Itzl casts a long shadow. Not just pictorially, although he can do that, too, at certain times of the day.
(train alert...)
He casts a long shadow because he affects the lives of a lot of people. Most are family and friends, but there are many strangers he's educated, touched, or otherwise changed just a little bit.
It's because he cares about others, not just people, but other animals, too.
Remember Wednesday, when he found the cover off the hole in the ground and he kept Xoco from it so she wouldn't fall in? Today, he checked that hole and found it was covered again.
He walked all around it and tested it with one paw before he trotted off, assured that it was now safe.
Bet you didn't know he could climb trees:
He likes this one in particular because it has a hollow trunk section he can climb into and look around.
He spotted a friend walking by, but they didn't come close enough to greet, so he got down and checked out the lilies.
He waited patiently for this junebug to crawl out of the way
And this was just part of one of his days. Since it's Friday, we have an extraordinary number of visitors coming through, and he alerts me to each one as they enter my office, then greets them with a brief wave of his tail. Nearly everyone appreciates the greeting.
Wherever we go, he's on the alert for sounds for me, and he pays attention to all the people.
Last weekend, when we were at the Unite Women Against the War on Women March and Rally, he alerted me to cars honking along the way (they were encouraged to honk, so there were a lot of honks), and he alerted when people called my name. In crowds, I can't always hear as well as I used to. He made a lot of new friends and posed for many pictures.
He's been responsible for helping any number of people discover that they can be more independent by helping them train their own hearing assistance dogs and advocating for service dogs.
He's shown that service dogs don't have to be a disruption to restaurants unless the staff chooses to make a big deal out of it. At a recent outing, the hostess who seated us knew we had Itzl, but the waiter didn't know he was there and didn't notice him until we were leaving. The double-take was classic, and he then asked a few questions. He was really interested because his mom has hearing issues, and he took one of the ADA cards to give her for more information.
On a low-ball guess, given how out-and-about we are, Itzl has probably touched the lives of thousands of people in person, and I have no clue how many he may have touched on line, through this series of diaries about him, and through his facebook page, and through many other on line references to him made by people who took his picture but didn't get his name.
He casts a long shadow any time of the day.