Our black lab turns 12, today.  And as luck would have it we got a beautiful MN day with some hoarfrost.  So I took 15 minutes away from the craziness of editing and ordering to grab some photos.  

Jackson is quite the character.  He also still gets excited and  moves like a pup most days (maybe not the next day after he forgets how old he is by paying too much fetch).  And I’m sure if he could communicate and he heard his age mentioned he would give you  a side eye like this…

He loves to be the center of attention when we have visitors  and if he isn’t getting it, he will go and find  a large wood block to carry around or his empty dog bowl, so he can get your attention, even if it means he gets in trouble because of it.  He is also pretty smart.  He has done agility with my Mom.  But showing his smarts even more is the fact that he is trained  with help from Carla Ladd of Ladd K9 after 6-1 hour classes to pick things up for me.  He regularly will pick up my phone, wallet,or the remote off the floor for me. Better yet is the fact that if he hears me drop something, he comes without me even asking him to and looks for whatever I dropped so he can pick it up and give it back to me.

He will also sit for photos for me even though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t love it. He will give me about 15 minutes and will do whatever I tell him to, but then he can be really good at ignoring me by looking at anything but me when he is over it.     The “t” word doesn’t even get him to quit ignoring me. 
Happy 12th Birthday, Jackson!

Here are a couple other photos of the beautiful hoarfrost from today.