Falling and Laughing

Reposting this jaunty photo of Gem from last summer for two reasons:

(1) How could you ever get sick of looking at this, my very favorite visual emblem of PMA?

(2) Yesterday, at the IKC dog show at McCormick Place, I met, for the first time IRL, an Australian shepherd. Looking into his eyes, and seeing his coat and markings, and taking the measure of his overall size, his bearing, I felt instantly certain that I had figured out the non-Rottweiler half of Gemma, which half had previously been shrouded in the mystery of “some kind of shepherd dog.” It’s hard to explain, but I just knew.

G being half Australian shepherd explains a lot about her. For instance, her ability to leap a 3’+ gate in a single bound, and be all, “No biggie.”

I was so excited to tell G this revelation about her genealogy when I got home. She has really taken it and ran with it, to the point that she is now speaking in the most preposterous Aussie accent. (It sounds a lot like fake Cockney and is really quite terrible, but what does she know, she’s only a dog.) I don’t have the heart to tell her that no, we aren’t going to be throwing any shrimps on the barbie any time soon. But tomorrow’s March, summer isn’t so far away.  Summer is coming here, and leaving in the antipodes. You’re better off here with me, Gem.

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_{[Photo is by my bruvver Joe, who as you can see takes v. nice pictures, for instance of my nephew Jed]}