Return to Gracie's Crate

(NOTE: Large portions of this post were previously published on my blog My Runner's Feet. It is the positive response I received from that post that prompted me to return to update Gracie's Crate.)

It seems like I've had about thirty different blogs going at any given time. However, I find it too difficult to manage more than one blog at a time, so those that don't relate to an activity that I engage in with a degree of regularity, fall by the wayside.

Gracie's Crate was (is?) one such blog. I had started the blog as a tribute to our family dog and had hoped to post a picture a day of her doing stoopid pet stuff. It didn't last long... now much later, I'm considering resurrecting the idea, after all for those of us who love animals, how hard is it to take a picture and post it. (I realize, now, that typing those words may come back to haunt me.)

Sitting here, sick and unhappy, I am easily reminded of why I love this animal, and brought back to when we first thought of having her join our family...

When Anne and I were first considering getting a family dog (about four years ago), we thought about few different possible breeds before settling on either an English Springer Spaniel (ESS) or Irish Setter. Anne had owned two Irish Setter's previously (Devon and Logan), but I preferred the idea of (maybe) having a English Springer Spaniel, I reckon, because the breed "ran" a little smaller and the idea of a slightly smaller pup was appealing.

I fell in love with the idea of an ESS after visiting the home of a local lady who had previously purchased two dogs from the same breeder we were considering. When we went to her home, I was amazed at the character and personality her Springer's showed, each having a distinct persona. One behavior that stayed with me after our visit was how much the dogs liked to lay at one's feet, in fact ON your foot... just how close they liked to be to you.

As I sit here recovering from a cold and feeling kind of surly, having Gracie saunter over and lay on my foot (as pictured above to the right) brings me a sense of closeness... I guess I'm becoming one of those weird dog people...

Woof-woof!