Today, all over the Western world, we are preparing to celebrate the passage of another year and to set our sights on what we hope for in the year ahead. As much as i hope for world peace, (and i truly believe it is possible to have a more compassionate world), i plan to focus on my own, more humble contribution. But more on that in tomorrow's post...
Meet Zippy. She is an unusually small little dog (weighing in on most days under 2 1/2 pounds) with a BIG personality. She is herself, a happy accident. Zippy was born severely impaired and her owner Sonja feared she would never be able to survive in a world fraught with danger. The challenges of daily living; eating, drinking and navigating in time and space were a real problem for little zippy. But this 80 year old woman had real heart and would not give up on little Zippy.
Sonja spent many wakeful nights feeding her by hand, holding her to keep her warm and encouraging her to be confident in herself. After many weeks of this and the effort of holding perpetual hope in her heart the miracle happened and Zippy was able to eat, drink water and find her way to a bed all on her own. And the woman named Sonja felt gratified and happy for her little protege.
And then i came along and asked if i could adopt little Zippy and Sonja, who loved Zippy very much let go and allowed Zippy to join our little family. Zippy had never been an only dog before and we all held our breath to see what it would be like for her to adjust to a new situation. And she thrived! And her crazy little personality shines.
So this photograph of a happy accident is both a noun and a verb. Zippy is in perpetual motion. She can't help herself. It is the nature of her condition. Getting pictures of her is always difficult but on this day through some combination of my moving around to get a shot of her little face, and her efforts to avoid me we ended up with a perfect portrait of Zippy. This photograph captures her true nature and shines with her unique personality as any good portrait should. But it was an accident, our whirling dervish dance together just clicked and here she is. Meet Zippy :)