My Buddy Luther

This was a fun project. Rather than traditional pencils and pens, I used my Bamboo Tablet and stylus and drew freehand this picture of Luther from a photo I took on my birthday, almost a month ago. Then I saved it as a .png and placed the drawing on the layout. Here's what the journaling says...

"OK, it took me long enough! I’ve been wanting to draw
or paint Luther since I first held him in Montana.
He just captured my heart! I have a huge emotional
attachment to this dog and I’d like to think he shares
some of that bonding. I’ve been fortunate to have had
some exceptional animals--dogs, cats, horses--that
God has put into my care, and Luther is the icing
on the cake." I love you, Luth!

Winter Water

Jim Elam let me run Luther in the field Friday. Luther did great...I got the lesson! In the winter, most water work stops. Friday was an exception. It was in the mid-40's and no wind. Jim Elam set up a couple retrieves in the training pond and all the dogs really loved it. Brad Slaybaugh was visiting and let his lab run the water test, too. The chamois got a good workout drying all the dogs down afterwards. I was manually focusing my camera and missed the really great shot of Luther jumping off the shore and as a last resort I used it in the background of the layout.

I hadn't seen Luther for about 3 weeks--since he left our house from his Christmas visit. Luther knew when we'd arrived--the sound of my car engine, smell, voices. He was so happy his tail sounded like a loud machine gun hitting the walls of his box on Jim's new dog truck. We are fortunate that our presence does not affect his performance. He's dead serious when there's a retrieve to be fetched. It's like he flips a switch and says, "I've got more important things to do now!" All focused!

DinnerTime

Luther is a Chow Hound! I guess most labs are. He has a 6th sense about what time it is and he lets me know when it is time to eat. I'll talk to Luther and tell him he has to wait another 10 or 20 minutes and he'll give me those melting eyes--so pitiful. Jimmy has a rule about Luther's food...Luther doesn't eat our food and we don't eat his!