Casper and Tim Maher

This blog is about gardening. But, today I am not going to talk about gardening but a wonderful creation. As you might remember from my others posts, I have two dogs. They are (or were) literally the stewards of my garden. They never destroyed any plants or any of the garden beds; they obediently followed all the rules about avoiding which parts of the garden. However, through barking and chasing they kept all the birds, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks away.

As my barren, no-tree, only-grass, chemical-infused (that's how the garden was when we bought our house) evolved through the last decade, so did the stewards. They grew old. The chasing gave away to nimble trot. Constant alert and watchfulness gave away to snoozing in the warmth of sun. You dare not come near my house growling turned to raspy and feeble barking. I saw them grow old and matured, and was getting comfortable with the idea of snoozing with them in front of the fire-place for many more moons to come. But man (woman in this case) proposes, God disposes.

The white one is Casper. On October 26, 2018, he started sneezing badly. They were loud sneezes, the force of which was making him fall over and get his head bumped on the floor. He then started bleeding from his nose. After much ups and down, fail diagnosis, bad veterinarians bent on just stealing money and not diagnosing, we found good vets. The final diagnosis is Cancer. Now, we are waiting for the result which will tell us what sort of cancer, how much time we have with him, any chance of cure or not. In the meantime, though, his health is deteriorating. He has lost almost all his muscles, he is now a skeleton with skin and fur. Now and then he refuses to eat. He is just a very strong dog with a stronger will, and that's what pushing him ahead, we think. He has already been hospitalized four times, and every time  he bounced back so nicely that even the doctors were surprised.

I am just hoping such surprises and miracles continue. I am not yet ready to see him cross the rainbow-bridge. We recently had a baby, and life was so rosy and blissful. But after sunny days come the dark, cloudy days, I guess.

While all these are going on, I decided to have a portrait of Casper done. I know an awesome local artist. So, I requested him to create a portrait of Casper in oil-painting. I gave him a photo, and he created a Genuine Gem.

This is the picture of the oil-painting, and seriously the picture is not doing justice to the painting. The picture is all grainy and hazy. But, the real-painting is simply mesmerizing. We didn't realize that it was going to be so lively and life-like. Hubby and I simply cannot take our eyes away from the painting. The other evening I entered the room deep in thought; I caught the painting through the corner of my eyes and mused for a fraction of second what was casper doing on top of the door frame; how did he climb up there? Then I realized it was the painting.

The painting is so realistically done that it seems like real, living and breathing Casper staring out of it. The painting captured each and every spots and shades on his fur. Not a single strand of his fur missing. The posture is perfectly captured. His emotions and personalities are vividly coming out of the painting.

Now I am wondering whether the painting will give me solace or more heartache when Casper will be no longer with us. I will think Casper alive, sitting and staring at me; I will reach out to touch his soft fur only to realize that it is a painting.

Tim Maher is the artist who painted it. I wonder how long it took him to paint such a masterpiece, at least to our eyes since we know Casper in real life and thus can compare the painting to him. Yes, it costed some money; many might say why not blow up the photo to the size of the painting? But what is money compared to the love, dedication, thought and hard-work that the painter poured into the painting? Perhaps that is why the painting has come out so life-like as it got imbued with the magic and breath of the painter.

Thus, I dedicate this post to painter Mr. Tim Maher of New Jersey.