Thanks, Ray

[Note: Click on any of the links in blue to view the person or thing I'm talking about. You may have to scroll through the blog post to get to the photos but they will be there somewhere. The photos I've included here have never appeared in the blog before]

Yesterday I went to lunch with my BFF, Joanne. We were discussing Artomatic which had appeared in an article in the Washington Post.


"Do you realize," said Joanne, "that you would not be on the cutting edge of knowing about this if you didn't have Ray?"

Joanne was talking about the fact that I had told her about Artomatic a couple of weeks previously, even before it had opened. I had gone with Ray's girlfriend Halle's grandma, Deborah, to help her hang her artwork to display at Artomatic (if you click on the link, her paintings appear in the photos after those of the mosaic skull and the pink bottles - you'll know them when you see them). And it got me to thinking. How many people have I met, that I NEVER would have met, without Ray.

The first person would have to be Ray's foster mother, Amber, in South Carolina. Although I didn't physically meet her first, I think I talked to her first. We became friends over the phone when I adopted  Ray, brought him home, and was so totally in over my head. We have since met when I went to SC to visit my folks.

Sam, Halle's mom, with Ray and Halle

Then there was Todd, Sasha's dad; Deborah, Halle's grandma (and Sam, Halle's mom); Brenda, Roxie's mom; Rachel, Josh (who appears briefly in the linked video), and Marva - Murphy's parents and grandma (I've also met Rachel's sister, brother-in-law, step-father, father, and father's girlfriend); Ken, Miko's dad; and Darlene, Tucker's mom. And these are just the people that live (or lived) around my block. (I can't count Sandra and Maddie because I already knew them). There's also Ray's favorite baby that lives at the end of the street. I know his whole family now. I know practically every kid all the way around the block. I don't know any of their names but they all know Ray's.

Tucker

Once I start thinking outside of the block (as it were), there are all those nice young people at the doggy daycare; and the owner of the daycare and her husband who just happen to live in my neighborhood and with whom we have shared dinner a couple of times.

And what about all those women and men at the dogpark? Legions. One of them an artist who painted Ray's portrait (and is also going to be displaying at Artomatic).

And how 'bout the people that I've met walking around the lake? I've probably walked 50 miles with one  woman and I don't even know her first name. Her dog's name is Rex.

I've corresponded with Tina, mother to blind Liam and a passel of other dogs, who is going to retire and raise Alpacas. She sent me an email because she knows that I knit and that Ray is a yarn hound. I've never met her but I think I'd like to someday.

Ditto for Alice, who blogs about Tonka, a blind Great Pyrenees. Wouldn't know her to pass her on the street, but I know she's a good person that takes such great care of her dog that I feel like a total slouch letting my blind dog walk off a cliff.

And, of course there's Niki and Jez from over the pond, parents of blind Conor the Greyhound. I now have friends in England, for God's sake. All because of Ray.

So, Ray, thanks for making my life SO much more interesting and fun. And for getting me lots and lots of exercise. And for helping me make new friends every day.