Her Life in Pictures: Four

Looking over Mabel Lou's fourth year makes me a little sad. There are no other dogs in most of the photos and I know that must be the year our beloved friend Sarah Jean died.  But my feet were healing and I was loving our creek as much as Mabel was. It made her so happy and I loved seeing her happy.

Whenever people would ask me what kind of mix she was, I was now telling them: Rottweiler, lab, greyhound, billy goat (because of the running up and down and up and down along rock levies), and part pig... because if there was a mud hole, Mabel loved to be in it!

I would later add bed hog and heart stealer to her pedigree. It all just seemed to fit.

But we both seemed to be thriving on the exploration of our creek. The flood the year before had changed so much of the land and the river flowed for 3 years after that storm and just spoiled us! We covered so much of it...just the two of us.

Mabel was such a people dog... she just adored everyone.  It's one of the most sad qualities of every rotten I've ever known. They have this big bad reputation and seriously, most them think the entire world wants to pet them and they seem shocked to realize it just not that way! Luckily, not everyone sees a rott as a big mean dog, but as the big ole baby in a dog suit they really are!

I still remember taking a series of photos (below) of her that summer. I was just shocked at seeing what a big strong girl she had become! Suddenly, she was no longer my puppy Lou.

This is about the time that Mabel started to truly develop her prowess as a great lizard hunter (in her own mind!).  The storm had washed some office putting green down the river and Mabel would toy with one side of it and keep her eyes on the opposite side looking for lizards. I thought this was ingenious until I saw a lizard zoom right between her legs without her noticing. She was still watching the other side of the green golf mat! LOL!

She never stopped loving the chase though... we hunted lizards together the day before she died. She never lost her love of play. I'm so happy that in the week before her death, she chased sticks, her pal Otto, a tennis ball and played with her toys. Her Baby Lou still sleeps with me. I don't have the heart to move her.

Mabel's takeover of every single thing in the house was most certainly complete by this point. My Her bed:

My Her sofa:

And we did make our very first creek friends this year. Baby was an ancient mixed breed who put up with Mabel. Uncle Bill and Ivy were her parents and we loved them too! Mabel is making sure Baby is not trying to steal her tennie ball here.

Mabel was always a fool about "tennie balls".... preferably ones found at the creek instead of new ones. The labradork really came out when the girl had a ball!

It was a beautiful year of hiking...no apologizing for the creek being MIA. Just lots of water and me and the girl out of the trails. I felt like I was forever on her six.

Update on me: I've been working like a maniac... very happy to be earning funds to pay off Mabel's surgery and cremation. And that ear infection from sinus has finally made it into my sinuses. I've been so sick. I'm really behind on blog reading but will be visiting again soon... School will be out in a few weeks and I'll have no income after that... Thanks for understanding! Still missing my baby girl SO MUCH!