Barbara J. Hamby

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My Granddog

Since, at my advanced age, I have no grandchildren, I transfer some of the affection reserved for them to my gorgeous granddog and a couple of grandcats. A photo of the oversized granddog appears above. Handsome found my son and myself when we shared a duplex in Vancouver. He weighed about 24 pounds at the time, but the size of his feet was a BIG clue to his final size. By the time we determined that his previous owners had probably abandoned him (no one would claim him), he had won our hearts.

When I moved to Tigard, where I couldn’t keep a big dog anyway, Kurt and Handsome had bonded, and so he stayed there in Vancouver. He later moved to Portland with Kurt and his wife. They calculate he is now about six years old. I have visitation privileges and occasionally we stay with Handsome when his owners go out of town.

Handsome is a slobbery lover and greets us with such enthusiasm we are sometimes overwhelmed or even overturned. It takes a pretty good shove to overturn me, but Handsome is 125 pounds of muscle and can run into knees at a pace that can knock you down if you’re not sufficiently well anchored.

I don’t have pictures of the grandcats. The elderly one is not too photogenic these days. At nearly 20 years old, he’s showing wear and tear. The kitten, as far as I know, hasn’t stood still long enough for a picture yet. They live with my daughter and son-in-law.