Goodbye to our dog Bailey - another sad day in the Cable family

I will be the first to admit that back in 2005, I was not in favor of getting a dog. But my wife and kids convinced me that we needed a canine in the family. Reluctantly, I agreed, thinking about all of the added responsibilities, costs and chores that the kids would most likely not perform.  And then...we found our little puppy, Bailey.

 

At the time, he was a cute little thing (but not little for long).

This is one of our all-time favorite images. Ali holding Bailey for the first time. Both of them were so small at the time.

Bailey quickly grew to a whopping 107 pounds. Yep - My wife wanted a medium sized dog that did not shed, and we got this big guy! He was our gentle giant. My friend came over to the house and said "Wow!  That isn't a dog, he should have his own zip code!" That made us laugh. This is a picture of Bailey up in Mammoth, CA where he used to love burying his head in the snow. Photographing a big black dog is not very easy, since it is so hard to see his eyes. But, photographing a big black dog in the snow is ideal since all the white reflects in their eyes and makes them more visible.

Here is another family favorite image, with our three "kids" having fun with their eye glasses. Yep, Bailey would let us dress him up in all kinds of outfits, and he really didn't care. 

 

Another outfit for Bailey. Guess what time of year this was? :)

 

Bailey was the subject of many of my images. Almost everyone who knew him would comment about there being something very human in his eyes. He was a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Standard Poodle, otherwise known as a Golden Doodle or Golden Poo (although I always refused to call him by those terms since they sounds too weird).

My wife taught Bailey all kinds of tricks. This was his "so embarrassed" posed where he would lay down and put his head on the ground and hide his eyes. This always made us laugh.

Now that Bailey has "crossed the fence" and gone to another yard somewhere in the sky, we hope that he is making other people as happy as he made us. Bailey had many other people who loved him, who are no longer with us today, and we hope that he is playing tug-o-war with them now. Bye buddy - we miss you a ton!