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Memories

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Jesse

He was born in 1978. He has been gone from this world since 1993. I know him only through the stories mom tells. He is the patriarch of our pack and I honor his memory.

Jesse was sent to teach mom important lessons. Along the way they had a lot of fun together. Because of Jess mom said she could never be without an Australian Shepherd.

Jess died in August. Two weeks later Codie came to mend a broken heart. Mom said she wasn’t ready for another dog yet, but Codie found her anyway.

Some dogs have a way of taking over your life. Australian Shepherds are notorious for stealing your heart. It didn’t take me long to swipe my mom’s heart.

Mom says once you’ve lost your best friend you never take the happy times for granted. That’s why I can usually talk mom into playing with me when she’s tired. Even when she’s mad at me she can’t stay mad for long.

When I’ve really done something bad and I deserve a good scolding, I give mom that special look and she kinda melts. Then I wash her face and do a stupid pet trick. Pretty soon she’s laughing and all is forgiven.

All these years mom has kept Jesse’s ashes. She said one day she would find a place for them. She was right. When her friend gave her a Spirit Weight to honor Codie, Mom knew she would do the same for Jesse.

Jesse’s Spirit Weight arrived last week. It has a black center. Us mutts were very respectful when mom unwrapped it. Such a beautiful object filled with years of memories. Mom put it where it would reflect the sunlight. It is beautiful and simple and powerful. That’s the magic of memories. Here, see for yourself.

Asher

Me and Gene

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Ash

Gene Kelly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This isn’t the best shot of either me or Gene Kelly, but if you look close you can see we both have some serious hang time.

Maybe you don’t know much about Gene Kelly. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh and spent his freshman year at Penn State.

He learned to dance when he was a kid. After college he went to New York and got discovered by the movie business. That’s how come he made one of mom’s favorite movies, “Dancing in the Rain.”

Here’s some funny coincidences. Mom was born in Pittsburgh. Her dad went to Penn State and knew Gene Kelly. There’s definitely some Gene Kelly in our background. Then there’s me.

I never knew Gene Kelly but I like his dance moves. He was a jock and wanted to play professional baseball, but no team wanted him so he went into dancing.

Gene wasn’t some sissy kind of dancer. He was an athlete. Like me! He spent a lot of time in the air. Like me!

When you watch old Gene Kelly movies you wonder how he did his stuff. He was really strong and graceful. What makes it even more impressive is that he did a lot of his air dancing in a suit and tie. Unlike me.

You should see him tap dancing in roller skates. Now that’s a little more than I care to try.

So how does Gene Kelly relate to life at Asherpark? I’m learning to dance. Yeah, really. OK, so I’m not too good at it yet, but I’m learning. It’s part of my home schooling. While I practice heeling I’m also learning some dance steps. Right now mom leads. Maybe when I get good she’ll let me lead.

Anyway, I like dancing and Gene Kelly is my new role model. Me and Gene. I like that. Gotta dance!

 

 

 

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Sick As A Dog

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Ash and Tess

Our world has been goofy lately. Mom was making strange sounds. One morning she couldn’t talk.

That was fine by us. She couldn’t tell us no or interrupt us when we were making too much noise. Oh, she would shake her finger at us but we just ignored her.

She tried explaining that she had the flu but we weren’t buying it. Mom still got up when we told her to and made us breakfast. But then she didn’t want to go outside and play.

I brought her all sorts of dirty laundry to cheer her up. Tess curled up on the couch with her and Jack just stood and stared at her. We were sort of worried about her but didn’t know what to do.

Finally mom decided  she wasn’t getting better so us dogs took her to see her vet. Mom came out with some pills and cough syrup. Tess was really glad mom was gonna stop coughing because all that hacking kept Tess awake at night.

I know it sounds kinda selfish. Us dogs are so used to mom taking care of us and we’re not too good at taking care of her.

We figured out if we wanted to hang with mom we were gonna have to take a nap with her. So every afternoon while she was sick we all had a time out. It wasn’t much fun but at least we were together.

Good thing our lives are back to normal now. We have lessons to catch up on. Mom says we have to make up the ones we missed. Tess isn’t liking the idea of so much schooling. Stay tuned ’cause I’m learning some silly fun pet tricks. Gotta run!

Ash