My folks’ dog Kiffor died this morning. He had been ill for several weeks and the latest was a biopsy for lymphoma. He woke this morning having trouble breathing and died in the vet office.

Kiffor loved people and people loved Kiffor. He had a joyful, exuberant spirit - jumping straight up and down in excitement on meeting someone new or someone loved - a good dog.

February 2 dawned at 32 degrees in north Florida…

under a clear sky that later gave way to sunshine…

So…IF there are groundhogs in Florida and IF they stuck their nose out of the ground, they would have seen their shadows.

I don’t think Karl paid any attention to his shadow. He is at full alert as a stray dog is approaching “his” fenceline. I wanted to get a photo from the front right quarter. I know I’m a biased “mom” but Karl’s physique is impressive with small, well shaped head and stand up ears, large chest and tapered rear topped off by the curly tail. At full alert he is quiet beautiful showing off his white chest and “socks”.

He has another pose that I’d love to get a photo of - I call it the prehistoric wolf-dog look. When he feels the need to look very threatening, he lowers his head, flattens his ears and all of the hair on his upper back and shoulders comes up. It makes his chest/shoulders look huge and extremely powerful and like renderings I’ve seen of the prehistoric wolves posed ready to attack.

Karl is not a mean dog but he will chase any dog that he feels shouldn’t be around. How he decides which shouldn’t be around and which he’d like to play with - that is a mystery to me…