Thursday Challenge: Pets -

"Taffy"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

Pets is this week's theme at Thursday Challenge so I went rummaging through the stacks looking for some of the beautiful animals I had while growing up. Taffy, named for his creamy, copper color was a Cocker Spaniel with one of the most even tempered personalities I can recall of any dog that my maternal grandmother picked for us from a particularly large litter. He was one of her best stud dogs and, for my father, the absolute best bird dog you've ever seen in the field. I recall many an enjoyable weekend walking through boggy woods in waist hight cattail and foxtail with dad and that dog. You could see the waving stalks as Taffy worked right to left and back again, ever outward, flushing out game cocks and hens. Every once in a while you'd see this dog jump straight up in the air, spinning to get his bearings and to assess the direction my father was walking in. Sadly, he had epilepsy and didn't last more than a decade or so, but while we had him, what a sweet, loving pet he was.