Comments: 75
naomi2728 [2013-04-26 13:32:45 +0000 UTC]
I love Tootsie and her beautiful likeness after reading this.
Am I seeing raw umber on her coat?
Old dogs are awesome. I have a 10 year old black lab named Ivy. When she was young, she was much like Tootsie. Now, she is mellow and sweet and a wonderful dog. It's going to break my heart when she passes on, but like you, I enjoy every minute with her. I guess when her time comes, I will look back on those memories to help me through.
I think that many creative people love anything with fur because we are able to see into the soul of the creature, like we see the "soul" of ordinary things and are able to capture the beauty of them in our various media.
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rieke-b [2011-12-04 19:45:14 +0000 UTC]
An amazing painting! The fur must have taken you a long time.
Wow... What a story! It was very intense to read this.
Living in a house with so many animals must have been very thrilling.
I have two dogs now, two terrier mixes. The female, Leni, was a playful puppy in the beginning, but after a short fight with a dachshund, she became aggressive towards all other dogs. When she growled at us, too, we decided to inform ourselves a lot about dogs. We learned how to be calm, but assertive pack leaders, and now we can live peacefully together. We even could adopt Tony, our second dog. Although Leni sometimes growls at him, she respects us and immediately stops doing it when we appear.
Our cat has to live upstairs, though, because the dogs' prey drive is just too big.
Leni smiles at us, too, when we get home. She grins and shows all her front teeth, while wagging her tail powerfully. It's so funny to look at!
The story of your Border collie made me quite sad. It's such an energetic breed that needs to herd sheep. There's no other exercise that could replace this. Your dog found a task to invest her spare energy in, which was the ball, but the way she played with it wasn't healthy.
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rieke-b In reply to ART-fromthe-HEART [2011-12-06 17:55:05 +0000 UTC]
Cesar Millan is my hero. He impresses me because he truly knows about the nature of dogs. It was exactly the right thing for us. We are so happy with our dogs now.
Luckily, our cat Phoebe can go outside via a tree branch and the dogs can't climb the stairs. Sometimes she does come down, though (mostly to complain about the food ) and stand on top of the cupboard. When the dogs see her, they get really wild. Our old Tony is usually very calm and tender, but when he sees the cat, he starts to scream loudly and wants to attack her. We have to stay calm then, so that we keep control because otherwise Leni would attack him. Luckily, Tony is hard of hearing and doesn't always notice the cat, and Leni is easy to control, anyway.
Wow, you must have shared your life with a lot of pets so far! Do you live on the countryside?
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ART-fromthe-HEART In reply to rieke-b [2011-12-07 17:55:23 +0000 UTC]
Me too! Cesar Milan rocks! Well, if I had dogs to work his tricks on, but it works for cats too.
Phoebe is a smart cat! If she climbs outside via a tree branch, has anything ever climbed in other than her? I'd be afraid a squirrel would find its way in! That's strange how they go ballistic from seeing Phoebe. They just don't like cats I guess.
Oh yes, a LOT of pets. I live in the boony-lands of North Carolina on a 32 acre farm (which is now 128 acres, but those extra acres are woods and old fields). At the most, we've had over 170 pets. That was with a herd of 40 +/- goats, huge flock of chickens and other fowl, cats, goats, pigs, llamas, dogs, horses...those were the good ol' days.
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ART-fromthe-HEART In reply to rieke-b [2011-12-09 16:43:02 +0000 UTC]
Good kitty-puppy! LOL. We have a cat, named Poomba (who really looks like a grey furry pig with a mustache), who sits patiently and begs at the dinner table for scraps. He loves any kind of meat and cheese. He's so squishy, you can carry him anywhere and do anything with him. Although he occasionally farts on you LOL
Phoebe is aging gracefully then! I think she's in it for the long haul. My oldest cat was 19, and she was so active she walked circuits around the property! And walked to creeks and ponds just to play with the water...granted she had terrible Alzheimers, which made her revert to kittenhood, but we've never had an aging cat get so active. Her only surviving daughter is 17 and all she wants to do is sleep in bed and eat. X3 Sounds like Phoebe wouldn't let a squirrel in her domain. I'm sure she chases any away if they happen to get near. Aww, you saw a flying squirrel! I love those guys, so cute
^^' Yeah it was a real zoo back then! I have so many stories it ain't funny! Some are really funny! Like one time my parents had to trim one of the 4 pot-bellied pigs feet where they'd overgrown. This pig was 400 lbs by the way, her name was Susie Q. So my mom caught her in the pasture and forced her to her side so she could lay on her. Mom had to sit on her and hold her legs - my mom's just 200 lbs and there really wasn't another way to handle her. Meanwhile Dad has the giant sheers for cutting her hooves standing beside her. Susie starts SQUEALING like bloody murder even before the sheers get near her. After trimming a couple toes, they hear this grunting getting louder over Susie's screams. Dad looks, and it's Susie's sister Barbie Q! She's barreling down the pasture like no tomorrow (she was also 400 lbs) straight for Dad! So he goes running for the barn, screaming, as fast as he can while Barbie chases him. Mom was laughing so hard she nearly peed herself. X3 I was inside at the time that happened, but the story is classic! Ah, good times.
You've had a good amount of pets too! Pets in moderation I'm sure you'll get chickens someday, they make amazing pets. Although none of our chickens are tame (well, one was, but that's because we had to help her eat because she was deformed), you can easily tame a chicken to act like a dog.
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pjjam [2011-01-17 03:08:07 +0000 UTC]
and the story adds just amazingness to it (x
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pjjam [2011-01-17 03:07:09 +0000 UTC]
OMG!
such beautiful work<3
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CapricornGoddessArt [2010-10-23 17:51:16 +0000 UTC]
This is my favorite potrait of a dog of all time!! Wonderfull attention to detail and awesome colors.
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reina343 [2010-10-02 20:06:24 +0000 UTC]
lol i still remember watching you painting this~
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Nyla-Cat [2010-08-01 00:57:48 +0000 UTC]
This is freaking amazing!
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gold-rose [2010-06-06 16:49:03 +0000 UTC]
featured in my journal
[link]
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Mike16r [2010-04-13 23:07:13 +0000 UTC]
The details are great! The dog looks nice.
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inkcat [2010-04-09 08:50:56 +0000 UTC]
Tootsie is awesome,what talent,you are amazing!
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DARGON1 In reply to ART-fromthe-HEART [2010-03-23 05:40:36 +0000 UTC]
LOL!!! I could imagine! A friend of mine used to have ST.Bernards and one in particular use to love to run at me Full tilt,jump up and hit my shoulders square with Her Giant Paws!This would always knock me off my feet,as she weighed in at around 125,130lbp.Missy was Her name,and she was the most loving dog I had ever known up to that time.Always happy to see me,and always ready to play.And it you did not play with Her....then She would play with you! She would grab my arm as if I were Her child and drag me around the yard until I played with Her!
That's really sad Ninja got hurt like that,glad to hear she was able to walk still.
LOL!!! Ceasar Milon....He has done a lot to help people understand about dogs,I will give him that!
I was just taught to never fear Any animal,but rather to respect them.They have there way's of communicating what they feel,and it is up to us to understand what that way is.
When I was about 4-5 my parents had a dog,a German shepherd.I acted the fool and teased him TOO much with one of his toys,so he Bit my head.My Mother came out and saw the dog with my head in it's mouth...(much like a Lion trainer!)
And freaked! My Father simply said "You did not respect the animal,so he taught you a lesson!" I was not hurt,but my mother made him get rid of the dog all the same.Sad,I missed that dog.
You are so very welcome!!
And thank you!! I noticed my name in your signature amongst your friends,that really warmed my heart!
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Pagan-Inspiration [2010-03-22 22:27:05 +0000 UTC]
I love Labs! This is such a great painting to go with the story you told, it makes me miss my friend
and wish I had another furry body to cuddle with.
When I was about 7 we got a yellow Labrador puppy that I named Mustard, the friendliest and most intuitive dog I've ever known. She let my mom's daycare kids pull her ears and tail or crawl all over her, and if you were sad or frustrated she'd find you and then just lean her warm self against you. We had her until she was a month shy of her 11th birthday.
She ended up with awful arthritis, and the pills the vet gave us made previously unknown liver and kidney problems worsen a hundredfold about two months after she started taking them. Within one week she was almost immobile, lost 8 pounds, couldn't keep anything down and was basically dying of the poison in her blood due to organ failure, and starvation. (Bloodwork also showed traces of cancer.) It was heartbreaking to hear all this from our vet, but I trusted her opinion and after talking with the rest of the family, I made an appointment to have her euthanized. It still hurts now, almost 4 years have passed, but I know it was the kindest thing we could have done and we were all with her in the end.
These are a couple of photos from our last evening together, a really sweet memory I'll always have. [link] [link] [link] She's also my icon, so I see her whenever I'm here on dA, which is a lot of the time!
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fear-is-spreading [2010-03-18 20:49:19 +0000 UTC]
the picture was enough to jerk a tear from me due to my own experiences with older dogs...
And then the story in your comment just did me in.
Fantastic job on the painting and I hope tootsie is well.
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fear-is-spreading In reply to ART-fromthe-HEART [2010-03-20 01:53:44 +0000 UTC]
we had a 16 year old pembroke corgi/shelty called jojoe which I met when I was a year old, lol... first family dog... Passed on my 17th birthday. I was heartbroken because he passed during an overnight stay at the vet.
Before he went in, I told him that we would play with his special blue and grey ball (which he had to leave behind) when he got out...
well... yea, he never got out...
But I tossed it in after him during the burial
Right now I'm in the lives of a Cardigan corgi/canaan (lakota), a pembroke corgi/daschund (Missy), and a chihuahua/doberman (Bowser).
Lakota has hip trouble, Missy seems to be on a mission to eat everything in sight, and Bowser (which was meant to be closer to my wife) will not let me out of the room without him, lol.
It's amazing that humans and dogs (among some other choice animals) can create such bonds between the species border.
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iamniquey [2010-03-17 15:29:43 +0000 UTC]
Oh this is excellently done! What kind of brushes did you use to make such thin lines for the details??
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arachnidlove [2010-03-16 22:23:01 +0000 UTC]
i like the rolls on tootsie...
TOOTSIE ROLL!
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