Thankful Thursday

It is no secret that quilting is my choice of playtime. I enjoy it, it's relaxing, and there is a beautiful product (IMHO) at the end. And my purpose in keeping this blog is to help me stay focused, with goals well defined and keeping me motivated to meet those goals. And by joining in on Linky Parties I am forced to come up with something to actually post about.

But the main happiness of my life is my family and this blog is a kind of journal that I'm able to go back and enjoy so I've decided that, although this will be mainly my quilting journal, Thursdays will be "Thankful Thursday" where I post family pictures/happenings.

So, with that in mind, yesterday our wonderful daughter in law, Nicole, was browsing her Facebook newsfeed. Nicole is a passionate animal lover and belongs to several animal related Facebook groups, one of them being K-9 Heroes (this being a natural attraction since our son/her husband, Tim, was a K-9 Marine handler and is now a K-9 handler in the Secret Service). So she is scrolling her Facebook newsfeed when, to her dismay, she comes upon this post and picture.

"RIP K9 Clue Thoughts and prayers to all. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office K9 dies: Photo: During his time with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Clue took part in numerous fund raising events. (PHOTO/Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)
http://www.mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2014/2/5/palm_beach_county_sh.html"

She said her eyes nearly popped out of her head as that was her daughter, our granddaughter, Paige, in the picture. Who would have thought!! The picture was taken a year ago Halloween when we were all down in the Palm Beach area for our son, Chris', wedding on November 3rd. We spent the week before the wedding in Florida helping with and enjoying all the prewedding preparations. Halloween fell that week so we searched the internet and found a Trunk or Treat hosted by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's department was happening not too far from the house we were renting. Paige was not quite two and this would be her first real exposure to Halloween and we were hoping for something low key, safe and requiring little walking. This Trunk or Treat fit the bill perfectly.

If I remember correctly, there were maybe 15 police cars, emergency vehicles and private cars decorated for Halloween and passing out candy. Perfect! Paige seemed to enjoy the experience well enough, slowly getting comfortable with walking up to these strangers to get a treat. Just right! But then we came upon this fabulous bloodhound with his handler. Paige was enthralled. This wonderful, relaxed dog let her hug and kiss him and that was without a doubt the highlight of all of our evening. So to have this picture show up 15 months later on a non-relative Facebook page was such a surprise for all of us.

We now learn that this gentle giant's name was Clue and he was quite a hero! He apparently found 2 missing children during his career as a "trailing" K-9. He will certainly be missed by his handler, Luis Ledbetter, and the entire Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department. 

RIP Clue. You were a hero in life and will always be a fond memory of Paige's first experience with Trick or Treating.