Blue

Blue - "The Best Dog in the World"

Blue is gone and here are some pictures to remember what a great dog he was.

First, Blue was a gentleman. He wouldn't jump on you nor would he steal food from the kitchen counter when you weren't looking.

Most of all, Blue was a consummate fetcher! He was the best fetching dog ever. If you went into the backyard to sit in the shade and enjoy a cool drink, Blue would assume you were there to play with him and he would bring you a stick. Sometimes he would have a stick ready and just wait for you to appear. On hot summer days, we would often take Blue for a walk before bed. Blue of course would bring us a stick and we would fling it far into the night sky to land somewhere in the sagebrush along the road. Blue would bound off and bring it back in a minute or two! This was a feat that I could never do in the dark and even with some difficulty in the daylight.

Let me back up and begin Blue's story from the beginning.

About a year after we moved to El Malecon, Carol and Anne took a tennis ball to the pound to audition dogs that could fetch. Ten dollars later, they came home with Blue in the summer of 1997.

We didn't take a lot of pictures until we had a digital camera. This picture was from September, 1998.

Blue and Zippy watch as Carol cleans up the corral after the horses and chickens, December, 1999.

Blue loved to go camping with us. When we would start to load up the Airstream at home, Blue would come lay beside it to be sure that we remembered to take him along.

Here he is with Carol and John Jr. at Jemez Falls July, 2005.

Albuquerque had a rare snowfall over Christmas 2006. We took Blue and Echo for a walk and snapped this picture with Andrew, Victor, Carlena, Janet, Anne, me, Scott, Marccus and Carol. Blue had lots of friends and introduced us to the nicest people.

Not only did Blue like to fetch, he liked really big sticks!

The dog family is growing with Blue, Carla and Echo.

Carla with Carol and Blue exuberantly bounding through the snow.

Carol got a double stroller and we would load up Thomas and Lauren for a dog walk with Blue, Echo and Carla.

Blue joins Carol, Autumn and Lauren on a hayride.

Casey and Lane came to visit that summer and liked to go on dog walks too.

After a walk in the heat, our fountain was a popular cooling off place.

Another popular activity was to load up the dogs in the Harley and head to the river.

The dogs would chase our sticks until we were all exhausted.

A sweet picture with the boys in the hammock and Lane hugging Blue. If you look closely, you will see Blue has a tennis ball in his mouth.

Another winter and Blue is trying to entice us into a game of stick while we are soaking in the hot tub.

Carol introduces Conner to Blue and the tennis ball game.

We acquire a parcel of land in Regina and Blue thinks it's perfect. It is cooler, has more hills and more sticks than El Malecon.

By this time, Echo and Carla have been together and we have Hector, the pup. The ridge in the background is on the Continental Divide.

Blue introduces Hector to sticks.

Did I mention that Blue liked really big sticks?

Anne joins us for a day at the Regina land.

Here we were at Vista Point where Blue remains forever more.