Though Fitzi is curled up on a dog bed in the living room, he still monitors what goes on in the kitchen.

Though Fitzi is curled up on a dog bed in the living room, he still monitors what goes on in the kitchen.

You may remember that we let go of Achilles, aka Chili Dog, earlier this year.
Our vet clinic is in a network which gives people who let go of a pet, buy and plant a tree in the pets’ memory. So there’s been an informal ceremony every October since the year 2000. The municipality generously allows this to happen in a public park. We’ve planted trees for BoJo, Kendal, and Stella. So of course we bought a tree for Achilles. I put in a request for specific species, a Red Oak (Quercus rubra), which is native to both Texas (where he and I came from) and Ontario.
The ceremony was today and it’s a fine October day – mostly sunny, cool, and breezy. I was very, very pleased to find a healthy Red Oak sapling tagged with Chili’s name. So we planted it. It was no trouble at all, just like Achilles was. It’s near Stella’s and Kendal’s trees.

I may not live long enough to sit in its shade. That’s fine.
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. -Greek proverb
Still the coolest rope toy on the face of the earth.

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Although this photo of Lucy holding her ball appears to be out of focus, it is not. Look closely.

Achilles, dozy dog on his cushy bed.

Mid-lick.

I crouched down to capture Fitzi clutching a very large stick in his jaws. He raced at me, I clicked the shutter button, the exposure meter had to compute before tripping the shutter, then Fitzi leapt at me.
Whoa. Darth Fitzi.

A favourite photo from not quite a year ago – Fitzi inviting me to play.

Please accept my apologies for going dark for several days. Computer issues have kept me off line.
The Alert One ensures that all is in order.
