a girl and her dog

I recently had the pleasure of photographing my cousin's dog for her. And through the lens of my camera I saw something so familiar during one photo that it made me smile right to my very core....the kind of smile you feel in your heart. It was the same kind of smile that I get when I see an elderly lady in our neighbourhood walking her Maltese....a little dog also in her twilight years. What I see in both these cases that is so familiar....that makes my heart smile so...is me and Sophie.




I have come to realize this: It doesn't matter if you are a sixteen-year old girl with a new puppy with your whole lives ahead of you....both of you learning to walk in this world together as you become the adults you are going to be, as you decide which paths you are going take with each other. Or if you are a thirty-something year old woman with a five-year old Border Collie, a pair that found one another when it mattered most, that have blazed some important trails together, that are looking forward to the next fork in the road they take together. Or if you are a seventy-year old lady with a mature and dainty Maltese....now able to reminsce about the footprints and pawprints you have left on this earth together, both with hearts that are full from your life with one another. It doesn't matter what breed the dog is or how old the owner is or how long they have been together, because once you strip away all those details...what is left is just a girl and her dog. What is left is their love....and that love brings that dog great joy. And that love makes that girl soar.