I have lots of  photos from Jon Farleigh's dad Sam's 13th birthday party yesterday, and I plan to share them later this week. This magical one, though, simply refuses to reside on my hard drive for another second. Please enjoy it and its beautiful back story. 

*****

While most of us were busy reacquainting with the "Samily" of red dogs, there was a young boy, maybe 12, taking a Sunday car ride with his family.

Not just any car ride, though. It was a ride that, as he anticipated it in bed the night before, probably, had deprived him of sleep. But in a good way.

It was a ride that, on any other early-morning Sunday, might have been short, mundane-maybe even a nuisance. But not this day.

No, on this day, the ride lasted F O R E V E R. Until that last little stretch, when the pounding of his heart and racing of his mind, swirled all the colors of the passing landscape into a blurry image from his dreams...

(Can you hear the whisper of his every shallow breath?)

And then, JUST LIKE THAT!

The boy and his family had arrived...to the place where they'd been instructed to look for the red-coated dogs with "uncanny" resemblance. That's how they'd know they were in the right place.

  

The boy was about to meet his puppy.
The puppy was about to meet his boy.

~~ ❈~~

I wonder how the boy knew it was his puppy?

Perhaps it was because his hand and thigh, together with the puppy's head (not unlike the slipper and Cinderella's foot), were a perfect fit.

*****

Note: The Cardigan Welsh corgi puppy in the photo is Sully, and Sully is with his new boy, Max. At last update, they are getting along beautifully!

Have you ever stood in your bathroom and thought about all the different words we use in English for dogs and cats? No? Well, I have, so no worries. 

Don't ask me what sparked it (I can't remember), the point is, if one starts with the basic English words "dog," "cat," "puppy" and "kitten," and continues to list derivations of these words, one could possibly be left with some interesting questions to ponder. 

See if you agree:

Things that make me go hmm:

P.S. The "catty" photo caption is a modified pop culture reference. 25 (brag) points to the first person who can correctly say from where! (Fine, it's Mean Girls-25 points for all!)

* IMPORTANT UPDATE: It occurs to me that a (sort of, with an added "naughty/bad-girl," connotation) synonym for the term "catty" is "hussy" (defined HERE, Google, and HERE), which, if one were trying to use covertly--perhaps to sell something, could change to "husky," which is, in fact, a dog breed. Point being, let's give credit to both cats and dogs for the female slang terms that we've all come to appreciate, mostly, in a lighthearted** way. 😉

** Lighthearted, in a sarcastic way, if you prefer, or not. I mean, it depends on the context of how the slang word is used, and who's saying it, and to whom, right? (My gosh, I wrote the original of this post in 2013, before Me Too. I had NO idea how relevant (in a satirical way) this post would become, five years later, at the time.