early dog days

While I take a day to organize my thoughts about my trip to the highlands, let me share another bit of dog sentimentality with you.


After reading dog days of winter, my mother dug this portrait out of the family album.


That is me (doing my Winston Churchill impression at age 2 -- almost indistinguishable for my current version) with Jiggs.  Not the Jiggs you know -- Professor Jiggs.  This is Uncle Jiggs.


My first dog.  My first golden retriever.


He was my fabled companion when I would wander away from home in my preschool years.  We learned together that danger is just another way of learning life's pleasures.


But most of those tales are the property of my mother -- and best told by her.


As for me, I have some adventures to tell about Mexico's highlands.  We will see how those early dog-taught lessons were applied.