this girl loves her dog . . .

My daughter has always been an animal lover. Me? Not so much. She spent years begging for a pet. A cat. A dog. A Guinea pig. There's a whole Guinea pig story to tell but I'll save that for another time.

Anyway, the girl wanted a pet in the worst way and I really didn't. She played the "only child" card and said that if she could have a pet she would at least have someone to play with and talk to. She finally decided that it was a DOG she wanted, and she was relentless in her begging. I even got a Power Point presentation emailed to me at work explaining her reasoning for wanting a dog and listing all of the things she would do for me if only I would get one for her. She was GOOD.

So, for her golden birthday, when she was 9 years old, I got her a DOG. A Golden Retriever to be exact. I have to admit, it was probably the best decision I ever made. 11 years later that dog, Hunter, IS still her best friend! She is home from college for the summer and has spent countless hours hanging out with that dog. They go on walks. They go swimming. They lay in the yard and read.

Because Hunter is now 11, he's slowing down a bit and we've had several discussions about the fact that for a dog, he's getting old. She does not want to discuss. At all. But she did decide that we really should do a photo shoot, a girl and her dog. One day last week we walked down the road a ways to a beautiful spot with two rows of trees - our photo shoot location. We took lots of photos of them walking, running and sitting. Here's one of my favs:


He loves her just as much as she loves him. Pretty cool.

e + h. forever.