Hannah's Birthday

We would have celebrated our Hannah's 14th birthday today if she were still here with us.  She's been gone 9½ months and I miss her so.

She was my nearly constant companion.  Every room, every coming and going, every morning, afternoon, evening, and night remind me that she's there instead of here with us.

How I wish Hannah were here!  Hugs and Happy Birthday, sweet girl.

--Nancy.

Linda Ronstadt with Two Airedales

This video has two Airedales who appear several times. Watch for them!


I tried to learn whether Linda owned Airedales of her own but haven't found any information to support that.  I love that she takes both 'dales with her as she walks toward the aireplane.

--Nancy.
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Christmases Past (When Life Was Merrier)

Hannah loved Christmas.  She loved helping everyone open their gifts as much as she loved opening her own.  And after the gifts were open there was always the paper to shred!  And it's true what they say:  Life is merrier with an Airedale terrier.  These are photos from Christmas, 2014.

"It's my gift.  I will open it!"

"Oh, this is such fun!"

"Look what I got!  I love these squishy toys!"

"Let me fling it around by myself, squish it between my teeth, and then maybe I'll invite you to play tug."

"Oh, another gift to open."

"See my long-tailed, squeaky toy?"

"But I think I like the squishy, stretchy toy best."

"What?!  No, I'm not giving you one!"

"They are both my new toys and I'm keeping them, thank you very much."

How I missed buying gifts for Hannah and having her help me open gifts this Christmas!

--Nancy.
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So Fast!

Hannah loved a good tuckbuttrun around the yard.

Faster!  Faster!

We cheered her on, encouraging her to pick up speed.

She was too fast for my camera!

Or maybe I just didn't click the button fast enough.

She studiously ignores me.

"I see you have a camera.

I'm not going to look at you."

And she didn't -- until I put the camera away.

Dear Hannah!

--Nancy.
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Boo!

There's no treat tonight, just a trick of the camera to make Hannah's eyes glow.

Happy Halloween!

--Nancy. (without Hannah)
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Hannah at Play in the Leaves

It was such fun to see Hannah play so wholeheartedly!  There's a toy hidden in the leaves, one she tosses, loses in the leaves, digs for, then tosses again, and again, and again....

And the object of her interest?  Can you see it in the photo below?

Here it is. 

A life-like rubber frog!  She loved this frog (as long as it lasted). 

When Hannah felt safe, we saw her youthful exuberance.  These photos were taken when she was 2½, in November, 2008, about six months after she came to live with us.  She'd gained about 6 or 8 pounds (up from about 50 pounds) and was looking good.  She may look overweight but she wasn't.  We learned that her hair grew fast and already needed another clip.

How I love that girl!  Forever missing Hannah.

--Nancy.
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Eleven Years and So Few Good Photos

Hannah was with us more than 11 years, more than 132 months, more than 4,015 days.  How can it be that I have fewer than 700 photographs of her, most of them either out of focus, with her head turned away, her body in motion, or multiples/slight variations of the same image?

February 20, 2009

She came with lots of fears but one of them did not seem to be the camera.  Yet it didn't take her but a few weeks to decide she would not pose for photographs.  She would have the cutest expression or the funniest post, I'd pull out the camera.  She would look straight at the camera then just at the moment when I pushed the button, she would pull her ears back and look away.  These photos show Hannah's camera avoidance techniques.

October 27, 2011

October 27, 2011 - the second try

October 31, 2011

January 2, 2012 - cropped from a larger photo

January 20, 2014

March 17, 2014, first try

March 17, 2014, second try

You may be wondering if I tried using food to get Hannah's attention.  I did!  I was never successful in keeping her attention focused long enough to take a good photo and I often ended up with nose smudges on the camera.

I'm grateful to have a few good photos.

How I miss this darling girl.  I wish I could hold her sweet face in my hands again and give her a kiss on the muzzle, give her an ear rub, and hug the heck out of her.

Missing Hannah.

--Nancy.
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Happy National Dog Day

These are a few of my favorite photos of Hannah for National Dog Day today.

Unwrapping a Christmas gift

Getting ready to grab a toy from the floor

Exuberant play with flowers that aren't hers

Just relaxing

Comfy for a nap

A long-distance ride in the car

Wanna play?

Older Hannah after a bath

How I love her and her beautiful, furry face.  How I miss Hannah.

I hope you hug your Airedale or other dog today for National Dog Day!

--Nancy.

The Game Hannah Made Up

Besides playing tug with the soft rubber toy and catching it -- after she learned to catch popcorn -- Hannah made up a new game.  Sadly, I don't have a video of us playing her game but I'll describe it.

Hannah would bring the toy to me and offer it to play tug.  We tugged for a bit but if it got boring and she let go first and I got it, I would have her sit and tell her to catch, then toss it to her.

She would await the toss.  Usually she caught it and we'd play tug again.  But there were times when, instead of catching it and playing tug, she would use her nose to bounce it back to me.  The first time it happened I was totally surprised.  Really, Hannah, you can do that?!  She was teaching me a new game.  Her aim was pretty good, too, because I rarely had to run after it.  Sometimes I could predict when she would bounce it instead of catching it -- there would be the slightest twitch of her nose.  Other times I had no idea whether the ball would come back to me or she'd catch it.

Occasionally, once in a while, we would toss the ball back and forth several times in a row without anyone catching it or it dropping to the ground.  I was always surprised and impressed that she was able to do this and that she'd made up the game herself.  We called it bounce-n-catch.

Airedales are so creative!

How I love Hannah and loved having her as part of my life!

--Nancy.
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Catch!

Hannah loved these soft, rubber, squeaky toys with long tails.  She seemed to like the white ones best but sometimes we bought other colors.  She went through a lot of them through the years.

She liked to chew on them to make them squeak, bounce them, and play tug with them.  But two can only tug for long before getting bored and the game's over.

She'd been with us a few months when I thought this toy might be a good way to teach Hannah a new word.  I tossed it into the air toward her and said, "Catch."  It bounced off her muzzle onto the floor and she looked at me with a puzzled expression.  She may even have thought, "Why are you throwing my toy at me?"

It takes time and some repetition to teach a new word or command, so I tossed and said "catch" again, with the same result.  No matter that the toy was super soft and wouldn't hurt her, I didn't want to keep hitting her with it so we stopped.

I always thought dogs inherently knew how to catch but they don't.  I suppose many dogs learn the command as puppies but Hannah hadn't.

A few days later I was eating popcorn and realized it could be the perfect way to teach "catch" because it was so lightweight and would also be appealing to Hannah.  I called her to where I was, had her sit, and said "catch" as I tossed a piece of popcorn toward her.  It landed on her muzzle -- and stayed there.  I think her eyes crossed as she tried to see it.  I lifted it off and gave it to her.  I tossed again and the same thing happened, at least six or eight times.  By that time, she was panting and waiting for me to give her a piece of popcorn to eat.

I suddenly realized that I should just try tossing the popcorn into her open mouth.  If my aim were good enough and it landed in her mouth, I hoped she would get the idea of what the word meant even if she hadn't technically caught it.  I missed a few times and she ate the popcorn when I handed it to her.  Finally, once, the popcorn landed in her mouth.  She looked surprised, and then I saw that she'd made the connection between the word "catch" and what it meant.  Catching suddenly became a fun game. 

From then on, if we had popcorn, Hannah believed that she should have popcorn, too.  It was one of the few foods she begged for.

We always shared it with her.  And if we bought fresh popcorn at the store, we were careful to save her some.

No matter how happy a memory is, it can be sad to recall it knowing there won't be any new memories.  As always, I'm missing Hannah.

--Nancy.
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