1/28/2016

Five years ago

19

A trend has been afoot on the internet for quite some time,
something called  Throwback Thursday
and although I've never participated, I have on occasion enjoyed friend's postings.
Which is what happened today.  After having a good giggle over some ancient history 
I saw on Facebook [it does have its upside from time to time] I thought to myself
 what the heck, let's see what was going on say five years ago
in my own neck of the woods.

A hop over to my photo archives from January, 2011 & it appears
not much was happening different from now ...

I was out photographing a lot of frost,

was taking lots of chilly, storm-ridden walks with this one 
[that year we could have ice skated on our pond!]

and I was enjoying some extremely pleasant hours weaving cloth scraps
which coincidentally, I've returned to a bit of late because of my '52 week project' ... 
but I'll tell you more about that in my next post
 where I'll share my first 3-inch explorations for the month of January.
Stay tuned, I'm very excited about it!

Nope, aside from the aforementioned activities which pretty much echo present day,
the image that has led me to write my first  Throwback Thursday  post
is
the
following...

Our dear Quinn.
Five years ago, right after Christmas, my fella and I drove to Oregon
to pick up this special being.  Black dogs are notoriously difficult to adopt out
and this little girl was no exception.  Malnourished, unsocialized, scared of
everything & everyone, we spent that first January gently introducing her to our world
and showing her as best we could that life had a better side
than living in a chainlink enclosure
by yourself.

Quinn is so skinny in this picture!  Weighing in at 47 pounds she was only
five pounds heavier than my small collie back then.  But no longer - now she is 65 pounds 
and a powerhouse of solid swimming, ball chasing, long distance hiking muscle. 
Best of all, she's found her person to be devoted to
and he has the dog he's always wanted ...
 intelligent, curious, playful, steadfastly faithful & incredibly loyal.

It was a long road - is STILL a long road - training & helping this girl to be comfortable
 in a world she previously mistrusted.  None of that was her fault and we've had many a
discussion about what kind of dog she would have become if she'd had a better
start in life.

It is rarely ever too late to help a dog.
Please consider adoption for your next choice of fur friend.
You may actually inherit an angel in disguise.