The Studio

Those who know me know that my dogs are very important to me….and to my art.  Over the years I have been fortunate to live with some wonderful furry characters.  This is just a small way for me to remember and share them with you.  These are the dogs who have been a part of my life since I have lived in Virginia.

Truman is the first fur baby who came to live with me in Virginia when he was just 5 1/2 weeks old.  He was a gift from some wonderful conservative friends.  That’s why he’s named for a democrat.  🙂

He grew up to be a handsome boy.

About three months after Truman arrived we rescued a sweet little black lab mix. We named him Jefferson.  Truman and Jeffie were  best buddies immediately.

He was a very sweet, good-natured boy and a friend to everyone.

Several years after Truman and Jeffie had settled in we learned about a beautiful White Shepherd that was at our shelter that needed a home.  She was 12 years old.  She needed us.  So Miss Boo came into our lives for a short time.  She fit right in.  She was an elegant old lady and we loved her.

Boo was only with us a couple of years and when she was gone we really missed her and decided we needed another girl.

Enter Roosevelt (Eleanor Roosevelt), better known as Rosie.  She was a puppy  mill rescue who spent the first seven years of her life in a horrible place.  Then she came to us.  It took a about a year for her to really feel comfortable with all of us but once she did she was the best little sister.  Actually, she was older than Tru and Jeffie but she was the little girl.

She and Jeffie were great friends and Jeffie really helped to teach Rosie to play and brought her out of her shell.

They were a funny little trio!

Sadly, Jeffie was diagnosed with cancer and we lost him within the week of that terrible news.  It was an awful blow.  We loved him so much and Truman and Rosie were lost without him for quite a while.

Finally Truman and Rosie settled into a comfortable existence without their buddy Jeffie.

Rosie was 12 years old when we lost her.

And it was just me and Truman again for several months.

One night while looking around on Petfinder.com I ran across a photo of a little black lab mix that looked exactly like Jeffie.  We had to go get him.  So off Truman and I went to Ohio in a snow storm in January to pick up Jed.  He was about 1 1/2 years old at the time.  And I liked the name Jed so we decided to alter our presidential name rule to include fictional presidents and we named him Jed Bartlett after the president on The West Wing…we loved that show!

Jed and Truman never became the buddies that Tru and Jeffie had been.  Truman just tolerated Jed and Jed did his best to stay out of Truman’s way.

Truman was 11 years old when we lost him to old age.  He was such a character and gave us many laughs.  We miss him.

Jed and I needed another friend so we went to our shelter and came home with Lincoln.

Lincoln had no trouble fitting right in although he is all puppy and stays in LOTS of trouble.  He’s cute….good thing!  And when people ask me what breed he is I generally tell them that he’s half terrier and half Robin Williams on speed!  He’s wild.

Jed and Lincoln love to play together.  They spend hours at it each day.  They are great fun to watch and bring me lots of joy.

And after many years of just boys, we adopted a little girl.  Meet Mamie Eisenhower, a little Cairn Terrier.  She was 4 when we got her and she is just the life of the party!  She rounded out the family nicely but we were to only have her for a couple of years.  We lost her the day before Thanksgiving 2014 to liver failure.    We were all heartbroken.

Then it was just me and the boys, Jed and Lincoln again.  A couple of years ago we lost Jed.  His health had declines and we hated to say goodbye but it was time. 

Lincoln was devastated as he had NEVER been alone.  He stayed home one day while I was teaching and he was miserable so I started taking him to The Studio….and he LOVED working.  So now he is a full-time employee and goes to work every day.  He was even Employee of the year in 2020 and a forerunner for 2021.  🙂