An Autumn Walk With My Lab Delilah Dog

We've had a nice run of beautiful weather here in "Steeler Country," so we've been taking full advantage of our Summer like days. Last Saturday we drove up to Fort Ligonier Days and spent half the day looking at crafts. We dined at the First Wok Chinese restaurant, I had shrimp lomein, which I couldn't taste much because I still had my cold! We had a wonderful day out enjoying the sun and all the Autumn sights.










Today another beautiful day, I can say almost like an Indian Summer day. I took my Delilah to our favorite cornfield for a walk, photo above. the farmer alternates between planting corn and soy every year. You can see the trees are starting to change, but colors were more prominent in the mountains when we were in Ligonier . There is a path which goes all around the his cornfield, and down in the center treeline is a creek. A hunter had left deer guts along our path, and of course Delilah was right on it chomping away as fast as she could. The guts were fresh on the ground a couple days ago and were smelling pretty ripe by now. I had to pull her off them, gaging at the foul odor. It's archery season here, and very often we come upon guts and carcuses of deer on our walks in the woods. There are numerous hunters in my area, including female ones!

Delilah couldn't wait to venture out to cool off in the creek water. You can see the leaves were blowing around and floating on top. She doesn't wonder out too far anymore, because her swimming legs are not what they used to be. She swam in our home swimming pool up until last year, she just lost strength in her front paws to pull herself up the ladder. I miss swimming with her. Tears come to my eyes watching her happiness, knowing our time together may come to an end someday in the near future.








Delilah will be 14 years old in January 2009. She was my birthday gift, and my pick of the litter. We had bred our male Sampson with another black Lab Jiggs, and the puppies were beautiful. There were three chocolate Lab pups, but Delilah had the nicest coat and femine face. Delilah is still beautiful with her chocolate and white fur. She has hip dysplasia, arthritus in her paws, and fatty tumors. But she can get around quite well, and she never misses a bite of food we toss to her. Delilah loves her walks, food, and naps more than anything in her world. She's not the lady she once was, she hacks very loudly, pants in constant hotflashes, and she has developed bad manners regressing back to her puppyhood! She likes to steal butter foil wrappers out of the garbage, and drolls big time when you're eating something good. Since she is so old, she gets away with alot of stuff! Delilah is very spoiled and will be until her dying day.









I just had to post this photo of my Sampson and Delilah. We sadly put down Sampson in 2000. He was only 9 1/2 years old. I was devasted to lose my baby. Labrador Retrievers have a lifespan of 10 years. Sampson had the most beautiful coat, onyx shiny black. He had extraordinary puppy dog eyes, with whites underneath which always grabbed at my heart strings. Delilah has his eyes too. They were a pair together, Sampson taught her everything he knew. They ran away together, rolled in cow patties together, rolled in dead animals together, and slept together. We had double trouble with these high strung Labs, but I loved every minute of being with them. I knew when Sampson passed, I would still have Delilah. Now when Delilah goes, all of my Sampson will be gone! Aren't they too cute.? More photos of my Sampson and Delilah can be found on my PassionsFlame site here.

A couple days ago I happened upon another blogger, Maureen ~ water:: earth :: wind :: fire She has a Sam dog too, and her Sam is going to be 20 years old in March 2009. His amazing story is on her site. He looks much like my Sampson did when he reached maturity. What a phenomenal dog, I hope he makes it to 20, and her Sam gives me hope that Delilah may still have some time!