Polly

With some time over the holidays I have gotten to some projects that have been waiting for my attention....some for awhile. One of those is a painting of our Springer Spaniel, Polly. We had two Springer Spaniels, Polly and Alex, when we lived in Michigan that were wonderful pets. We lost Alex at a young age in the mid 90's when he twisted a gut and died of a heart attack before we could get the surgery done to hopefully save him. We weren't sure how Polly would deal with his loss as they were inseparable. Besides that fact.....Polly was blind and used Alex as a guide dog. Polly suffered from a condition that is being bred out of the Springer Spaniels.....however....it is a formidable task as it doesn't show up until about age 2 and many females have already been bred at that age. The retina separates from the back of the eye and there is nothing that can be done. However, Polly did fine and adjusted to being without Alex. We had her for many more years. She was a faithful trooper and a loving companion. She lost her hearing and began to suffer from displasia of the hips. She finally started having neurological problems and we would find her turning in circles. With the vet, we decided her quality of life had deteriorated to the point that we needed to put her to sleep. We still think of both Polly and Alex often. I had done a painting of Alex prior to his death (see website under Animals), but had never gotten to Polly although I had a photo that I thought perfectly showed her sweet personality. She was our couch potato and the photo showed her lounging among the bed pillows. I greatly enjoyed doing the painting. It brought back many happy memories as well as the sadness of losing her.