The Grey Lodge: Marty's Moment

Marty is the senior member of the house – both in age and in residency. He’s a sweet 12 year old brindle boy with a kabuki white face and huge dark eyes surrounded by long, lovely lashes. Marty loves to give kisses. His breath is terrible so I guess you could call them stinky kisses but Marty gives the BEST stinky kisses. Marty has very big, very expressive ears even if they do make him look like Brighty of the Grand Canyon. He has a little trouble walking as there are problems with 2 of his disks, but Marty is nothing if not spunky and has learned to navigate around all the pushing and shoving of the other pups. It’s a joy to see him romping around the yard with his lopsided gait, leading off a group roo.

Marty has mastered the art of the woof. If he stands by the French doors wagging his tail and giving two soft woofs that means I should open the door and let him out. One loud woof after meals means he’s finished eating and I can remove his bowl. Several agitated woofs of increasing volume means he would like me to come ASAP to give him hugs and kisses.

So it’s only natural that this very special boy is suddenly an artist’s supermodel. I recently drew Marty sleeping with his MooCow stuffie and a Swiss cheese pillow as a fundraising image for GPA-Wisconsin (www.gpawisconsin.org) . The group has turned it into a great assortment of must have items – t-shirts, cards, holiday ornaments. Marty hasn’t said much about all this but I think it’s very cool!

Marty had another modeling go round when I was asked to do illustrations for a story called “Sandell’s Exciting Day” by Carol Sumilas Boshears which appears in the Winter issue of CG Magazine. True a brindle male looks nothing like a fawn female but that’s where artistic license come into play. And Marty already had the long eyelashes. I don’t think Marty minds too much.