Rhodry (1994-2008) and me. Photo by Betsy Corsiglia.

Rhodry died on February 26, 2008. Travvy was born the very next day, though I didn’t know it till I met him almost two months later. Ever since, there’s come a two-day period between Candlemas and the spring equinox when I celebrate the two most important dogs of my adult life.

I can’t add much to what I blogged about Rhodry’s life and death two years ago. I think about him a lot, about all the coincidences that brought him into my life and our long journey together. Rhodry had family on Martha’s Vineyard. Neither Travvy nor I do, but I’m still related “by the dog” to everyone who belonged to one of his littermates or his full siblings from the litter born a year and a half earlier. His dad, Bear, was a malamute. His mom, Nanu, was a samoyed–border collie mix who was said to have some greyhound in her pedigree. Rhodry took after the malamute side of the family.

Here are some more Rhodry pictures.

Puppy Rhodry and his older brother Tigger

Puppy Rhodry soon after he moved in with me, at about six weeks

Puppy Rhodry got tangled up in my friend Marilyn’s weaving while the people were yakking in the kitchen. First we saved the weaving. Then we recreated the scene.

Grownup Rhodry in his favorite chair

Rhodry and his friend Rosie in the snow

Rhodry supervised both me and the pickup on our horse-sitting gigs.

And, finally, one of my most favorite photos of this beautiful guy:

Cat on a cold fencepost, at Malabar Farm, winter of 2004–2005. Photo by Ginny Lobdell.