Tootsie the dog

Tootsie the dog and her master 

Our son snapped this photo with his camera! I felt it was striking and I asked him if I could use it in my blog.

This is Carleton, our neighbor in our row at Lion's Beach for a few days when we were at Elephant Butte Lake State Park in New Mexico. Carleton's wife has a form of lupus that keeps her home so she no longer goes camping with him as she used to. This is Tootsie, and she was a real sweetie! Our son fell in love with her immediately and made friends with Carleton. Tootsie has a dog friend at home who mothers her and licks her ears a lot, even though Tootsie is eight years old now. Look at that one ear standing up. lol!

You get to know certain people on the road. While the time you spend with them is short, some touch your life deeply. Some people just stay on your heart. Carleton's mom was murdered in a horrible, terrible way. She was in her 80s and lived alone. He gave us some delicious pinto beans and hot sauce and tortillas (made by his wife). The home cooked food was scrumptious! He gave us some good travel magazines to read. He had part of two fingers missing but we don't know why. He was pleasant to talk to and seemed to have such a gentle personality. Like his wife, his own health was beginning to fail. He left before we did because his wife told him she missed him and it was time to go home. He had developed emphysema and was hoping he could breathe better, without the use of an oxygen tank, at lower elevation. He could. We miss Carleton, and little Tootsie too.