I love having related dogs. The ones who are here now bring with them the ones who are gone.
Like an echo.
Cooper is from our G Litter. He lived a well-loved life with the Graffunders. This was one of his signature moves…
Lupine from the Wildflowers now lives with the Graffunders. She is Cooper’s great-great-niece.
Well played, Team Echo.
It is important to acknowledge the ways in which Pandemic Life is tough — not to have an endless Pity Party but to be able to accurately assess and respond to our own needs. If I do not understand why and how this is a challenging time, I will overwork my 100 Little Soldiers, and that never goes well.
My Pandemic Life motto is Dial Back.
This means things are undone — without shame and guilt. After all, why give Little Soldiers a well-deserved break if you are just going to beat them up for what is undone?
I also like to focus on what I can still do.
Claire
It is not about finding bright sides or silver linings to a pandemic that has killed 200,00 Americans — there isn’t one.
But there are opportunities. Challenges, after all, always bring along an invitation for transformation.
Claire
If all goes according to plan, I will finish Claire’s CD this year at long last — and breed her. Staying home has allowed me to focus on her training, and it is going well. I am excited to show her.
That is my plan — we will see what the Universe has to say about all that. 2020, after all, seems to involve a particularly malevolent Trickster and so it is best to have only loose attachments to our plans.
Daisy and Pozy
Pandemic Life offers obstacles at a time when our abilities to find creative solutions to achieve plans are understandably low. Dialing back means that I am not also trying to do sixteen other things with my dogs at this time. Instead, awareness of limits means I can focus my energy and time on my priorities, understanding that 50 of my 100 Little Soldiers are on pandemic duty and simply not available to help with Normal Life and my typical overachieving hopes and wishes.
Pozy Clarkia is a priority for me. Pandemic Life has offered a unique opportunity to be 100% present for this puppy — and it shows.
Please take good care of your Little Soldiers — they are working so hard to keep you upright and somewhat functional.
#goteam
This is the really hard part of being a breeder.
Eileen Blass photo.
I am sorry to share that Holden Squeaker from the H Moon Litter had to leave this earth and his beloved human.
Holden Squeaker arrived much like his granddaughter, Pozy Clarkia — lifeless. We did not give up on him that day and when he finally squeaked — we celebrated and cried and named him Squeaker.
Toby took over when he was eight weeks old, and a Great Love was ignited.
Those Great Loves carry with them the seeds of shattering and yet we love anyway because they are worth every tear, every ripping shard from the shattering.
Holden Squeaker was such a dog for Toby.
I celebrate that Holden was so very loved — even as I physically wince thinking about what his loss means to Toby. A gut punch followed by a series of sucker punches, landing with cruel efficiency.
A great dog has left us.
Great Love endures.