Have A Pawsatively Wonderful Father's Day!

Hello!

Happy Father's Day to all fathers out there, folks who have fathers, had fathers, know fathers...want to be fathers! I think that covers it. I'm blessed to have had wonderful father for forty-seven years. I wish it could have been longer, but my parents were some of the first 'older parents', kinda by 'whoops'. My sister was sixteen the year I was born and my brother eleven. They were astonished when I showed up!

Dad was a commercial artist for many years in NYC. He handled major accounts that you would know even today if I name them. In the mid-seventies his 'partner' ran out on him, taking all the cash. Dad limped along for awhile, ultimately we moved to Tennessee when I was thirteen. He spent the last years before retirement selling Mercedes.

Dad moved to the North Carolina outer banks when I was in my early twenties. It was a twelve hour drive, and we only got to see each other several times a year. We always kept up however via phone and letter, and later email. I was so proud of him with the computer! He took classes and was one of the first people I knew that even had a PC. He talked my hubby and I into buying our first Dell in 1996. We still have it, probably a collector's item!

The area he moved to is big into duck hunting, eating and carving. The locals have been there since the 'lost colony' was re-started, and Virginia Dare was the first white child born in N.C. They have been isolated till now, and speak much like the English of Shakespeare's day. It's very difficult to understand them, but an honor to meet these stout remnants of the past.

Dad got into duck decoy carving and was really good. From his early days I asked him just to gift me a duck decoy for birthdays and Christmas and a man of his word, he did. I have ducks in every room of our little house. They are beautiful, and when I miss Dad I have only to pick up a duck and run my hands over it to connect with my father. The smooth tupelo wood under my fingers where he sanded and carved, the elegant necks replicating the particular duck he was working on. He was a founding member of the Core Sound Decoy Museum, and did their original logos. If you didn't know where Dad was on the island, all you had to do is run by the museum, he could be seen rocking in one of the rockers on the porch, carving on a duck and learning from the oldsters the tricks of the duck carving trade. He was most happy when he was carving. The first weekend in December for many years we would all go to Harker's Island and celebrate the decoy festival.

The first Christmas I was teamed with Jet, Bill and I spent visiting Dad. We went to the festival all three days and it was wonderful. It's held in the local school, and the students do posters in a contest for the special day. Local housewives come in and cook shrimp burgers and make apparently the best banana pudding bar none according to my hubby.

Dad loved Jet. It was mutual. They hit it off from the beginning when Dad met him. The

picture today is of Jet and Dad meeting one another August of 2007. It was an immediate bonding of two hearts.

The next Christmas found Dad fighting for his life due to longstanding lung problems. Jet and I flew for the first time to be with him and get him home with hospice for the holidays. We flew in again in February of 2009 to be with him when he passed. Jet, who had been so good, lying quietly beside Dad's bed for those last few hours...When Dad passed, Jet suddenly got up, and stretched his great head and paws over my father's heart~ because dogs know. Dad had everyone there that he loved and enjoyed...including a little yellow dog named Jet.

Jet passed on in the spring of 2011. I like to think that Daddy is up there eating all the pasta his little heart desires without worrying about gaining weight! Beside him is Jet, waiting for me, but in the meantime keeping Dad company by helping out with any Italian bread crust crumbs that might fall his way!

It's hard to miss your Dad on Father's day, but I celebrate that I had a Dad that wasn't perfect, but he was mine and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he loved me and was proud of me. He said it all the time, and that means the world even to a grownup kid like me, holding those words close to my heart forever.

Right now, Frax knows that I'm missing Dad. He has shifted closer to me, and is nuzzling, snuggling and making things OK again...doing his magnificent job of taking care of me. This is the blessing of having a service dog that people cannot share in a brief 'hello' on the street. This is the seamless continuity of one great service dog to another through lifes ups and downs, and the joys as well.

God Bless our father's.

God Bless my helpers and their great hearts.

Later...

LV, FX & JT

#FathersDay #flyingwithaservicedog #dogbuddy