This is supposed to be a Caturday post, but I need to give more press to the canine members of the household. After all, Labs and Doodles, but principally Labs, have been a part of us since we started dating in 1982. And a part of my wife’s life since 1979. These are photographs from many years ago.

This photo is of our oldest living Lab, Ruby. She’s now 15 and still with us. She’s the second from the left of the dam’s right foreleg, with the darkest markings. They say that a puppy choses their person. My wife and I were visiting this group and low and behold our future Ruby sauntered right up to us and leaned against my wife’s shoe. This was taken December 2008 with my Olympus Four Thirds E-300 and the original Zuiko Digital 14-54mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom. I miss that combination, I really do.

It’s now June 2009 and we’re up at Florida State University to pick up daughter #2 and bring her back home. The red Prius is mine, and believe it or not three humans and two Labs will make it back home just fine. Max is far left, Ruby is center, and of course that woman leaning out is my beloved. Funnily enough everyone has their mouths open and tongues hanging out. This was taken with my nearly new (at the time) Olympus Four Thirds E-3 and Sigma 30mm/1.4.

A month later and the wife and I are back in Tallahassee, this time loaded up in our Kia Sedona van with a mattress, a sofa, and two Labs. We had to transport the mattress and sofa up to daughter #2 as her new residence at the time didn’t have any furniture. We’d spent the night at a local motel, and that morning on the way back home we’d stopped off at a local eatery for breakfast. When I look for that spot today it’s now Burnett Park on W. Gaines St. Taken with my E-3 and the Zuiko Digital 12-60mm/2.8-4. Both that camera and lens were stolen out of the back of my car in 2012. Although replaced since then with demonstrably better equipment, I still have a small empty spot in my heart for that lost equipment.

Thanksgiving 2011. I’d just come back from a trip up to Detroit, Michigan, and we were visiting our vet to have some photos made. I was there with my camera of course to get some of the tamer moments with our two minions. At this point Max was 11 and Ruby was 4. Both of them were hale and hearty little creatures. I can’t recall the name of the vet tech fixing Ruby’s costume; it’s been 13 years since that photo was taken. Once again I used the E-3 and the 12-60mm. That was a rugged workhorse combination.

I have a lot more Lab photos, and I will start to drop them into posts from this point forward. I hope nobody minds.