Category Image Max Photos place in Newf Photo Contest


We received some wonderful news yesterday in the afternoon mail. Three of my pictures of Max placed in the 2003 Newf Tide Annual Photo Contest, sponsored by the Newfoundland Club of America, with one of them taking first place; the front cover of Newf Tide Magazine. Here's the winning picture of a ten month old Max that appears as the cover photo of Newf Tide, Fourth Quarter 2003, Vol. 34, No. 4.





I want to express my sincerest gratitude to the judge, Larry Medsker, for choosing my photographs and to the Newfoundland Club of America for sponsoring the contest. I also want to thank my lovely wife Kim for encouragement and all my wonderful Newfies, Sam, Max, and Joe, for inspiration. Kim and I want to thank those who have visited our web sites for Sam, Max, and Joe, and especially those who have sent me encouraging emails with kind remarks about the photos and videos on those sites. Thanks also to Chuck Toporek for encouraging me to enter the photos in the contest. Finally, congratulations to the other folks whose beautiful photos were selected for inclusion in Newf Tide.

It's very emotional for us to see our Max on the cover of this popular publication. You see Kim and I believe that Max is an angel sent to us from God and Sam. No, we're not religious fanatics. Let me explain.


Max was born on April 19, 2002 early in the morning about the same time our dearest beloved soul mate Sam passed away. We were so broken hearted from the loss of our Sam that we barely had the will to go on. I happened to search the web to look for information on Sam's relatives and breeder to let them know about Sam. Somehow I stumbled onto the web site of Amorosa Newfoundlands and saw that a litter of Newfoundland dogs was born on April 19, 2002. We decided that we should probably look for another Newfoundland, not to replace Sam---Sam could never be replaced---but rather to share our love with another newfie. We still weren't really sure that the time was right to adopt another Newfie. At any rate, we called Ana Ayala of Amorosa and she said we could visit the litter. We did just that on May 24, 2002.

All the puppies in the litter were sweet. It didn't seem to us that we'd get any of them, however. Mostly, we just wanted to be with Newfies. We didn't expect to fall in love with any of them. Then we met Max. There was just something about him. We really didn't want to love him, but it just happened. We formed a special and magical bond with Max immediately. Max got into our very broken hearts at a time when we thought it was impossible and when we didn't want it to happen; we didn't think we'd get him anyway. But Max obviously wanted us and we wanted him. Ana was kind enough to let us adopt him.

Here's a picture of the moment we knew in our souls that Max was meant to be with us.







The two other pictures that placed in the photo contest are of Max in our backyard at three months of age




and at 16 months of age in Bristol, RI.







We also met Evelyn de Reus of Kloofbear Newfoundlands on May 24, 2002 as we were leaving Amorosa. Evelyn is Max's co-breeder and Joey 's breeder. We adopted Joey, another wonderful Newfie soulmate, from Evelyn. This too was meant to be and clearly (to us) part of God's plan. Both Max and Joey add so much joy to our lives, and they are so good for each other too. We love each of our newfies, Sam, Max, and Joe, with all our hearts and souls. They are indeed all wonderful angels sent to us from God, with the help of wonderful human beings like Phyllis Welch of Spillways Newfoundlands (Sam's breeder), Ana Ayala of Amorosa Newfoundlands, and Evelyn de Reus of Kloofbear Newfoundlands. There are many other wonderful newfies and newf people, far too numerous to mention here.


Posted: Sunday - December 14, 2003 at 12:37 PM        

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