Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Tag: dogs

  • Captured: Abigail

    Nobody wanted Abigail, so my parents took her. It helped that she is a Lab mix; they had two Labs before her and they had come to love the breed. After their last Lab, Shadow, passed a few years ago I didn’t figure they’d get another dog due to advancing age. They didn’t either, they…

  • Good night, Gracie

    I didn’t want her. We already had two dogs and three cats, which I thought was more than enough pets. And I was concerned about bringing this stray dog into our home where our curious and active baby boy might accidentally provoke harm. But my wife’s boundless compassion for unwanted animals overruled better judgment. After…

  • On regret and doing your best

    I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better. – Maya Angelou Sugar was the best dog I ever had. She was smart and gentle and loyal and happy. I had noticed that she had been lethargic for a few days, but I wrote it off. She…

  • Captured: Snow-covered dog

    I can’t believe Gracie is still with me. She’s at least 16 now! She’s stiff and slow, but as eager as ever to be anywhere I am. I had some Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400 in my Pentax ME, and my 50mm f/2 SMC Pentax-M lens was attached. I had a few shots left on the…

  • Captured: Travel buddies

    When I surveyed the Michigan Road in 2008, my dogs were my constant companions. I’d fold the back seat down in my little red wagon and pop the hatch for them. They always eagerly jumped in – they wanted to go wherever I was going. The point of the trip was to photograph the sights…

  • Captured: Letting my sleeping dog lie

    This is Gracie, about whom I’ve written before. She was fully grown when she came into my life as a stray 13 years ago, and now I wonder how much longer she’ll be with me. She sleeps a lot these days, hard and deep. Her hearing is going – she can’t hear my voice anymore, so…

  • Checking my barometer

    A large barometer used to hang on the wall in my grandparents’ palatial retirement estate. Grandpa tried to explain to me how it told him when storms were coming, important when you lived in the country in a day before 24-hour TV weather channels, but it went over my young head. But after I grew up my…

  • Eulogy for Buckethead

    My stepson was over at a friend’s house twelve years ago, running around in the back yard, when the Rottweiler next door sailed over the fence and bit him on the leg. The puncture wounds were not serious and they healed without complication. The dog’s owner was mortified, apologized all over himself, and swore he’d keep his dog…