— lesli devito paintings —

DAY 16 – DOG -A- DAY – MEET “FINLEY”

February 16, 2017

FINLEY

WAS A ONE OF KIND GREAT DOG. 

I knew the second I read Finley’s story…that I had to paint him.

I will share it with you….

“We rescued Finley when he was 6 years old – his  family brought him to the vet to be put down as he had contracted mange and it spread to the mother and daughter. (Apparently it wasn’t diagnosed very late). Anyway, the vet said he would take Finley in and care for him and the mange – but he wouldn’t put a good, healthy dog down. The family surrendered Finley to the vet. We found him by chance on petfinder.com I believe, took an hour ride to meet him and the rest is history. When we met Finley we noticed some scabbing and dried blood on his tail which seemed odd. We asked the vet what happened and he said that Finley has been so happy that his wagging tail has hit the cage one too many times….we were sold.”

“We adopted Finley and he was the addition to our family that we had hoped for. We had 9 1/2 years
with him and had to put him down in April 2015…hardest day of our lives. But, he brought us great
joy and he was a wonderful dog for the kids to have as our first family pet. “

FINLEY TRIES TO GET THE SAND CRABS!!!!

MY THOUGHTS ON THE DOG-A-DAY PROJECT – 16 DOGS UNDER MY BELT….

I started this project..almost on a dare to myself..

“I BET YOU CAN’T paint a dog-a-day for a month!!!”… I challenged myself.

“Want make a bet!” I sassed back to myself..

I reached out to YOU and the rest is on the last 16 pages of this blog.

But, in the process of painting all of your dogs… something else started to happen…surrounded by these photos, and your stories..I connected to YOU ….in ways i did not anticipate.

Here is one of the MANY wonderful things about

Dogs.

…These furry…and sometimes, not so furry creatures come to us. Or we go to them…but in any event …they add to our lives in ways that cannot be measured…unquantified…but that we KNOW – deep in our hearts.

 Some dogs challenge our patience, like my Bean who lives for adventure…and some save our lives…Like Charlie who saved mine when he woke me up one hour before the ceiling caved in over my bed…(true story)…and some just save our hearts..and remind us that LOVE is WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT…

See the thing about dogs is that ALL they ask…ALL they want from us is that we LET them LOVE us!!! Completely  – unselfishly… THEY CAN TEACH US SO MUCH!!!

Keep loving your dogs and keep sending me your photos and your stories.

I have now decided to paint 100 dogs in 100 days…and I just cannot wait to meet yours and YOU!!!!

FINLEY ON THE BEACH

8 thoughts on “DAY 16 – DOG -A- DAY – MEET “FINLEY””

  3. Sweet Finley! Thank you for adopting Finley. As a volunteer at the local shelter, I’ve seen way too many healthy and sweet dogs get dumped for the owners own selfish reasons. I’ve seen dogs with bloody tails but usually from the stress of the kennel, chewing. This is a beautiful pup!

  4. Dear Lesli,
    your magnificent portrait of our Jack (Russell) gives pleasure each day. I wish that you could paint my Harley, my heart, who passed in June. We did not have enough time together.
    best wishes,
    Jody

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