I stumbled on this jewel awhile back, while browsing through our house construction archives.

The expression on Wile E.’s face immediately caught my eye and stopped me in my tracks.  Then I glanced over at my equally elated Girly…and the next thing I knew, I was printing it out and hanging it up on the refrigerator door.  As if I need ONE MORE printed photograph of these two.

Several weeks later, after each day commenting on how much we enjoy seeing our “trophy kids” every time we grab the half and half, we realized something so ironic.

Echo and Wile E. are posing in this photo almost exactly where our refrigerator is now.

It was a blistering hot afternoon on Labor Day weekend, back in 2009.  The concrete foundation had recently been poured, and our dear friends came down with us to help backfill dirt by hand.  To my dismay, the dogs refused to crash out on their soft, cushy, spoiled-dog blankets.  They instead found comfort on the cool, hard concrete slab, and we tried to accommodate them with a lovely EZ-Up tent over their heads while they supervised our hard labor in the blazing sun.

So even though we are no longer blessed with their physical presence in our lives, they are here with us in and around our new home today… and will forever be here watching over us and all the new hounds we scoop up off the streets.

Thank you, and I love you, Girly and Buddy-O.