Today would have been the 16th birthday of my dog Calliope!  

Fifteen years old is pretty old for a lab/Shepard mix and  unfortunately we had to put her to sleep on New Years Eve  - today I miss her quite a bit. Its been a few months now but with spring here and the opportunity to be outside I find myself missing her more – she used to love to go outside with me when I would work in the garden or take a nap in the hammock.

When I first got into wedding photography she was my off season model – I thought what better way to learn how to shoot a white bride next to a groom in a black tux than to take her outside in the snow and practice – but she was having none of it!  She used to walk away from me all the time and I had hundreds of shots of her shoulder or her backside!  So I was not only learning how to shoot black and white together but how to shoot motion.

She used to love to ride in the car with me, and have a vanilla cone on her birthday, and go outside and lay on the  grass under the evergreen tree in the front of the house.  This past fall she stopped loving those things as much and she started to get some of the symptoms that old people get – she was forgetful and she would be confused and sometimes she didn’t really know who I was.  It was heartbreaking and very difficult to see her deteriorate.   Around Christmas we realized it was time, even though it broke my heart. 

As I said she hated having her picture taken.  When my sisters came over to go to the vets with me I asked Kim to take some pictures of Cali and I.  For the first time in 15 years she stood still and let someone take her picture.  This picture is one of the ones Kim took and is the only picture I have of her and I where she isn’t walking out of frame!  I was so grateful that Cali gave me these pictures of her and I.    I miss you Calliope and I didn’t forget your birthday!

-a