Ringo

I’d like you to meet Ringo. He’s a coon hound and he’s five. I was recently asked to take some photographs of Ringo by a good friend of mine.

They adopted Ringo several months ago and rescued him from an unhappy place. He’s had a difficult life, but my friends Steve and Gwen took him home and made him a member of their family. He gets lots of attention, plenty of walks and all the food and water he needs.

Unfortunately, they discovered a lump in his throat and it turned out to be Lymphoma, a nasty form of cancer and inoperable in this case. Ringo was not given long and my friends wanted to get photographs of him while they could.

We spent a pleasant Saturday morning in the park. Ringo was in great spirits and filled with the joy of being alive. Dogs live in the moment and wouldn’t have cared about his illness even if we could have explained it to him. I was honoured to have been given the opportunity to meet him and to capture some of his joy for my friends.

Ringo died today.

In my brief time with him, he showed me a few things that I should have known already. That life is brief and we should cherish each moment and the people close to us. That the real power of photography is its ability to capture these moments for the future.

Ringo is gone, but not forgotten.