dogs, The Academy.... (well, maybe not the Academy.) I just have to! Because I am grateful for them all.
Today Sofie became the subject of my gratitude.
You know when you have several children, how you always have to make sure that you spread the love around as equally as possible or feelings get hurt? Well I only have one human child so the human child part is easy, but I also have three furry ones, and I realized today that I had been slighting Sofie.
Sofie is somewhat easy to slight, because unlike every other English Springer Spaniel I have ever heard of, she is not much of a cuddle-bucket. She remains aloof, waiting for us to bestow our affections on her queenly presence.
We don't know anything about her background- don't even really know how old she is. She is a rescue from English Springer Rescue of America, and she hid under our bed for a good part of the first month she was here. Now she NEVER hides, and basically rules the roost. I think it was all in her master plan to wrap us around her fuzzy paw.
In her own way she gets jealous, though, and she is very sweet and funny. Nearly every day she does something to make me laugh.
We make up songs about her, dress her up (I have an eleven year old, remember), and play endless games of throw and retrieve in the swimming pool. She is a swimming and diving maniac. If you'd like to see her in action, check out this funny video I made of her swimming.
Sofie is a bit of a celeb. One of my friends shoots stock photos of my daughter a lot, and she snapped a few of Sofie at the end of a shoot and uploaded them to iStock. Lo and behold, about a year later, I was browsing through the bargain books in Books a Million, and I came across a photo of Sofie that my friend had taken that day! Of course I couldn't tell anyone there (They'd be like SURE- that's your dog....), but I was so excited and bought three copies of the book.
Here is a a scan of the book, and yes- that really is my dog, my pool, my dog's toy!
So, for celebrity Springers, and especially sweet ones like Sofie who make me laugh and require me to beg for her affections, I am grateful.
7 comments:
She looks like a great dog and you captured her beautifully, there is nothing like a great dog!!
she's lovely :) I love spaniels!
You do beautiful work. I love the (mis)quote from Mary Poppins! :) That is a lovely dog. I am really enjoying your gratitude journal!
I've learned so much about dogs from my best friend who is an avid dog owner and hunter. He's the one that taught me about dogs and their jobs. And he's given me a whole new appreciation of them. (I've always loved them) But it's nice to see that people out there care as much as he does, as much as you and your family do. Keep up the great work! Your dog video was a riot too!!
she sounds like a great dog!!
great entry on your blog and great sketch:)
btw. congratulations on having your dog in a book!! she is famous now:)
Leslie, I'm glad you picked up on the "Feed the Birds" altered quote.
My husband, daughter and I are all really goofy and try to make everything as funny as possible. Sofie is a NOTORIOUS "counter surfer," who pulls things down off the counters in the kitchen and eats them whenever we slip up and leave something out, if we are out of the room or away from the house. A sneaky booger, she is!
When we first adopted her, even though she was "on the lam" for a few days at least before she ended up with Springer Rescue, she was almost 60 pounds, so she was well-fed.
Now, many years later, she is a buff 44 pounds, but will steal a loaf of bread or a burger at any given opportunity.
So we sing the song, substituting "tuppence a rotisserie chicken" and the like.
What can I say? We are a weird family, but we LIKE being weird. Weird is good.
what a great post of a great dog...really out did yourself on this one!
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