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Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Baker

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Why, look – it’s Abraham Lincoln, telling that guy in the funny hat that it is my parents’ anniversary. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

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No, Dad, I don’t mean anything by posting the red long-john photo on your birthday.

Happy birthday!!

A Note for Emmy

A dog will break your heart every time. How can it not break your heart when it takes residence within it, turning around and scratching and tugging until it creates a form-fitting nest – stretching and enlarging your heart so that it has a greater capacity for love?

The dogs and cats who share our lives are not children, true; they hold a different, but not lesser, spot in our hearts. No matter what happens, they are always happy to see us. They greet us at the door (yes, even cats often do this) with glad posture, eager for our touch and the sound of our voice. They seek us out for company and security as well as for food and shelter. Even when we work long hours, forget to fill the food dish, neglect to clean the litter box, get angry and yell – they forgive, forget, and never stop loving. Their love is unwavering, unquestioning, and unconditional. Loving and being loved by a pet is probably the closest we mortals can get to understanding God.

Losing a pet is like losing a little part of your heart, and it is no easier when you get to name the time and circumstances of that loss. I daresay it is harder; yes, you get to say good-bye, but you have to bear the weight of an impossible but necessary decision.

Before Ryan and I knew each other very well, we were instant messaging one another. As I recall, he mentioned wanting to get up and get a Coke, but couldn’t because he had a sleeping puppy on his lap. Having not known he even liked dogs, I asked him about the puppy and he told me about Emmy, a little black-and-white poodle who was a spry 12-year-old at the time. This was one of the little moments in our relationship that tumbled together like gears in a lock until I suddenly found myself in love with him – can’t explain it, but it was. The gentleness and humor in his words as he talked about his “puppy” revealed a side of him I hadn’t known before.

I’ve always had a fondness for “spotty dogs” – what more sophisticated people would refer to as “parti-colored.” To my mind, Emmy was just beautiful: white with black ears and Snoopy spots along her back, a dark blaze running down to her black nose. Most of her colors were fading to shades of gray, but it was clear she’d been a real beauty. Her temperament was on the neurotic side, even for a toy poodle, but she surprised the Bakers by letting me hold her from time to time. I remember her super-sonic barking when people came into the house and the way she bounded, Pepe LePew-style, across the yard after a tennis ball (which she rarely actually retrieved). She would stand on her back legs to take a treat, even stealing it gently from between pursed lips. My favorite thing was when she would perk her ears just right and become Bat Dog, her black ears flaring out like goofy wings.

Yesterday Emmy had to leave us. It was hard to let her go, even for a relative newcomer to her life like myself. Loss is never easy to bear.

I read a story yesterday about a man and his dog on the road to Heaven. The story described Heaven as a sun-warmed farm without fences, behind a simple gate that looked as though it had never been closed, where both the man and his companion were welcome. I like to think of Emmy sniffing that gate, recognizing the smell of friends and family gone before her, and bouncing all bat-eared into a world where she will always be warm and young and eagerly waiting for the day when she can bellow her greetings to her mortal family.

Happy trails, Emmy Lou Baker.

July 4, 1991 – April 30, 2008

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Am I the only person getting a Jay and Silent Bob vibe from this photo?

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Not sure what it is about this picture that appeals to me. In fact, right this moment, nothing does. But I put it in my Daily JPG file for a reason, and under the assumption that I will remember that reason, here you go.

If nothing else, my sister is cute. Kinda.

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In celebration of my 100th Daily JPG, I give you…

…myself. In class, a while back. Captured via webcam.

Hey, this is kind of fun. Let’s do some more!

Hooray, late nights in the library grading and crap.

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One of these days I’m going to actually write again, and then perhaps someone will leave a comment. In the meantime, I bring you more pictures from the zoo (and no, no April Fools’ jokes – just a funny critter).

If nothing else, I think R thinks lemurs are funny. More or less.

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Stole R’s camera so that I could get this picture off of it for today’s Daily JPG:

That’s my sister and me, holding the smallest of the bear cubs from Yellowstone Bear World. We’re also sporting some mad Threadless duds.

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I’ve heard of brown-nosers, but not blue-nosers! Well, Aaron, that’s what you get for engaging in an egg-dye fight…