It's kind of tough trying to celebrate Mother's Day a few months after your Mother passed away. It's hard enough to celebrate Mother's Day when one of your children is in Africa and the other one is in California. What made Mother's Day a great day despite everything was celebrating with Socrates and Lexi. In a very real sense, they are my kids, too!
Many people may have seen these photos before, but in honor of my Mother's Day, I am displaying them once again. After all, who could resist these two cuties?
Socrates is my golden boy. He is my magical, miraculous dog who transformed my universe the first time I saw him. Socrates was adopted from Mutts4Rescue in Louisiana. An angel called April brought him into my world, and for that gift Tom and I will be forever grateful.
Our little love, Lexi, is a bundle of pure joy. I defy anyone to watch her for more than a minute without falling in love with her. She is funny, smart, sweet, and overflowing with kisses and cuddles. Lexi is from Beaumont, Texas, and we have Cindy and Kate to thank for completing our family so perfectly.
They both love to run and play the day away, but when they get home they're as good as gold. We are well and truly blessed!
Togo's owner asked me to take some photos of him in action, but the results were so horrible that I'm embarrassed to show them to her. I know what the problems are, and I should have said I'd be happy to take photos of Togo some other time. Yesterday, the lack of a lens filter and the blinding midday sun reflecting off of a bright white dog caused all sorts of problems.
Togo is a magnificent dog, though, and the photos really don't due him justice. A big, beautiful, pure white Shepard, Togo LOVES playing fetch. I mean, he REALLY LOVES playing fetch. I don't think you'll see a photo of Togo without a ball in his mouth. If you do see him without his ball, you can bet your butt he's chasing after it!
As you can see, Togo is playful and fun-loving. He's also gentle with the smaller dogs, friendly and affectionate towards people, and he seems happy all the time. Also, although you might not see it in this photo, he's soaking wet!
He is drenched because he swam across the pond to get his ball when it was thrown into the water. Boy, this dog can swim! He practically ran across the the surface of the pond in his eagerness to reach the ball, and then he swam like a duck until he caught the ball and then swam all the way back to land. And don't forget - that water was COLD! It was icy, icy cold! If I do get another shot at photographing Togo, I definitely want to get a picture of that running on water action!
I like this photo because of the mischievousness in Togo's eyes. You can see how much fun he get out of all this running, chasing, and swimming activity. He's just about grinning with joy - which is exactly what I like to see in a dog. A dog's happiness is definitely contagious to humankind!
