Wednesday, August 22, 2007

For the Love of Huskies

I just finished my latest original watercolor of a Siberian Husky. It was inspired by my dog, Chaise, who was lost last year. He was a sweet dog and I miss him.


I have been a Siberian Husky lover for many years. It started way back when my husband and I were first married. We were at the University of Illinois in Champaign- Urbana. A friend of ours was working at the local humane society and told us about a dog that was just brought in. The dog had been chained up his whole life and had a severe case of worms. He was very sick and the vet didn't know if he was going to make it. We went down to see him and we just fell in love. How could anyone mistreat this beautiful Siberian Husky dog? We adopted him on the spot and so began our 10 year relationship with our dog, Wolfe.

I remember a few weeks later we took him to Allerton Park near the University and we let him off his leash to explore. He took off and we couldn't find him. We climbed the nearest hill and called his name over and over again. After about 10 or 15 minutes, we saw him through the trees and he followed our voices back to us.

When we moved to the West Coast, he came with us. We backpacked and camped with him everywhere. Wolfe would go jogging with my husband but as he grew older, his arthritis flared up and he could only go part way, sit and wait patiently while my husband did his loop. Then Wolfe would rejoin my husband on the jog back home . That dog was smart. Sadly he passed away when he was 12 years old. To others, he was just a dog but to us he was a friend, a great companion and we miss him to this day.

2 comments:

BetteJo said...

Beautiful painting!
I understand the attachment to pets, mine are cats tho.

We have one who has a death wish and I have had her at the hospital and spent copious amounts of money to make her well. And when we thought she was dying, I cried more than the kids!

Sounds like Wolfe was a great companion!

palette48 said...

Thanks Bette Jo,

I know what you mean about how much the pets mean to us. I cried too when we had to put our dogs down and when I had to put my horse down too. That was just so hard.