Tender Portraits Photography

Let’s start the week off right, with a Valentine’s Day/Love post by Elise Keister….

Justin and I hadn’t been dating two months when we decided to take my dog Louis to Pottawatomie Lake for an evening venture. I was graduating from K-State the next weekend and we were in search of a picnic site to have an after-ceremony barbeque.

Louis is my lovable, at times unintentionally unruly, cocker spaniel.  At the age of 7, Louis had the discipline of a much younger dog.  When given the opportunity of an open area with no leash, Louis became deaf to most commands, especially those made in a high-pitched shriek. Many concluded this was because of an underlying identity crisis Louis was going through; when I adopted him from an animal shelter, he was known as “Brady.”

Several evenings outside my apartment in Manhattan, Justin would walk with my dog and me, persuading me to take Louis off the leash:

“You worried he’s going to run away?”

An image played in my mind of Louis’s nose at my apartment door as my sister innocently turned the knob to go outside.  I remembered the aftermath of several parked cars in the middle of the street while a member of the FIJI house held Louis by the collar.  The leash was not coming off, no way Jose.

Justin couldn’t get me to budge inside city limits, but that day at the lake was different. No moving vehicles were around and there were some friendly fisher people nearby if worse came to worse. I apparently had a wild hair.

I trusted Justin, so for the first few moments after we took Louis’s leash off, I felt okay.  No horrifying images replayed in my head.  Louis nosed around in the leaves near the water.  I held my breath as a squirrel scurried in the trees overhead.  And Justin marveled, see, what was I worried about?

My complacency withered away in the next few seconds as Louis’s nose-to-the-ground sauntering turned into a brisk trot, and then into a dead sprint.  Justin and I started chasing after him, past the well-meaning fisher people who pointed and yelled (thanks, but no thanks) and up onto the dam.  With the lake to his left, Louis cut to the right, I suppose thinking he would gain more momentum going downhill.  I quickly became winded and fell back as Justin pressed on, (but I went to the gym more, so how is that fair that he has more stamina anyway?)

Louis was running straight for the thick brush on the down side of the dam and there just happened to be twenty or so cattle a few hundred yards away.  Justin stayed on him.  He later admitted at that point he could taste blood in his mouth, but wasn’t going to stop running.  I wondered how he was going to bring Louis back if he ever did stop, since I had the leash and had only made it halfway down the dam.

Louis sped towards the cattle and barked a few times, just enough to send them running in a fan-like pattern, as cows do.  Then, as if by some miracle, he retreated and noticed for the first time that Justin was behind him.  When I have to chase Louis and we reach this familiar turning point, he recognizes me but continues to disregard my commands, blowing my “hard of hearing” theory out of the water.  But I think Justin’s agitation and sheer anger was a side of him Louis hadn’t seen before, and he was intrigued enough to come back.  Justin picked him up like a 30-pound sack of potatoes and started back up the dam (at that point probably tasting his kidneys in his mouth).

I met them halfway up with the leash, giving Louis the “bad dog” speech.  I couldn’t tell if Justin was upset, embarrassed, or relieved, but he was certainly exhausted. We made it to the top of the dam and were glad to have level walking ground, but not so much having to face the fisher people again.  We exchanged uncomfortable smiles and commentary:

“Glad you caught up to him.”

“Thanks, it’s just that he’s never been to the lake before.”

We walked over to a picnic table near the water and sat down, tying Louis’s leash to the table leg.  Justin told me the whole time he was running, he was thinking that if he didn’t catch Louis I would never want to see him again.  I told him that was ridiculous, but it would be pretty awful if Louis ran away and we never got him back.  He agreed.  We sat there and talked for a while, discussing the sequence of events over again.  Justin and I do that a lot in conversation, as if to make two experiences one complete story.

After that, Justin took an initiative to whip Louis into shape; this was no way for a dog to act, even if he did look at you those big doe eyes, urging you just to love him.  We spent more time together and Justin began taking Louis for walks by himself.  Since most dogs take quickly to Justin, he’d worried early on that there wouldn’t be much hope for our relationship if my dog didn’t like him.  He made it a point for Louis to like and respect him.  On their walks, Justin began letting go of Louis’s leash, and he would step on it if Louis started to bolt.  Soon, Louis was a different, more mindful dog because of Justin and I didn’t worry about Louis running away anymore.  Although we get a kick out of the thought of Louis doing his business on the fraternity lawns around my apartment, those walks are some of our favorite memories.

That summer I bought a new collar tag for Louis and I put both our phone numbers on the back.  Ever since then, Louis has been “our” dog.

FYI:  The winner of the Share the Love February contest has been chosen using Random.org.  Thank you to everyone for participating.  Be on the lookout for more contests throughout the year.  Winner….Amber….congrats and I will be in touch with you shortly!