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Sugar
Painting and Story by Lehan Winifred Ramsay
I gave away my beautiful dog, that I had loved for a year, cared for and struggled with for a year. I took phone calls and answered questions, I invited people here, I sat with them while they struggled with his size, I sighed after each phone call, I worried and looked at him and felt great sadness. Please let it be over soon, I thought.
A man came with his two sons, and he liked him. I don’t know what kind of a life he will have, I hope he can have fun with more people around him. I helped take him to the car, and when they drove off I watched his head bouncing around in the back seat. He looked so cute. I had never seen him look so cute.
I wish I didn’t have to let him go. He was the dog I wanted. He was even the dog I wanted to become like. Always straining to go faster, always interested in everything.
I am trying to pretend that he is like a child who has grown up. He has his own life now, he is going out in the world. But really, I will never see him again. So I say goodbye to Sugar.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
To me you have drawn Sugar as ‘a character’. His eyes are piercing from his blueness so no-one cannot meet his gaze. Oscar was my deceased friend’s dog and as it so happens Oscar had an unusual short-haired ginger coat that when he walked and the hair was caught by the sun glowed rippling red, otherwise invisible to the eye. I can see Oscar in my mind’s eye padding out to the car of the family that came to see if they liked him when my friend decided he had to give him to someone who could care for him better than my friend feared he was able. The family’s little boy had fallen in love with Oscar at first sight and vice versa, so Oscar jumped of his own will into the back seat of their car to sit beside the little boy and off he sailed out of sight.
My friend said that he had imagined nothing like it. ‘You’d think he would look out the window and say goodbye’ he said.
Shoe.
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I had never been able to paint him; he was black and black, not much room for showing what he was. After he left I was driving and thinking about him and my eyes got caught up in blue. And I thought I could paint him if he was blue.
He didn’t seem nervy. He had caught on to the idea that he needed to really entertain the people who came to see him, he was very affectionate to them. I thought that this painting showed the kind of energy he had; almost battery operated, always bouncing.
I don’t ever want to do this again, either I’ll have a dog for keeps or I won’t have one at all.
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May be, think of yourself as a foster mum – it was temporary until Sugar had a permanent home. But it is hard, I don’t think I could do it.
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And I’m worried. Is he going to be okay in this home? Someone called today wanting him. Perhaps I’ll pass that number on to his new owner, in case he should be unable to keep him. I hope he doesn’t pass through too many homes. There were two young boys who should be able to play with him as much as he wants. I’m hoping they’ll throw as many balls as he’s able to catch.
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A mon avis, Lehan, I’d let sleeping dogs lie. I reckon providing a backup home is a vote of no-confidence.
I also think it’s providence.
Our old dog “Lucky” is a retired border collie. As a pup she was rescued from an abusive farm life (I suspect she was abused because she’s effing hopeless, but her timidity even for a border collie) is pretty high. So she was rescued by my in-laws and went to work – in a fashion on their farm. But she was a problem girl and used to fight with the other dogs and so could only be let out with one particular companion. Half way to rounding up the sheep, she’d lose interest and go and have a swim in the dam. My late father-in-law used to really hate that – he was in his 70’s and not wildly enthusiastic about chasing the sheep himself or with just the other dog.
So we took Lucky into our suburban family and she dug holes in the garden and back yard you could bury a Volkswagen in. During walks around the gold course, mshe would just lie down half way and refuse to go on. Emmlets would phone and I’d have to drive over and pick them all up. Now she lives on Emmlet 1’s partner’s farm. She’s too old to be much trouble. He built her a new large kennel. Lucky indeed.
I feel your pain in saying goodbye to Sugar. In our case, even though Lucky was and is a pain in the arse, she is still adorably out of it. But she is better off with daytime company now the Emmlets have grown up, with a lot more space and a retired rural life.
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That’s good advice emmjay. Thankyou
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I am going off this colour red. Last painting it it started to make me feel a bit edgy, and now I’m positively uneasy.
Parting with pets is hard. At least he’s going somewhere he’s wanted. This really matters.
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Very sad, Lehan… “Parting is such sweet sorrow…” Beware of melancholy though… it can be addictive if indulged in too often. Another wonderful painting too… though Sugar looks a bit like an alien dog… and very startled!
😉
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As Lehan is going through some difficult times, perhaps her sadness and melancholy has affected Sugar too, he doesn’t look very happy either…
Milo certainly is very much attuned to our moods, he stares at me and looks most uncomfortable when he realises that I’m upset or sad…I have to be happy at all times, according him 🙂
As for the painting, I’m not too excited about the startling bright blue/ red combination.
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PS. Gerard thought that the blue and red might be the only colours left; it takes an artist to know one…and after all real art is not about looking right, it makes you think and feel and shakes you out of your complacency…
So H, this is not about new Winter Colours 🙂
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It does look a bit like red and blue are the only colours left, but actually I still have a bit left of all of them. I don’t know why I’m so stuck on particular colours, it just happens like that. But this red isn’t the red I usually use, it’s just straight from the tube. There’s another painting underneath. I’m going over the canvases I don’t particularly like, rather than discard them and buy more.
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I can see in the swirling mist of the crystal ball …. future art aficionados having the LHR canvasses x-rayed to reveal more hidden truths ….. paleo-visual art, operating at many many levels !
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” I’m going over the canvases I don’t particularly like, rather than discard them and buy more.”
As indeed have artists before you from time immemorial, Lehan! You are carrying on a most noble, if possibly somewhat sad (on account of the lost works) tradition. But such is the nature of art that artists can rarely afford the materials they need to ply their craft unless they are fortunate enough to find some form of sponsorship…
🙂
🙂
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Sponsorship was indeed what I needed, Astyages, but in this day and age we seem only to be saved by a job.
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