Karo's Last Duck

This is a lifestyle blog and my topic today is personal but certainly about our lifestyle.  Karo, is a member of our family and has been for twelve years.  We have rearranged our schedules, postponed trips, reupholstered furniture and postponed remodels for her.  She has given us unconditional love and companionship in return.  Today we lost Karo to illness and age. 

This is a photo taken not long after  we brought Karo home.  Our floors were a turquoise vinyl, cabinets turquoise metal and we had chipped and peeling paint.  Karo grew and we remodeled the kitchen with taupe floors and cabinets, dark trim, and red walls.  She was easy to train and ready to please.  Richard trained her to hunt.  He was an excellent teacher and she a willing pupil.  She picked up a large number of ducks her first season at a very young age.

Although she became a fierce hunter,  she had an intense love for all who loved her.  Richard's mother, Kathryn was absolutely her favorite.  Kathryn saved leftovers in the freezer so that she would have them when Karo came for overnights.  After we lost Kathryn, we couldn't take Karo to the house because she never stopped looking for her and it was heartbreaking for all.

This is a photo of Karo in a field of flowers at Bologna/Gravy Hunting Club.  She was a welcomed guest and was treated with much kindness by the club members.  One could say the name of the club and she was eager to go.  She had a sense about her that was uncanny.  She seemed to know that when Richard had on his coat and tie it was a workday in which she was not to be included.  When his guns came out and hunting clothes on she would follow him constantly until time to jump in the truck.  As she grew older she had to be left behind and she morned those days and weekends with me.

This is a photo of Karo at her best.  She loved a good duck hunt and would hurt herself trying to please.  Such dignity and pride in that beautiful face.

Karo was an exceptional companion.  She loved to be with us.  If I was in one part of the house and Richard in another she would position herself at a point in between.

She also had some rather nasty habits.  She loved a good loaf of bread which she would steal from the counter given the opportunity.  She swiped a whole freshly baked cake from Kathryn's counter while it was cooling one day.  No meat was safe while cooling and the dining room table had to be carefully guarded once the food was set out.  Her favorite place during dinner parties was under the table where our loving guests would give her the occasional morsel.  She loved being a part of any dinner or cocktail party.  She was a sometimes a visitor at the neighbors whose cats tolerated her presence.  I will miss my walks with her that had become a part of my daily routine.  She was loved by many and will be greatly missed.

This is a photo of Karo's last hunt.  This happened only last winter.  She is in her element here.