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Friday 5 December 2014

Sepia Saturday - Man's Best Friend

 

Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity to share their family history through photographs.

Man's Best Friend had to be my theme for this week. 

 The fashions are probably more  of interest than the dogs in these  first  photos featured here from husband's album. 
My husband's older brother, well wrapped up in his thick coat, cap and gaiters - 
with his best friend, c.1937



Solemn expressions from my husband's grandmother  with her granddaughter and dog Beauty,


  That hat stands out more in this picture taken on the cliffs near  South Shields. 

 We move on several decades.  Our daughter was 5 years old and Crufts Dog Championships Show was on television - how could we resist that combination. The result by the summer was that Beauty a golden cocker spaniel became part of the family.




Daughter and her cousin with their respective pets  - enjoying the beach at South Shields 


It was a sad time when we lost Beauty at the age of nine, and we said we would not go through that again. Bur surreptitiously we were all looking at adverts in the loval papers, and within a month we had Colleen - a 2 year old gentle blue roan cocker

Colleen died suddenty at seven years old at a time when there were other stresses in the family. We could not imagine family life without a dog and that had to be a cocker spaniel.   So within a few months we had puppy Casmir (Cass) - an orange roan cocker - she had such a distinctive colouring, she became well known around our small town and lived to the grand age of 13.  A pet and great friend of all the family. 

 

 



 
And finally our  litle granddaughter surrounded by her menagerie - including at the front,her favourite  Puppy Dog.


Click HERE to read tales from other bloggers of men, boys, steps and dogs.



Copyright © 2014 · Susan Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved

14 comments:

  1. I don't know what a "blue roan" cocker is, but my family had a black-and-white cocker when I was a baby that looked a lot like Colleen.

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  2. Cocker Spaniels are such lovely dogs and you seem to have been blessed with your family pets. Lovely photos.

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  3. Mine as well! Lovely photos all of them.

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  4. Cute pictures! Your mention of Cocker Spaniels & a dog show reminded me of years ago when I worked with a fellow who had 3 beautiful Cocker Spaniels he entered in dog shows. I was appalled at his treatment of them before the shows. If they needed to eat after they had been show-groomed, he would clip their ears together atop their heads so they wouldn't get dirty. I thought that was awful, but maybe the dogs didn't care?

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  5. Have always wanted a tri-color -- but a springer spaniel more than a cocker! That German shepherd IS a beauty!

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  6. That last picture reminded me of a time I walked by my daughter's stuffed animal filled bed and didn't notice the live dog right sleeping right in the middle of them. :)

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  7. The photo of your husband's brother and his toy dog is very sweet - it is a toy, isn't it??

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  8. There' something special about cocker spaniels isn't there? Close family friends had a roan cocker spaniel called Sal and I still have difficulty believing that she is not with us anymore.

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  9. Love the one of your grandmother-in-law and the German Shepherd. It's the perfect dog pose, I think.

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  10. Cockers seem to be a favourite dog at the moment as I see several every week. A friend of my wife used to have two beautiful roan cockers which won many show prizes.

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  11. I used to have a stuffed dog like the one in the first picture.

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  12. Dogs are wonderful companions. We have had so many lovely dogs over the length of our 41 year marriage and had the last two die of old age just this year. This is the first time we have ever been without a dog - it seems a little strange.

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  13. Thank you to everyone for their kind comments. Our pets were all such wonderful companions and true friends of the family.

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  14. Your granddaughter is a precious cutie to end these posts...we do love our animals and yes , very hard t o say farewell to them...they are all to human parts of us.

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