Flashback: Old (Dane) Gold.

There might be a bit of a pooch-flavoured week this week - blame Pioneer Woman okay?

Just thought I'd share another entry in her Dog Portrait assignment - and to be completely different from yesterday's last-minute shot, this one is quite an old photo.

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This particular image was taken (on film with my old Nikon) in 2003. It was taken when we lived in a tiny little house in a suburb of Brisbane - married just two years and with a sweet little boy who would go on to be called Dash. Dash would have many little challenges in his life (back then) and we would spend much time in the house, rather than rollicking around playgrounds like most little boys and their doting mamas.

Luckily we had our own built-in play centre.

And his name was Cosmo.

Coz adored Dash and was intensely careful around him - things had been quite tense as we realised the extent of Dash's condition and his feeding and medication regime had pretty much grounded us, and this tension had made our bitumen-speckled (Blue Merle) Great Dane quite protective. Not in an aggressive way (he was NEVER aggressive) but he would mostly just park himself nearby and watch our little boy. Dash didn't move a lot, but this giant, steady, loving presence seemed to comfort him just by being there. Occasionally Dash would shuffle over (he never really did crawl) and just hung with Coz. The trust he had in this dog was really something. This confidence with dogs is something that stays with Dash to this day.

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As Dash grew stronger, he would pull himself up onto the dog's back and Coz would sit steady and still. Waiting calmly. Being his plaything. Letting Dash pull ears and lips with a quiet "It's okay... he's right... it doesn't really hurt" look on his face.

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This photo was scanned (with a lot of dust marks) before I lost the original. Using a very basic original version of Photoshop, I had monotoned and lightened the background for a card I made years ago - a card to thank so many people who had helped our son through his challenges. I found the file yesterday and thought I'd clean it up a little and enter it. I ran a sepia action on it (which included a border that I have almost removed) and then left it be.

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You'd think after seven years, the power of this photo on my emotional state would lessen.

You would think after three years of Coz-less living, I would be over it.

But this photo never fails to make me cry.
I'm bawling right now, wiping stupid tears away before Mr Incredible sees me.

It's the look on Dash's face.

The one that says: He's mine.