Howling Happy Birthday goes to...

Last night in Thunder Bay a party was held in honour of my friend Linda, who turns 50 today. Linda has been the owner of K9 Studio, the dog training school in Thunder Bay dating back to the 1980s

Since I could not attend, I sent a slide show with some great old photos, including this photo of our gang in 1979, at the tender age of 19. I am the one in the pink pants. From left to right are: Jim Tarnowski, Lynda Livitsi (later Tarnowski), Linda Siczkar, Jolene (Killer) McCuaig of One Collie Blog, and Sandra Young

In the front are Joan Kivi and me with Linda's dogs Bridy and Beau on my lap

We were a doggy crowd. Below are our dogs, in 1979, at Hazelwood Lake in Thunder Bay. From left to right Nakia the Elkhound - Lynda Tarnowski's dog - and she later went on to breed beautiful Wrathwood Norweigan Elkhounds; my collies Beau and Jessie; Jolene's collie Ben - you can check Jolene out on her blog One Collie; Likka the Karelian Beardog owned by Joan and Jerry Kivi, and Linda's Bridy. We all met as high school kids in Grade Nine and obviously bonded. Sandra Young was quite a professional handler who stared with a beautiful Great Pyr named Tiffany.

Linda went to Ontario College of Art, and combined her passion for art and dog by starting K9 Studio. Below, then Mayor of Thunder Bay presenting Linda and I each with Good Neighbour Awards for our work in Thunder Bay (I helped Linda but also I was a member of the CKC Puppy Mill committee, organized community awareness things like stoop and scoop days, and did some in-home behaviour counseling, which is another long story for another day...) Those are our dogs - Linda's Belgian Task, and my GSD Hawk - both were TDX dogs - our first tracking dogs!

Linda had a fateful accident in 2002 when a moose collided with an oncoming vehicle and was launched onto her van roof, resulting in a serious brain injury.She was airlifted to the States and spent the next year in serious rehab. However, she is doing amazingly well and is now working as a Board Member for a Brain Injury Group and renewing her interests in woodwork and glass blowing. We are all so proud of her, and if you met her today, you would never guess she has suffered a serious injury that prevents her from working. Last spring Linda and I went to a conference in Toronto together, and Linda had to have her picture taken with this big guy at the Toronto Convention Centre.

Linda has been my friend for 35 years now, and was also my Maid of Honour and has been there for me for many important life events. Below, she is welcoming baby Hawk in 1987 (the dog howling at the top). Hawk died on January 31, 2000 so I always remember him on this day, too. Caden reminds me a lot of Hawk.

I was sad to miss her party but know that even though we are separated by geography, we are now closer than ever! Our lives have been intertwined for so long now...and years ago we were even in the newspaper on the same day, me when I was singing at a high school event, and Linda for her art scholarship...