Miró was one of the Airecraft Dirty Dozen, born January 26,
2009. I brought him home to Washington from Ohio on my birthday at the end of
March, giving him the registered name of Airecraft Carries Me Home. Named also
for the Spanish artist Joan Miró, he worked for several years as a sculptor and
installation artist. Some of his arrangements from years back can be found on
my blog, sherryrind.blogspot.com. During obedience classes, he figured out that
he could stop the action and make people laugh by flopping onto his back and
waving his forefeet in the air. Now that he suffers from arthritis, he does it
only rarely. He does continue to give himself a full body massage by ramming head
first between people’s legs. Lanky and somewhat tall, he’s fortunately not tall
enough to cause damage in most cases.
He was a hellion in his youth, the boy on the playground who
didn’t know his own strength and knocked all the other kids over like bowling
pins and went on his merry way, oblivious. He has a tendency to aim pee on the
back of his front foot. To work off excitement, especially when visitors
arrive, he humps his bed. Laughter spurs him on. He is nearing the end of his
life, and I don’t know how I’ll bear the loss even though I’ve borne many.
Every day I tell him some variation of my gratitude, which extends to Dale and
Kim Burrier for breeding the dog that did indeed carry me home.
