Dog gie

I have done more than a dozen portraits of my co-workers at Matt’s Big Breakfast. A couple of weeks ago I approached yet another. She declined, but offered to send me a photo of her beloved and now deceased dog instead. I would rather have done hers, but I do love dogs, so I told her to go ahead.

“Gie” is a genuine word. It is Scottish dialect for Give. The poet Robert Burns famously coupleted

“O wad the power the giftie gie us
Tae see oursels as others see us.”

Burns also famously coupled, fathering many children out of wedlock, but that is another story.

Dog gie. “O wad the power a guid dog gie us/Tae help us truly, truly BE us.” I was best friends with such a dog. His revered name was William Doglas Bowers, known colloquially as Bill. We lost him ten years ago. A thought of him draws an eagle’s feather over my heart now and then.

dog gie

dalmation shepherd boxer pug
domestic bliss requires no drug.

old english sheepdog shih tzu corgi
of grins and snuggles is an orgi.

great dane alsatian malamute
Got Ugly? even so, Got Cute.