But of course, you all are here about The Dog. He is the namesake of my art studio in Dunedin, Florida: Eenie Meenie My Nemo, or Nemo for short, is my inspiration for what I do.
All of my pets have been rescues, but Nemo was special. Jokingly called The Chosen One, I rescued his mother, a Great Dane mix, whom a neighbor had left tied as a puppy to a tree and couldn’t seem to remember to ever feed and water her. Incensed, I had been making sure she had food and water for over a year when another neighbor’s large pedigreed Yellow Lab was out wandering and got “Daisy” pregnant. I promptly untied her from the tree and confiscated the dog. To my shock, the young man who owned Daisy would still wave at me and once in awhile ask how she was doing – – – apparently with no hard feelings toward me for “stealing” his canine prisoner and remaining generally clueless about responsible pet ownership.
Daisy gave birth to nine puppies on July 5, 2010, and as everyone was weaning, Nemo decided at almost four weeks old that he wanted to be indoors toddling after me or lying on the air vent on the floor and separated himself from his mother and siblings. To say he was The Chosen One is really backward in that My Nemo actually chose ME – my pick of the litter did the picking! This “birth day” video was originally posted on my first blog and YouTube pages: Caffeinated Music.
Unlike all of my other rescued and adopted pets, I have known Nemo since before he was born and made sure he never knew a day of want or neglect in his life. Was he spoiled? Oh, yeah. Was I a pushover for anything he wanted? Oh, yeah. Can I imagine my life without him? Heck, no! My shiny black Uber Puppy ruled my day. We moved to the West Coast of Florida, where my life pretty much revolved around my dog. Thankfully, the ‘Mo took really long naps in the daytime so I could work on projects in my studio.
Of course, Nemo as a baby was quite artistic himself per this post from my other blog, written tongue in cheek for an art appreciation class!
Nemo grew up to be a very handsome dog who enjoyed living by the water. Most nights, we’d walk through the marina to the dock and watch the sunset before making the rest of the rounds of checking on the boats and chasing the birds.
Videos of the boys can be found on our YouTube pages here and here. Emmylou Harris loved her Big Black Dog so much, she wrote a song just for her Bella on this clip from the Fox affiliate in Nashville: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2yLY8ASur8 – we love this little song. It makes us (okay, me) cry every time I hear it ❤
Big Black Dog Studio 
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