My parents let me know last night they had to put Otis down which surprisingly came as quite a shock.  Otis has been a part of the Person family since I was in high school in Maryland.  Otis was always my mom’s dog as Maggie was my dad’s.  I will always remember the day my parents brought Otis home, he had never felt grass before so when they put him in the grass he didn’t quite know how to react to it.  For the next twenty or so minutes he tentatively ran around the back yard exploring a new world outside of what he previously knew (a cage).  I also remember he didn’t look real when I first saw him, he looked like a little stuffed animal and I could palm his whole body in my hand.  Otis lived a really long and good life with us kids and my parents.  A lot has happened while Otis was around, as you can see in some of my pictures.  I don’t know how old Otis was but I know I graduated High School in ’96 and he was around then so he was at least 13 or 14 years old.   Otis was also one of the first of many people and animals to fall victim to my photography obsession.

My first camera was an Olympus 1.3 MP camera and I loved taking pictures of Otis with it.  Otis never complained (unlike everyone else who I wanted to take pictures of) so I have lots of pictures of my old friend.  I used to love giving him his “brain massages”, he loved them. I knew he was getting older and every time I came home I could see he was doing OK but getting old. Each time I left I wasn’t sure if I would see him again but I made extra sure to say goodbye the last few times I saw him. Every dog is special and each dog becomes part of your family so if you have an animal in your family give them an extra hug and kiss because they don’t stay around forever so enjoy them while you can.