Bailey Boy and Mr. Bristol

This past week when I couldn't sleep I remembered how I acquired my two favorite dogs and how much love they gave and have given me. For some reason I kept waking up at 3:00 am and started remembering to help me fall asleep and with each dog, I fell asleep before the end of the story.

Mr. Bristol or Sir Harvey Bristol was our cocker spaniel from 1980 - 1996, a very long time for a cocker spaniel. He was such a handsome dog that our vet begged us not to fix him and to stud him out. We did once I think and we never did fix him but he was still very mild mannered and gentle which is interesting for a male dog. Ray created a video montage of all Julia's baby videos up until now and it breaks my heart to see Mr. Bristol a wizened old dog. I remember my friend Mark who was deathly afraid of dogs, just loving Bristol, comparing him to an old man. He called him Einstein and maybe he was. There is an author who talks about the Seat of the Soul - Gary Zukov, I think and he once spoke about animals being part of a pack mentality or pack soul mentality but every once in a while comes an animal who is just about to reincarnate into a man and you can tell by looking into their eyes how soulful they are and it's much more than that. Bristol is a person right now, I'm sure and he will be a special one for sure.

And now for Bailey - Bailey's Irish Creme - see the link to Bristol. Kelly came up with that link because I really wanted to name him Tator Tot because Pugs are notoriously couch potatoes. Bailey has been special from the moment we laid eyes on him. And he was born on Mother's Day to boot. He is also a gentle soul. Last week when I walked him at the beach, he walked over to a man and sat on his feet. Bailey never notices other people or dogs -he only has eyes for us usually and I thought this strange but when I talked with the man, I realized, it was no coincidence. The man has lost his pug, Wise Guy, a couple of years ago and couldn't bring himself to replace him. Bailey is around the same age as the dog he lost. Bailey went up to this man at least 4 times and I said, see that's a sign, time to get a new puggie.