I also though about titling this blog entry “. . .and a partridge in a pear tree” or “Seeing Quadruple.”
Our home was blessed yesterday with the presence of four – count ‘em – golden retrievers. Two were our own, of course, and the two visitors came with Kathy’s cousin Linda, her veterinarian husband Doug, and their son Tim. The immediate reason for the visit was that Linda is going to put together a tribute / history of the Gall family in book form, and she wanted us around a table to share pictures, memories, etc. The two furry friends were just a bonus, and what a delightful addition to the proceedings they were!
One of the two is “Haley,” who is Bobbi’s sister – (Bobbi is our youngest) – and those two were absolutely inseparable all day long. The other guest was Sydney, who is much shyer and hesitant – and gorgeous – who reminded us a bit of Ellie, our oldest.
Our first good idea was making sure that the first encounter between the dogs happened outside, where they could get as rambunctious as they wanted. After that, they just had tons of fun, and managed to do so without doing serious harm to themselves, their human masters, or anything breakable in our house. (Doug’s socks were the only casualty of the day.) The most fun, in some ways, was during lunch when all four dogs relaxed underneath the dining room table at our collective feet while the humans up above were swapping stories about Grandpa and Grandma Gall. What a joy – although Polly said it well at one point when she simply exclaimed “this is SO weird!” . . . it felt like we were seeing things and one was tempted to rub one’s eyes. But they were really there, and we are already talking about returning the favor and heading over to Indiana with our two lovelies in tow sometime soon.
pictured above: left to right: Bobbi, Sydney, Ellie, and Haley, with Cousin Linda.