Fast Eddie!

Show me a Golden Retriever and I'll show you a ball-loving dog. I'll also show you a handsome, photogenic dog. Eddie was no exception.

As I arrived at the house, Eddie immediately invited me to play ball.

 

Eddie is three but has the energy of a puppy. It was sometimes a challenge to capture him crisply because he moved so quickly (and with an increasingly rainy and darkening sky, satisfactory light was hard to come by), but a little persistence took care of that.

He was encouraged to do a few tricks, including carrying his leash

 

and making himself at home on the neighbor's trampoline.

His most amazing trick, however, was the ease with which he could scale a standard chain-link fence, a feat I tried very hard to capture on camera with hit-and-miss success. He was just sooo fast.

But the enduring image of Eddie was of a happy dog obsessed with his ball.

Golden Retrievers, you have a blanket invitation to enter my camera!

Freddie Forever

For as long as I photograph dogs, there's unlikely to be any other experience quite as emotionally tugging as this one. I had met Freddie, a 10-year-old orange Golden Retriever, twice before on visits to Seattle, but knew that this would be the last time I'd see him as we was in the late stages of lymphoma. I came out to care for him (he was one of my favorite dogs) while his owner was away, and took advantage of the opportunity to capture images of Freddie that his owner would always cherish.

One thing I quickly learned about Freddie is that when he decided to sit down he practically became immovable. He become particularly "stuck" when laying on cool pavement.

After a walk, he would insist on laying down right smack in the middle of the garage area of the townhouse development. From a distance, he would almost seem dead but to residents familiar with Freddie's behavior it was merely a sign that all was right with the world.

Freddie was a mainstay in any field containing a tennis ball as well as in Lake Washington.

Although Freddie struggled to get into the car in his last months, it was something he loved doing. In a lot of ways, it seemed he was in the driver's seat.

Needless to say I became attached to Freddie in the nine days I spent with him.

Less than a week after my visit Freddie was euthanized. I was pleased to create lasting memories of him for a good friend.