Today when I got the mail, there was a large envelope there from my Mom. Puzzled, I opened it and pulled out a photo that made my heart stop. It is one I have not seen in many years. It is of my dearest RB Willie. She had been going through boxes and came across this 8x10 of Willie after he had won his first point. The lady handling him in the picture was his breeder, as we were novices at handling. Willie was a late bloomer and is 3 years old in the picture, he was just starting to fill out and get a thicker coat after being a skinny and scruffy coated youngster. When I first started taking him to conformation classes, some of the other handlers felt he'd never take anything in the ring because he was such a big, awkward pup without a very thick coat. But he surprised many when he began to fill out, grow in a beautiful coat, and his awkward, gangly puppy body smoothed out beautifully. As I've mentioned before, he was only one 3 pt major shy of championship, but with me starting college we had to give up showing as it is an expensive undertaking.
It's hard not to go on and on about him. It's hard to put into words just how it felt to open that envelope and slide that picture out - the unexpected shock of it, the mixture of joyfulness at seeing him, the sharp stab of grief again at his absence, smiling through a flood of tears. I just had to share my boy one more time. I never got to share him with others when he was still with me. It is just a picture of a picture, so the quality is not the same as the original. Here he is in all his glory, Milen's Risky Business, my Will.
You're with me strongly today, Will. I can feel you.
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