Welcome to my blog Upstate Girl, (a.k.a Follow Your Bliss Part II), I am an independently published author. This blog is all about writing and the stuff that inspires me to write, the joys and obstacles that come along with the writer's life, and my fascination with the psychology of people and what makes them tick...the human condition, as is...and my love for words, playing with them and making sense of them...and I throw in a few photos from my acre of the world just to make things pretty...sometimes there are things I have no words for, only pictures will do.

*Copyright notice* All photos, writing, and artwork are mine (
© Laura J. Wellner), unless otherwise noted, please be a peach, if you'd like to use my work for a project or you just love it and must have it, message me and we'll work out the details...it's simple...JUST ASK, please.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Max, the passing of one of the best of good boys

Max


October 20, 1999-December 16, 2013

He had a nice walk this morning, fresh snow (his favorite), and then while he took a nap, I snapped a few photos of him sleeping, such a good dog, the best of good boys. He's been slipping away from me slowly for quite some time, at the most, for two years since we suspected that he had a brain tumor. Other than this suspicion, I've watched the aging process do its thing to my old friend who has been with me since he shyly tip-toed into my yard one spring day twelve years ago, smelling like skunk and needing someone to look after him...a needy type.



His former owners no longer wanted him, they gave him away to us, saying he was an "escape artist"...well, he never ran away from us, we paid attention to him, we didn't forget about him. He was with me every day, I walked him, talked to him, worked in the garden with him nearby, photographed the wonders that I found on our one acre of the world during our walks, and he was there while I wrote my novels in their early drafts, his steady and quiet presence always there, waiting, watching my every move, always patient...he learned that the sound of my thumb drive connecting with my laptop meant that we will be going for a walk soon, so he'd jump up, ears perked and tail wagging.

He loved the snow
sniffing for baby bunnies
 Once the skunk smell cleared off him, he carried the smell of the beach on his fur...a warm sweet smell that I will never forget...he never lost it, he still smelled good even as an old fella...most old dogs don't...
11/29/2013

Because of thunderstorms, he would hide in the bathroom, bunching up the rugs to create a bunker for hiding in...

Sniffing for stories

He made doggy snow angels...

He loved his cats...

...and they loved him...Tiggy-Pooh especially...

Max in the daisies...

He really did not like having his picture taken...

...and because of his being so camera shy, I have a lot of pictures of the back of his head...


Watching the world go by...

The best of good boys!
I cannot say enough how much I will miss him...but I've been missing him before he actually left, his dementia took him away from me a little bit at a time...it was rare these last few days that I could see the dog that I knew in his eyes...and it got harder and harder each day to have him know me like he used to...

Rest in peace old friend...