Ziel-Lor's Incantation AKA Image

Ziel-Lor's Incantation is an Orange Roan English Cocker Spaniel and retired show dog whose registration number is SR 14389607. That's a mouthful for the ten year old four-legged furbaby who has found her forever home with me. I know you think this is going to be a sappy love story about a dog that won my heart. Unfortunately, it is not.

Incantation was such a long name, that her former owners called her Image. I distinctly remember the day I met her. Having spent a decade with essentially no real pets, my husband finally agreed to allow me to get "one". I was able to have Meechie flown in from Kansas. Meechie is a spunky red and white Japanese Chin that makes me laugh daily. We only owned her for several weeks when I just knew that dogs were like potato chips: "You can't have just one." I always wanted a Cavalier King Charles (just FYI...I have one of those, too--His name is Windsor, and he is a snuggle bug. He is also the baby of the pack), and I was investigating breeders at the same time I was remodeling my house. It was on a trip to Lowe's that I saw the most striking Blue Roan English Cocker Spaniel, that I had ever seen. He was being socialized by a very astute handler. I asked many questions about this dog and discovered the breeders had an Orange Roan female who needed a forever home. Plans were already in the making for me to meet her.

Meechie and I ventured to the breeder's establishment and I laid eyes on Image. There she was. A three year old furbaby who had only ever known this family, and they did not want her anymore because she was getting too old to use as a show dog. She would definitely be retired by five, and they were getting a jump start on the process. She had won numerous ribbons for them (which I often enjoy holding), but they were ready for a new challenge, a newer model, something with more pizzazz. When I saw her, my heart didn't leap the way it did when I met Meechie or Windsor. She was the wrong color, larger than the dog I had met in Lowe's and not nearly as perky in my eyes. She was very obedient, though...almost too obedient. It was like her personality became what they wanted it to be and not her own. And her name? Really? Image? The mere definition means that she is a representation of the "real" thing. What an awful name. Image is THE real thing. Honestly, though, I didn't want her. I know this sounds crazy, but the very fact that I didn't want her is exactly why I have made a commitment to her for over seven years now. Crazy? Probably.

Let me explain. My thinking was: "How could you have loved a pet for three years, spent as much time as it took to get those show ribbons (she has a lot of ribbons and awards), feed her, groom her, care for her and then decide you wanted to discard her when she was only a few years a way from retiring where she could then be your pet?" This is still foreign to me. I thought if I didn't want her, who would? They had already tried to give her to another lady, but she wanted a dog with more personality. Even to this day, Image will correct me if I don't walk her properly on a leash. It's hard to bond with a show dog. There are too many rules and not enough freedom (there's a sermon in there if I had time to preach it). So, I figured I could do this job, and I have for seven years now.

I blog about this tonight, because I find myself in a unique place with Image. Yes, bonding with her took some time; but she adores me to the point that it can be overwhelming at times. She won't even leave my side when I bathe and is always under my feet. I love all my furbabies the same, but truth be known, I like them differently. I wish I could say I liked Image as much as the others, but she is harder to like. I care for them equally, express my love for them equally, but my heart sometimes betrays me. She has been a bit of a handful lately, as she has developed some habits I have never seen in her. Sometimes I wonder if she is developing Dementia. For example, she adores tissue and paper. She wants to eat it at all cost. We are forever playing the game of hide the trash and hide the tissue--which I have long since tired of. My best efforts of retraining her and purchasing enough bones and chew toys to sink a ship have only made little progress. Sometimes I look at her and wonder what my life would be like if I had not brought her home seven years ago, and I immediately feel guilty. I know she won't have many more years left, and I do want to make her last ones the best.

In closing, I just have to say, she has taught me a lot. She's taught me about me. She is the most costly to me of my three dogs not only in grooming fees but also in physical resources, lately. She seems to be taking more than she's giving; but as I sit on the floor with my three furbabies surrounding me I realize several things. She is the closest in proximity to me. While I look down at her sweet grandmotherly face and sagging eyes her stub of a tails wags profusely as I rub her extravagantly soft, graying hair. I believe she is thankful, and I am thankful, too. She has taught me that love is a choice not a feeling. She has taught me that you can commit to something that's hard even when it takes longer than you thought and when you're are getting less out of it than you should. One day, I know I will miss tripping over this full figured fur ball, and I will no doubt miss my extra floor adornment as I bathe. Mostly I will miss knowing that there is nothing in this world that this creature loves more than me...except maybe tissue paper!!! Uggh!