Blown Away

We were blown away this morning by an incredible coincidence… as Nigel says, “unreal”. We’d gone to Dunedin yesterday and stayed in a motel overnight near the Botanic Gardens. This morning Nigel and I were enjoying coffee and sitting near the open ranch slider of our ground floor unit. Nigel was looking at the online local news and telling me that the forecast is for gale wind this weekend. Then he showed me a stunning photo from the article –  it showed this gorgeous pomeranian dog in gale wind with its long hair parted by the wind at the front and streaming down its sides and a big “grin” on its face. Very striking.

>>>  striking photo of the pomeranian dog (same photo but in a 2014 article)

I said to Nigel, “I’ve just been looking at a pomeranian dog like that one”. I had a view directly through our ranch slider looking across the street, and a pomeranian dog had been sitting there looking toward me. It had been pattering up and down the footpath with its owner and then the lady had tethered its lead to the fence. I told Nigel I was going over and crossed the road to get a photo of the dog. The following image is cropped from the photo I took…

The dog seemed a bit distracted and then I realised its owner was in a nearby car sorting some things out. By placing myself between the dog and the owner I got a nice photo! I hung around until the owner got out of her car and then said hello. Before I asked any questions about the dog she told me that it had appeared in an ODT article today! Well, I was absolutely floored, just couldn’t believe it! She told me the dog is 13 years old and the photo we’d seen had been taken a few years ago by a journalist and published 1/2-page at the time, then re-used several times since. This is my photo as taken this morning…

I believe his name is Thor Grant and his owner also owns (and rents out) the house where he was tethered. She was simply here to clear away clippings from a hedge she’d recently trimmed. This is a prime student rental area for university students.

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Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2019)