Today marks one year since the passing of our Pluto:
Above: Pluto with Mom and my great nieces and nephews, in a moment of perfect sweetness, just one hour before he died.
I find it appropriate and touching that the third anniversary of Pluto’s passing will be marked by a different kind of passing of a different kind of Pluto. Two years from now, barring some space disaster, the New Horizons spacecraft will be entering the vicinity of the (currently classified as) dwarf planet Pluto after 7 1/2 years of swift travel. The spacecraft will make its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015. As a way of dramatizing and building anticipation for this momentous event, here’s a series of simulated images generated via one of my favorite online utilities, the NASA-JPL Solar System Simulator:
Above: Today Pluto remains a tiny dot as viewed from the spacecraft.
Below: The next six images dramatize New Horizons’ final approach during July 12-14, 2015. The elliptical path represents the orbit of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon:
Seven images above Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. Click to enlarge.
Above: My extremely humble, unedited photo of the Sun with a dramatically large sunspot group currently visible. I could even see the largest spot using the eclipse shades we used for observing the May 20, 2012 solar eclipse. Read all about it and see some very sharp photos at Spaceweather.com. Solar projection method with 60mm refractor telescope and 17mm eyepiece.
Below: Waning Crescent Moon at 5:37 AM CDT July 3, 2013 (10:37 UT). 8″ reflector telescope, 25mm eyepiece.
At the neighborhood park, at dawn on July 3:
Above: A mother Mallard and half-grown ducklings heading towards the water.
Below: I was very pleased to see a mother Wood Duck with eight ducklings!
Photos above with 7×35 Bushnell binoculars.
Above: It’s amazing how much wildlife one can see so close to the city, and you see more by coming out at a quiet time such as the early morning.
Below: A very calm dragonfly, no doubt looking forward to a fine day of mosquito hunting.
It’s good to get down to the neighborhood park again. Once I was there once or twice a day, but not very often for almost a year. The park is full of memory for me, the memory of two thousand walks with Pluto during the last two and a half years of his long life. But life goes on, new ducklings and all!
All with LG VX8360 cell phone camera. Click to enlarge.
Seventeen years ago today I adopted a lovable, fuzzy ten-week-old puppy and named him Pluto. All our pets have been wonderful, but there was something “especially special” about Pluto, so here are some highlights from his long dog’s life of nearly seventeen years.
In 1995 I lived near Pleasanton, Texas, with my growing menagerie. I had arrived the previous summer from Minnesota with my large collection of aquarium fish, which dealt with the move very well (the key to good fishkeeping is to know how to reduce stress for the fish), and in the winter I had adopted Missy, a nice & very furry Chow dog, perhaps a year old, who was a neighborhood stray. Then I took in a gray tabby kitten & named him Tigger, but my zoo was not yet complete. I was pastor of a small church, and in 1995 an older lady named Mrs. Beyer got involved with the church, along with her daughter and family, and a few other newcomers. It was a golden time in our church’s life as newcomers and long-time members got acquainted, and at our Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 28, Mrs. Beyer brought a number of items for the bazaar, including a litter of puppies , “free to a good home,” who had been born in mid-August:
There were six puppies, some light like their father, and some dark like their mother. Being a man nicknamed “Mickey,” I had often imagined having a yellow dog named Pluto, and it didn’t take me long to zero in on the little golden boy puppy who seemed the most outgoing towards me. A family in the church with three boys adopted the lightest-colored, a female, and named her Blondie, and I don’t know about the other puppies. The gift of littermates Pluto and Blondie was like a seal upon the bonds of friendship which were being formed in those golden days of our church’s life.
Eager and intelligent, little Pluto followed Missy with “dogged” determination when I took them for walks, and he learned two very important things, apparently from Missy, with no effort from me: housetraining (though he was mostly outside), and in his whole life, he never, ever licked me or anyone else in the face. Other things were fair game for licking, including toes, kneecaps, arms, whatever was in reach, but never the face. He was very polite that way.
Pluto was a Collie mix, likely part Welsh Sheepdog, as he bore a striking resemblance to a dog herding sheep in England here: Border Collie Cousins: The Welsh Sheep Dog. Speaking of Border Collies, I think Pluto’s demure mother was one, but his smiley, jolly father looked much like Pluto but with big, muscular shoulders that made him look a bit funny. Part Bulldog, perhaps? Pluto definitely was a born sheepdog, often circling me to round me up for a walk or whatever else he wanted.
He grew to adult size while still in Texas, being very good about staying within the 2 1/2 acre church property, but he was a swift runner. I can picture him now racing fast and free during his first springtime, through the meadow resplendent with the Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush, and other glorious Texas wildflowers.
But I was to take Pluto away from the land of his birth before his first birthday, as in July, 1996 I moved to Indiana, zoo and all, and Pluto never saw Texas again. Pluto had never been tied up before leaving Texas, but he put up with it patiently, for the most part. But he surely loved to run lickety-split when I released him each day. It usually took about 45 minutes before he was catchable again.
Above and below: Pluto, approaching two years old, in Indiana in 1997. A very waggy and very swift-running young dog.
Big changes came in my life, as I met my wife in Indiana and we were married in 1997. Along with my bride came her cat “Kitty Cat,” but sadly my cat Tigger, Pluto’s little pal, died unexpectedly shortly after our wedding (I think he may have gotten in contact with something toxic, alas). That September we took in tiny little Zippy cat, who would be with us for many years. Here’s a little montage of our other pets who overlapped with Pluto:
In late 1998 my wife and I moved to my native Minnesota, along with Missy, Pluto, Kitty Cat, Zippy, and a smaller but still substantial assortment of fishes. I took Missy and Pluto for many a walk in the neighborhood, hooking each of them to the opposite end of a chain – in retrospect, two leashes probably would have been more suitable. Then, in August 2001, when Pluto was turning six, we moved to South Dakota, where I was pastor of a church in a tiny town. Pluto and Missy came with, but we decided to leave Zippy with my parents in Minnesota, as it was a less risky place for a small cat. Everyone knows what they were doing on 9-11-2001. I was taking Pluto and Missy for a pleasant walk when the world as we knew it was changing. Soon we decided that two dogs were really too much (which probably had been true all along), and since Missy had always been a bit more aloof and independent, we decided to find a new home for her in Minnesota. We last saw Missy as she hopped, with no hesitation, into the car of the pleased young lady who adopted her.
As for Pluto, I had feared needlessly that he might find it hard to adjust to life without Missy around, but in fact I think he had always wanted to be the “only dog.” At the time he was always outside – the church stipulated “no dogs inside the parsonage” – and we built a straw bale house for him in the winter. I’m amazed in retrospect how well our Texas sheepdog did during those cold winters, though of course we built it to shelter him as well as possible:
And in, I think the winter of 2002-2003, when he was seven, he experienced a true high point of his life, his romance with the love of his life, a beautiful blue-eyed Husky named Bear. Pluto had been “neutered,” which I don’t think is an accurate term, because it had no effect whatsoever on Pluto’s interest in the ladies. He was lovesick whenever the pheremones of a lady dog in heat floated through our little town (which happened rather often), and he tended to see all female dogs as potential mates, and males as rivals. And he did go through a series of girlfriends, but none like Bear. I think they truly were in love with each other, and Bear, who wandered free, basically moved into the straw hut with Pluto for much of the winter. She belonged to a Native American family who lived in town for awhile; in the curious, politically incorrect jargon of many folks of the rural prairie, she was an “Indian dog.” In Pluto’s & Bear’s little universe, there was nothing but complete harmony among dog breeds and human cultures. Alas, Bear & her family moved on in the spring. Pluto seemed to adjust & move on to other potential mates, but Bear was special. Once not long ago, my wife remarked “Sometimes I wish Pluto and Bear could have had puppies.” It honestly hadn’t even crossed my mind, and of course it would have been an unwise burden to take on, but yes, it would have been lovely if Pluto and Bear could have been parents. I think they would have been good ones. And their puppies would have been extremely cute.
In 2003 I had the opportunity to make a return visit to Texas. Mrs. Beyer beamed when I reported to her that eight-year-old Pluto was still with us and doing just fine, a great dog indeed. Indeed, he had not quite reached the midpoint of his long life!
In 2005, when Pluto was turning ten, he gained permission to be an inside dog, as fireworks and thunderstorms had become too traumatizing for his sensitive ears. The general “no dogs in the parsonage” rule was still in place, but a special exception was granted for Pluto. He may be the only dog mentioned by name in the church council minutes! He settled in easily to “retirement” as a house dog, and also was frequently able to walk around free outside, the first time since puppyhood in Texas. He loved it. Indeed, South Dakota was more like his puppyhood in Texas than anywhere else he lived, and he lived there longer than any single place. He flushed out many a South Dakota state bird, sniffing intently around a bush until out came a pheasant. Squawk! Flap! Pluto would get “in touch with his inner wolf” by howling along if he heard a pack of coyotes in the distance, or when a train went by. Once also when my wife was home during church, she heard Pluto outside “singing along” to the sound of hymns being sung inside the church next door. Pluto was affectionate and full of fun, and I often called him “funny dog.” Also, I don’t think we ever gave him a dog biscuit before he was ten, but after his first one he was hooked. I hope the Milk-Bone company is doing OK now that he’s gone, because he was their best customer. Pluto wasn’t one for fetching or playing with chew toys. Toss something, and he would follow it, sniff it, and if it was edible, eat it. If it wasn’t edible he would look at you quizzically and move on to something else. And he only barked if he had something of real substance to say.
A happy, contented dog in our backyard in South Dakota in 2006 or 2007.
Another change came in early 2008 when we moved back to Minnesota after 6 1/2 years in South Dakota. It meant reunion of Pluto with our other senior pet, Zippy Cat, who had been staying with my Mom & Dad all those years (Dad passed away in 2007). We discovered that year that 13-year-old Pluto had lost his hearing, which in a way was a blessing, because thunderstorms and fireworks no longer bothered him. His vision weakened as well, but his sense of smell was always undiminished, and he never lost the drive to investigate every fascinating scent.
Being a good sport for his “official” snapshot in the veterinarian’s office in 2008, though he would rather have been somewhere else. When we moved back to Minnesota in early 2008, 12-year-old Pluto still had a whole quarter of his life left to live! There was a new dog park in town, and we made many a visit.
Pluto enjoys an ear rub in January 2010. He always loved ear rubs:
After living briefly at two different locales, we settled into our current home in late 2009. It was to be Zippy and Pluto’s last home, and it was a wonderful place to take care of our senior pets. Zippy loved exploring the many rooms, and Pluto loved going on walks in the neighborhood, especially through the neighborhood park with many fascinating scents of wild creatures and other dogs. Sadly Zippy was stricken with cancer, and died on March 1, 2011, ending the golden time when we had both Zippy and Pluto, truly an interesting pair of pets. But venerable Pluto would still live for over a year.
Still looking youthful at fifteen, September 1, 2010.
Pluto having a friendly interaction with another dog on September 11, 2010:
Pluto lived a long and wonderful dog’s life, but when you welcome a new pet into your life, you accept the day when you must say farewell. That day would come on July 12, 2012. We saw our sixteen-year-old Pluto growing steadily more tired and weak, and he no longer held his tail up high as he always had; yet he was ever more sweet, affectionate, and amusing.
June 24, 2012.
During Pluto’s last months, I think I prayed hundreds of times that God would simply take him, because I dreaded the thought of taking him in for euthanasia. But I honestly think that Pluto would have just gone on and on, enduring through suffering, simply because he loved us and knew he was loved. When he started developing seizures (the doctor thought he likely had a brain tumor), the time came for us to put his comfort ahead of our own feelings, and God gave us the strength to let him go. In the early dawning of July 12, I took Pluto for an extra long walk, then for one more visit to the dog park, to walk around slowly but freely once more (he had long since galloped his last gallop). Then Mom and our great nieces and nephews came out, and everyone had a wonderful time, filled with love. My purpose was for Pluto’s last morning to be a good morning, and it worked perfectly as planned:
10-year-old Caitlin took this photo:
Shortly afterward, a weak, exhausted, but happy dog, still sniffing fascinating aromas along the way, stepped without fear into the office of his kind, gentle doctor, and with his help we gave our Pluto back to God. I call it that because I believe it’s true: Pluto and all pets are a gift from God and truly belong to Him, not to us; and the time comes, more often than not, that one must take steps to give a beloved pet the gift of release from suffering, rather than prolonging his/her existence just to delay saying goodbye: because a pet doesn’t know the difference between forever and the present moment. And it was difficult to be present at the moment of Pluto’s death, but we wanted him to know we were with him always, through his whole long journey. “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast,” Proverbs 12:10 NASB.
Our Pluto, 1995-2012
Pluto visited nine states and lived in four of them. He always made himself instantly at home wherever we brought him. For Pluto, home was wherever we were, whether Indiana, South Dakota, or Minnesota. But he was always our Texas Sheepdog. I knew him for over one-third of my life; his life journey encompassed a large portion of my own journey. Many life lessons were learned and I made some mistakes during those years. Quite frankly it was a bit reckless of me to take on all those pets, especially with so many moves coming up. But it all worked out, and I’ve learned from the experience. Now, for the first time in nearly eighteen years, we have no furry pets, and though I wouldn’t mind having a dog or cat again sometime, I’m also at peace with it in case we never do. Our zoo now consists of exactly one creature, a very friendly Black Moor Goldfish named Winken (there used to be a Blinken and Nod), who is now receiving more attention than before, and likes it. I’ve perhaps had 500 fish in the last 19 years, and plan to keep the fishkeeping going, on a small scale for now.
We opted for individual cremation, not as a way of trying to hold on to Pluto, but as a step in letting go, by bringing what’s left of him to a special place and leaving him there to stay. After Zippy died we returned her ashes to the edge of the woods where she explored and played for most of her life. As for Pluto, a part of me wishes we could leave him wherever his true love Bear went, but we simply don’t know where she went. Instead, we hope sometime, God willing, to bring his ashes along on one more leg of the journey, a return trip southward to the big land where Pluto was born, to renew old bonds of friendship; and thereafter he’ll always be there, as long as the wildflowers bloom under the Texas springtime sun. And the puppy from Texas who lived long and journeyed far, our faithful friend who howled with the coyotes and loved a beautiful blue-eyed dog of the Dakota, will be part of the Indian Paintbrush and the Bluebonnets, in that faraway meadow where he first learned to run fast and free.
We love you, wonderful Pluto Menudo. Goodbye, funny dog.
In South Dakota, sometime during the prime of his life.
My great niece Caitlin took this wonderful photo on Pluto’s last visit to the dog park.
Pluto, his sister Blondie, and four other puppies were born mid-August, 1995, in rural Bexar County, south of San Antonio, Texas.
I adopted him and named him Pluto on October 28, 1995.
This amazing, amusing, loving, and lovable dog lived in Texas, Indiana, Minnesota, South Dakota, and back in Minnesota again, and was our true and faithful friend, a gift from God.
We gave him back to God on July 12, 2012, after a long, full life of nearly seventeen years. There will never be another dog like Pluto.
When morning dawned on Saturday, October 28, 1995, I didn’t know that a whole era of my life was about to begin. But that day I adopted a round little golden-furred 10-week-old puppy and named him Pluto, and after all these years here he still is!
June 10, 2012:
Relaxing on the deck, June 16.
Born in mid-August 1995, he already has existed now for seventeen years, when you consider the canine gestation period of about 63 days. We can see him slowing down and growing weak and wobbly. He’s weak-eyed and mostly deaf, yet affectionate, cheerful and optimistic as he has always been, and his determination to follow a fascinating scent is completely undiminished. Always very polite in his own way, he’s never, ever licked anyone in the face, but doesn’t hesitate to lick hands, toes, kneecaps, or whatever else is available. Each day could bring the beginning of Pluto’s final decline, so we simply enjoy the miracle of the seventeen-year-old dog one day at a time.
Visiting the dog park, June 17. Indeed, he was born to sniff.
Returning home from the dog park:
Walking (and sniffing) in the neighborhood, June 21:
Paying me a visit as I work on the computer, June 24:
“Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast.” Proverbs 12:10 ESV
It’s been over a month. Yes, I still live on this planet, and I’m briefly breaking my hiatus or “holding pattern” just because this has been such a lovely evening to view the skies. Below: Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon in the western sky at 8:21 PM, March 24, 2012: Above: The thinnest crescent Moon and earliest waxing Moon I have ever photographed, with the 60mm refractor and 25mm eyepiece, “on the fly” during my evening break at work, 8:02 PM CDT 3-23-12 (1:02 UT 3-24-12).
Below 8:05 PM CDT 3-24-12 (1:05 UT 3-25-12), 8″ reflector and 25mm eyepiece. Below: Eight minutes later at 8:13 PM, it is easier to see the faint “earthshine,” or as people of old called it, “the old Moon in the new Moon’s arms.”
Above: Jupiter and the Galilean Moons at 8:08 PM CDT 3-24-12 (1:08 UT 3-25-12), 8″ reflector and 25mm eyepiece. UPDATE: I forgot to mention that from upper left to lower right it’s Europa, Jupiter, Io, Ganymede, and Callisto.
Here’s an update on the progress of Venus. As of March 24, 2012, the upcoming Venus Transit of June 5/6, 2012 is T-Minus 72 days away, and counting:
6:28 PM CDT March 24, 2012 (23:28 UT)
Angular diameter 22.95 arc seconds
52.4% illumination
Distance from Earth 67,571,683 miles (108,746,083 km)
4:10 PM CST February 12, 2012 (22:10 UT)
Angular diameter 16.24 arc seconds
70.2% illumination
Distance from Earth 95,450,953 miles (153,613,419 km)
18mm eyepiece
1:48 PM CST February 8, 2012 (19:48 UT)
Angular diameter 15.82 arc seconds
71.7% illumination
Distance from Earth 98,020,580 miles (157,748,833 km)
18mm eyepiece
2:37 PM CST January 5, 2012 (20:37 UT)
Angular diameter 13.19 arc seconds
81.6% illumination
Distance from Earth 117,572,894 miles (189,215,232 km)
2:21 PM CST November 29, 2011 (20:21 UT)
Angular diameter 11.46 arc seconds
89.5% illumination
Distance from Earth 135,265,885 miles (217,689,541 km)
4:18 PM CST November 20, 2011 (22:18 UT)
Angular diameter 11.13 arc seconds
91.2% illumination
Distance from Earth 139,346,992 miles (227,254,246 km)
12:03 PM CST January 5, 2011 (18:03 UTC)
Angular diameter 25.58 arc seconds
48.6% illumination
Distance from Earth 60,611,164 miles (97,544,214 km)
10:02 AM CST November 27, 2010 (16:02 UTC)
Angular diameter 44.72 arc seconds
20.6% illumination
Distance from Earth 34,669,885 miles (55,795,771 km)
12:40 PM CDT (17:40 UTC), November 5, 2010
Angular diameter 59.94 arc seconds
2.4% illumination
Distance from Earth 25,866,740 miles (41,628,483 km)
Unless otherwise noted, 8″ reflector telescope, 25mm eyepiece, LG VX8360 cell phone camera. Below, along with the wondrous conjunction of Jupiter and Venus this month, here is a conjunction of another sort between 16.6-year-old Pluto and “Callie,” the neighbor calico cat who used to sneak into our garage last fall when she was a half-grown kitten:
Here are my first modest lunar photos of 2012: Above: 11:12 PM CST 1-1-12 (5:12 UT 1-2-12), photographed through rushing thin clouds, but it was great just to see the Moon again after a week of cloudy, icky weather. Below 3:12 PM CST 1-2-12 (21:12 UT). Both with 8″ reflector telescope, 25mm eyepiece, and LG VX8360 cell phone camera. Click for larger view.
Many dramatic celestial events are coming up this year, including a resplendent conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in March; a partial solar eclipse in May (annular in certain places, but not here); and the transit of Venus across the Sun on June 5/6. And in less than a year we will have conclusive empirical evidence of whether the world as we know it is coming to end this year, though you can see just how excited I’m getting about it. :O)
Meanwhile, I’ll continue to use my dusty, trusty telescope and pocket camera in the best way I know how, to build a simple, authentic, honest record of “small moments in the history of the universe,” with a few additional thoughts and observations along the way. Speaking of “small moments,” below, Pluto looks like he’s fallen asleep listening to his favorite tunes, 10:57 PM on New Year’s Eve. Happy New Year, and YHWH’s richest blessings to all!
About 2:30 PM November 21, 2011:
Our first lingering snow of the season has fallen, but a nearby warm water discharge keeps ducks and geese in the neighborhood all winter.
Pluto investigates signs of webbed-feet activity.
To my eye these duck footprints in the snow are creating a multistable perception effect. How about for you?
I’m sharing this for no other reason but that it’s utterly fun, and groovy, man! Far out! Outta sight!
Above: Female Downy Woodpecker next to our driveway at 11:41 AM today.
Below: Pluto and “Callie”, a neighbor calico cat, spotting each other as Pluto and I return from a walk this past Monday at 2:17 PM.
Text in my blog posts will be very sketchy these next couple of weeks until I finish a Jewish Studies course in early December, but here are a few Moon photos:
5:36 AM CST 11-17-11 (11:36 UT)
5:54 AM CST 11-17-11 (11:54 UT)
5:56 CST 11-17-11 (11:56 UT)
7:14 AM CST 11-18-11 (13:14 UT)
8″ reflector telescope, closeups with 17mm eyepiece and 2x Barlow (191x magnification), others with 25mm eyepiece (65x magnification). All with LG VX8360 cell phone camera. Click for larger view.
Still curious at age 16, Pluto checks out what’s under the picnic table at the dog park, Sunday afternoon, October 23, 2011.
We don’t know exactly what day Pluto and his littermates were born in Mrs. Beyer’s barn in mid-August, 1995, but we know exactly what day I adopted him: Saturday, October 28, 1995, when Mrs. Beyer brought the litter of puppies to the outdoor pavilion at our church Harvest Festival in Pleasanton, Texas. After puppyhood in Texas he came with me to Indiana, then with us to Minnesota, South Dakota, then back to Minnesota, where he’s still our faithful companion today! Happy Adoption Day, Pluto!
In Touch With the Sky 