Heat

It's been hot up here in the PNW.  While the girls slow down a bit in the heat (see Exhibit A above), they still want to swim, play fetch, and enjoy having everyone outside.

That said, it's also a dangerous season...fires are already raging near (although not close) to the house in eastern Washington.  A good reminder to be very careful and make sure I know where these knuckleheads are at all times.

Murphy's Day.

Summer

It's officially summer.  Lots of traveling back and forth from the "wet side" to the "dry side."  It's amazing me to me how the girls adjust and find fun wherever they end up.  But yesterday, when we finally packed up and left, Willa was reluctant to leave the canyon.  Can't blame her.  It's getting harder and harder to travel back and forth.

On another note, I've been doing a lot of thinking, recently, about this blog.  I've kept it since 2008, almost 7 years.  I started it as a way to talk about Murphy, my first lab, and the experience of being with her as she aged and finally died.  I was able to witness and absorb grace, humility, dignity from Murphy.  Then deal with all the pain and helplessness of loss.

Now, with three labs, my life and world revolves around them.  Sage is aging, and I find myself beginning to wake in the night, listening for her.  Watching her more carefully, trying to find ways to make her feel even more special.  And I wonder if this blog is going to become about Sage...or if I should just stop writing and let it be.

For the time being, I will continue the blog, see what direction it takes.  It's summer.  There are adventures that await us.

Murphy's Day.

Father's Day

Sage has a pedigreed father.  Cain.  He was a huge, gorgeous yellow lab from Delaware.  Murphy's father was Houston, a champion hunter, champion show dog.  Willa's father, Maverick, came from fine hunting stock and her mother was AKC.

Annie Oakley?  Well, she is gorgeous and her mother was AKC, but we don't know much, if anything about her father.  But he gave us a great lab.

Nonetheless, she is loved.  And is an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, complicated lab.

So this is the day we honor our fathers.  Mine was an amazing man.  Artistic.  Thoughtful.  Emotional.  Intense.  The ultimate do-it-yourself man.  He graduated from law school at 65.  He died five years ago and I miss him more and more every day.

Father's matter.

Murphy's Day.

First Summer Hike

On Saturday we did our first long hike of the summer.  Up to a favorite place, Lake Valhalla.  Gorgeous weather, lots of mosquitoes, and a few miles of bushwhacking.  But we all made it back to the truck in one piece.

Sage, who is 11, is noticeably slowing down.  She is so stoic, though, she did the whole hike without a whimper.

More of these hikes to come!

Murphy's Day

Tributes

This video has to be the very best I've ever seen about the relationship between a dog and his person.

Supervisor

As part of the thinking about when to move, a washer/dryer was installed last Friday.

Sage made sure the work men knew who was the boss, supervising their every move.

Thanks to Sage, the machines work perfectly!

Murphy's Day.

June Thoughts

I woke up yesterday with this deer (look closely) grazing below my bedroom window.

No, not in Seattle.

During this "watershed" year, we are in the midst of a real estate bubble here in Seattle.  Which means the Seattle house is worth something.  The city itself has and is becoming way too intense for me.  Too many people, too many "chi-chi" restaurants, too hard to get around, old landmarks bulldozed for copy-cat architecture with, in my opinion, no soul or heart.

But here, here where the deer grazes in the fields, the girls can be dogs, not pets.  They can walk off leash with no one yelling at them.  They can roll in freshly cut grass, lay in the sun, smell the flowers.   They can swim in a river without worry about a $500 fine.

It's time to make this move.

Murphy's Day.