Dog's Eye View
Lillie, a Bassett Hound who shares a residence with a good friend of mine, gives me the eye through a special opening in the gate to her territory.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Pine Buff, Arkansas
Author’s Note:
Next to our own dogs (we're down to just two now), I suspect that Lillie, a Basset Hound who shares space with my friend Dick Warriner, is about my favorite. When she was younger, before I had satisfied her with my credentials for my person in her space, she would announce my presence with a bark that would put up a good decibel fight with the organ in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. By the time I took this picture on Super Bowl Sunday in 2012, I was old hat to her and deserved only a curious look. The port in the gate from which she peers is as special as she is. Read the story below. It will make you feel good.
Thanks,
Joe
PS: Hope to venture out next week, but who knows. J.
Taking Care of Lillie
Here's a good look at the gate with the Bassett hole. Congratulations to Dick Warriner for taking care of his companion in a special way.
Nose-High to a Bassett
First Published on Sunday, February 5, 2012
Pine Buff, Arkansas
My good friend Dick Warrinerrecently replaced the gate from his driveway to his yard — and not a minute too soon. In my travels, I have observed crumbling barns in better shape than that gate. But then Mr. Warriner is legendary for squeezing the last bit of value from anything in his possession.
When he installed the new gate, to his credit, he made an accommodation for his companion Lillie, a fine and feisty Bassett Hound. When I first saw the new gate with a nice-sized hole about nose-high to a Bassett, figuring out why it was there was not a Mensa problem.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Dick completes preparation of a stock pot full of gumbo, the real thing, brimming with okra, smoked cajun sausage, smoked duck — and no telling what else. Regardless of the uncounted secret ingredients, the results are always the same. GOOD! As I approached the gate to pick up my gumbo, Lillie presented herself at her hole, properly greeting the guests she knows and warning those she doesn't that caution is a wise course of action. It obviously did not take her long to figure the purpose of the hole either.
Lillie is a rescue. She presented herself to Dick in the White River bottoms. She was emaciated, flea-bitten, and tick infested, but with a good attitude. Dick saw a jewel in the rough, and the rest is history. Which gives us all something to be glad about.
Nikon D300, ISO 200, Nikon AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200 G ED, all. Lillie, 1/25@f5.6. Gate, 1/40@f4. Post Processed with Photoshop CS5 Extended.
See another
picture of Lillie and her gate
at Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind,
along with an example
of how to make a flower garden
out of an old service station gas island.
Also some wild posies. Click and go!
