Trades/Professions - Sunday Stamps

Greetings from the USA this week where we are staying with my daughter, her husband and three dogs. Yesterday was a bit traumatic as Gem, her oldest dog, had to be put to sleep after a remarkable 15 and a half years. Gem was the last of the original "Gang of Four."

The lady vet from the Lap of Love, a veterinary hospice was a true professional. However I do not have a stamp that is appropriate for her.

Nevertheless I was surprised to find how many stamps meet Viridian's 'trade/professions' theme.

Algeria - Job Mechanics; 18 April 1965

Hungary - Welder series 1955

Lebanon - Potters work

Iceland - Nurse and patient

This stamp was issued on 19 June 1970 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Icelandic Nurses Association.

My last stamp this week is from Tunisia.

Tunisia - Nass-work - Handicrafts; 15 August 1979

I was pleased to be able to include my one and only stamp from Algeria as the theme forced me to identify what it represented.

I wonder whether anyone will have a stamp of a philatelist this week. To find out you will have to check the links at Sunday-Stamps-193.

A-Z Challenge - 'Z'

Z - Zounds! It's Zara

Well I've made it to 'Z' again and still feel astounded that I managed to find dogs to get here from 'A'.

An Alsatian pup name Alfie featured at the start of the Challenge. At the end there's another Alsatian.

A young Alsatian named Zara

I used to meet Zara in the village but unfortunately she became very territorial and attacked the postmen. On her lead she was as gentle as could be, but she has had to give way to the Labrador pups that appeared under 'L'

I must pay tribute to all the dogs that I have met personally; not one objected to being photographed. I suspect however that owners in the village will be pleased that only their legs and shoes appeared in the shots.

My special thanks to my daughter's dogs - Sam, Maxie, Gem. Jack, Cody, Scout and Lily, not forgetting Gabby the Golden Labrador who has made up the latest "Gang of Four" in Michigan.

The Gang of Four (No. 3) - Gem, Gabby, Scout and Lily

And by the way Gem had her 15th birthday recently.

Sam was my daughter's first dog. He appeared earlier in the Challenge with his sister Maxie.

This is the tribute to Sam written for him after he had been put to sleep in 2010.

Sam Was My Good Boy

"Sam was my first dog. He was such a good boy.

Good? Maybe not—at least not at his first home in Troy.

The words “come” and “no” and the electric fence meant nothing to him.

And he was a lab, yet he couldn’t fetch, retrieve, or even swim.

Sam was my first dog. Okay, maybe he was “kind of” good.

Chasing deer in their new home, he and Moo would escape through the wood

They’d come home with deer parts, possums and the occasional mouse

And traipse their big dirty paws throughout the whole house.

Sam was my first dog. But he really was good.

He never fought for food, chewed up shoes, or rolled in mud.

When the new rescue dog, Jack, tried to eat his food and bite his nose--he didn’t mind.

When Jack was sick, it was always Sam who would lie with him—he was SO kind.

Sam was my first dog. And, YES, he was a good boy.

From the day we chose each other, he brought me so much joy.

Even when he went blind and had to live in the dark,

He still took himself for walks and played, and, boy, did he still love to bark.

Sam was my first dog. He was good and I love him still

He holds a place in my heart that no one will ever fill."                          

A-Z Challenge 2014 - 'R'

R - Rottweiler, Retriever

Crufts, The greatest dog show in the world, has been on while I have drafted some posts for this year's Challenge. The Best in Breed for the Working Group turned out to be Barney, a Rottweiler. 

I don't have any photos of him but it just so happens that a five months-old puppy has recently come to live in my village.

Max - Rottweiler puppy

Max walks quite well on a lead even at this age and he is getting used to meeting people. Now that he recognises me he wants to play and not sit still to be photographed.

Max

Rottweilers are an ancient breed once used in wild-boar hunting and as a cattle dog. More recently they have been used for police work and as guard dogs.

I introduced you to the "Gang of Four" under 'L' for Labrador.Now it's the Retriever's turn in a second "Gang of Four," also owned by my daughter and her husband.

Black Lab Mutt (Gem), Retrievers - Cody, Scout and Lily

Cody and Scout were special mates since they came from the same breeder. Cody had been cared for there for a long time after his owner died. When Scout was a puppy and and the breeders had a licensing problem their dogs were being taken into care while the problem was sorted out. When the premises were being cleared Cody had hidden Scout in a cupboard and laid down in front of the door so that he would not be found.

They were both 'loaned' out with number of other dogs to stay with Gem and blind Sam (see 'L'). Cody and Scout proved inseparable and they stayed when the other dogs went back. After Sam passed on the new "Gang of Four" was formed when they were joined by Lily, a Golden Retriever puppy.

Cody being teased by Scout

Cody died last summer. He was a dog who had some favourite positions, usually spreadeagled on the floor.

With one eye on his tennis ball

They all like swimming in the lake, probably Scout most of all.

Scout coming back to land

Lily, looking angelic

But as befits the youngest she's the one always in trouble.

Anyone would think she had had a busy day

A-Z Challenger 2014 - 'M'

M - Maltese. Mongrel/Mutt, Matriarch

I always knew what this post would be about. It just had to about Gem, the black Labrador Mutt, in the gang of four that appeared in yesterday's post.

However just so that you don't think I'm biased I'll include a picture of a breed of dog that I have never seen. She is a toy dog; one of those descended from dogs originating in the Central Mediterranean area.

"Vairette", a Maltese at a Championship in Birmingham
(By Sannse , 29 August 2003, CC BY-SA 3.0)

But in the "Gang of Four" the two Golden Labradors were the original "Dogs of Troy" and with pedigrees felt they were above such lowly beings as 'mutts.' I let them tell you the story of how Gem changed their minds.

"We had just got our new home sussed when one fateful day we ran out of food. We were left on our own while the mad English woman and the man that also feeds us went out in their car – we thought to buy some more. Then shock and awe, (a phrase we used way before George Bush had heard of it), they came back from the pet store with more than a supply of food.

With them was a small black bundle of fur with legs at each corner. Now we had to share our home with Gem, a six-week old puppy which had been left at the rescue centre in the store. We were not too sure what we should do. After all, we were upmarket pedigree dogs while Gem was just a black lab mutt and a refugee.

Gem, the mutt

We soon learnt as Gem grew bigger that she was smarter than she looked – how could such a young pup have become so ‘streetwise’ at such young an age? Nevertheless we had to teach her not to gnaw things that did not belong to her and not to pee on the kitchen floor. Outside she was such a little thing that the English woman with long legs had to bend right down to stroke and make a fuss of her.

Gem gets some attention

 We were more considerate as by this time we were tall enough to be stroked without anyone having to bend down and anyway we had learnt how to climb and sit on the furniture – how we liked the settee and the soft chairs. Mind you all three of us had to sleep in the garage with two cars.

Her fur  different to ours and when it grew long and it was a hot summer she was taken back to the pet store to have it clipped. She hated it! The first time she went she really showed what she thought of the indignity because when the mad English woman went to collect her she rushed out of the store and across the road and climbed into the front seat of the first car she saw with an open door. You must have thought she was going to be left behind. We can imagine what the car driver thought on being attacked by a black projectile as Gem hurtled in. The mad English woman had to rescue her and apologise on Gem’s behalf. Gem now is calmer when she’s sheared – but she doesn’t have to like it.

Houdini would have been a better name for Gem. It wasn’t long before she perfected ways of escaping from our corral. She could always find that loose bit of wire under which she could squeeze even if she had to dig a hole first. Before she was big enough to jump the fence she perfected a technique of climbing it, balancing on the top prior to making yet another break. Many times when those that feed us came home she would be sitting outside the fence and they never knew how she had got there.

Gem in 2013

Years later Gem became the star at an Olympics for disabled children in Michigan, despite the fact that she had had no training for this. She just loves being the centre of attention and being fondled. The fact that she was allowed to lick their faces made her day.

Incidentally we should explain that the three of us don’t really think our English woman is mad. It’s just that other humans think she and her husband must be mad to keep three dogs. We can imagine what they thought when, a year after Gem joined us, and three dogs at Deer Trail became four with the addition of a chocolate brown Labrador called Jack. With his arrival the pack, known as "The Gang of Four" was complete."

It was Maxie (on the right) who was the 'Matriarch' of the "Gang". Guess who has become the 'Matriarch' of a gang in her old age. (You''ll meet Gem's gang later under the letter 'R'.)

Gem, the Matriarch

Not bad for just a mutt!

(Depending on the source a mongrel or mutt is defined as|:

• A dog of no definable type or breed.
• A dog not the result of breeding and belonging to no breed.

Gem would feel insulted!)

When it comes to dogs I meet in the village one of the most nervous dogs I met  could also be classed as a mutt although there's a lot of the Border Collie in her.

Skye

When I was walking behind her she looked back, nearly every step, apparently worried at my presence. It took a long time, almost a year, for her to get over this. Now I'm pleased to say she comes to meet me and waits to be stoked before barking quietly to show her pleasure.