Tonight, as the rain rattles the roof and smears the windows of our kitchen building here at Lochranza Kennels, I move my blankets closer to the whelping box. “Are you OK, girl?” I ask the mother-to-be. She is frightened of thunder and the rushing winds have just snapped a branch outside. In the dark, I seem to feel that she is answering me: “I’ll be OK . . . as long as you are here.” I think about what she means to me.
She isn’t a champion, this dog who has been with me since I first found her in Kansas. But, she has rewarded me with winners along the way. Students of pedigrees and genetics tell me I was lucky to get this daughter of a legendary sire from Australia. I only know she is delicate, amusing and beautiful. Yes, that’s the word for her: “beautiful.”
Like many of us who love dogs, I read as much as I can about my favorite Breeds, about the people who designed exceptional litters over the years and those who brought great dogs to the attention of the public. Time passes more quickly than we can imagine and, one day, we, too, will be among the creative dreamers who people read about and study, thinking we were quite intelligent. There is a great responsibility in that. There is great responsibility in being an artist whose form of expression is through living dogs. They must be constantly maintained, for one thing. And, obviously, they don’t last forever. Their bloodlines, however (carrying on a certain ‘look’ for which a kennel is recognized) can last for many generations. A whole Breed – created by someone mixing, matching and testing for years – lasts as long as any other form of art, and that’s a different story.
How deep does the artistry of dogs really go? It runs as deep as our most distant feelings back to the memory of the first dog we ever loved, and as far ahead as we can see. It encompasses every sensation we have – sensations of touch, sight, hearing – and lingers in our thoughts day and night. It colors our dreams, enters our daily conversation, influences our friendships and our lifestyle. The artistry of developing our dogs into the best they can be, goes hand in hand with devoipling ourselves into something better. Maybe we don’t always show it. Maybe we demand more perfection in our dogs than we ask of ourselves. But, the desire to put our best foot forward is there, and the understanding of its importance is all around us.
Artists understand the importance of their work. Groomers, Breeders, Exhibitors, the list of artists goes on. The dog world, after all, is an art colony and all of us are coloring, painting, sculpting, displaying our creations. We are also finding, collecting and preserving the paintings, sculptures and other wares that our dogs inspire throughout the ages.
Like many of us, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing such creations as I travel. It’s surprising how loved and meaningful these treasures are to those who bring them to me at a show, or a book signing. The dog figurines of Mortens Studio are among my favorites. Of course, I know they did other animals as well. But, they did so very many dogs. Likewise, various figurines and paintings from Europe can evoke good feelings in me, as does the art of ancient Egypt. The dogs that inspired such treasures may be long gone. But, something “of them” – something of their life force – has traveled through time and gone far beyond their physical limits or boundaries.
Do famous oil paintings generally inspire the creation of other paintings? Do bronze sculptures set the hearts of people on fire and make them want to go out and create great things? Maybe. But, what impression lasts longer than one from a living, breathing animal – and what other creation of ours has the strange, organic power to grow more art?
Here, beside this dog who touches my life so completely, I am imagining puppies soon to be born. In my mind’s eye, I am seeing their colors, feeling their warmth and hearing them squeal. I am seeing them all grown up and seeing the families they will become imporetant to. I’m seeing all this about puppies yet to be born because I am inspired. I am inspired by the dog in the whelping box beside me.
I look at that old wooden box, made of random boards nailed together, its corners chewed by teething puppies and its rich patina of the years. Just touching it, being near it, brings back so many memories. I can see friends smiling quietly as they kneel beside this old box to see the latest litter. I can feel the love as they lift a puppy to smell it, kiss it and return it to the watchful mother’s breast. My friends are gone, some of them, but in this magical way, they will never be forgotten.
She turns the key of my imagination, this dog. She lights my hope, my dreams, in a way that the greatest accomplishment of the world’s most honored artists can not do – no matter how long I have stood in the presence of their sheltered treasures, like I have done. I have stood before great works of art in London, Paris, Madrid, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and the list goes on. Admired as they are, symbolizing the height and depth of our souls, none of them affected me as deeply as the love of a dog. No other ‘masterpiece’ can bring life into the world like our dogs can, or make us feel so much.
Like so many dogs have done over the years, like so many will do in the years to come after we are gone, this dog, tonight, is a form of art recreating herself. Can anything be more creative than that? If art is supposed to inspire us to greatness, opening our hearts to what we’re all about, then what greater work of art can there be than one that is living and breathing like ourselves?
Those of us who love dogs enough to protect their diversity, whether we are working as breeders, exhibitors or just lovers of their spirit, are strong and magical people. Here, in the kennel tonight, I wonder about life and the big picture. I search for answers in the darkness. I know – from somewhere deep inside, I know – that I will never see greater creativity than I am seeing right now. This simple, beautiful dog, giving birth on this unpredictable, stormy night is the greatest work of art I will ever know. She makes me think. She reassures me that, no matter what happens around us, life goes on. Like a great work of art, she is opening a door of knowledge for me and I am walking through it.
I touch the dog who has shown me so much, and I’m in the presence of a masterpiece.