Tuesday, May 18, 2010

For No Other Reason Than That He's Still Here

This recent photo of Kelsey has gotten some positive reaction over on the "Flickr" photos arena, so I thought I'd pop it up here for my smaller circle of blog friends.

Kelsey, fresh from a laboratory victory over dire expectations, May, 2010.

Good dog. Yes you are.
Even if you are a geezer.

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6 comments:

Jessamyn said...

I propose a toast for Kelsey.

With marmalade.

ronnie said...

Good Kelsey!

Nostalgic for the Pleistocene said...

A face that reveals a wonderful soul.

Mike Peterson said...

The dog park gang is re-assembling now that winter is over. Yesterday, Bubba made his first appearance, and several of us observed that he looked wonderfully changed. A rescue, he had been a little tentative last fall. Now, he's much more confident and cheerful -- but it was more apparent to us, who hadn't seen him since December, than to his owner, who sees him every day.

This is a prelude to noting that Kelsey appears wonderfully present, cheerful and ready to challenge the world as always.

Good on you, mate!

Sherwood Harrington said...

Jessamyn, that toast and marmalade would be yummy to the Kelsey, but he wouldn't grab it; he would wait for you to offer it, and then look at me to see if it's okay to take it. Only then would he gulp it down.

It took two years for us to get to that protocol, but we got there. Kelsey could be Gilly's Secretary of State, if Gilly ever needs one. He understands ritual's importance.

ronnie and Ruth: yeah.

Mike, Kelsey was more "present" in this photo than I let you know.

Long ago, he learned to read Diane's and my body language sufficiently to know when we were getting ready for visitors. He also recognizes several names of people who come to visit, especially Adam.

Diane and I had been busying ourselves for a couple of hours on the Saturday of the photo, getting ready for Adam to arrive. As soon as he recognized the word "Adam," Kelsey fixed himself to the place where he is in this photo: a place on the day bed in the computer room where he could see:

>out the room's door into the kitchen

>through the kitchen to its front door

>out the door to the front patio

>and up the stairs to the front gate.

He stayed riveted like that for about two hours until Adam arrived, at which point he, as usual, just about jumped out of his skin with joy.

The spaniels were sort of excited, too, but I don't think they have quite as precise a vision of what's going to happen as Kelsey does for the same input clues.

Adam said...

Good boy.