Berkley, and Two Losses

Berkley

Oil on canvas, 12x12

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Usually when there's a hiatus in the blog, it's because I'm at a show and too exhausted to post, or in a place where there's no internet connection (yes, there are still such places!) 

This time was different. After five weeks on the road, I got home last Monday night around 8 p.m., and our old cat, Eunice, died three hours later. 

Her death was not really a surprise, but it was, in the end, sudden. She was 15 or 16, and though she'd had kidney problems for a few years, she was in good health until the last few days of her life. She had had trouble keeping weight on, we knew, and just before I left, I noticed that her hind legs were giving her some issues. 

Peter said she'd been fine until a few days before I got back, when she stopped eating. By last Monday, she couldn't really walk. But she lifted her head when I got home, and purred a little when I petted her and held her, and I do believe that she was waiting to see me one last time, and to know we were all together. Then she just let go. 

I am heavy with sadness, still, and thinking of Eunice brings me to tears. But I remember her as a wonderful cat, a good friend and companion. She was sociable and clean and funny, and talkative. I'll miss her forever. 

Here's Eunice, taking over the bench we got for our chow/sharpei. 

Eunice was just a little cat, but she could keep that fierce dog off his bench any time she wanted. 

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IN MY WEEKS AWAY, I had some very good shows and some not very good shows, and returned home with a boatload of commissions, which is always exciting. 

Here's Berkley, who I've never met, but who seems like a great dog. His people have told me he likes his portrait. 

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THERE WAS SOME BIG EXCITEMENT here in Wachapreague Saturday night, when a man driving a truck very, very fast crashed into the antique store run by my friends Pat and Carol.

Thankfully, the store had closed for the night and was empty. But the crash knocked it off its very foundation and pretty much wrecked it, and most of what was in it.

Pat and Carol have spent years and years collecting items for the store, and they had some beauties.

Some of the things in the store were not ruined, but I am afraid that most everything was. I feel very sorry for my friends, but I am just so glad that no one was killed.

If the driver of the truck had missed the store, as my friend Linda Cicoira pointed out, he'd have crashed into the living room of Pat's house, where, in all likelihood, she'd have been sitting.

Linda is a fabulous painter, and her work is FUN! Want to see? Click here. 

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Dog of the Day

Here's Lily, a Havanese-poodle mix who I met in town Saturday. 

She's 10 months old, and every bit as cute as she looks here. 

Want your pet to be Dog of the Day? Send me an email with a jpg!