I never did get around to sharing my last two Inktober sketches last year. I dedicated my last inktober to my dad. He passed away in October of 2020 and this project was my way of bringing back some good memories to October.

The prompt for entry #29 for Inktober was “Patch” I decided to draw a patch of poison ivy. My dad was extremely allergic to it. If he even so much as looked at it, he would be covered from head to toe. We were always in the woods for one reason or another and for some reason my dad always got the rash. Meanwhile, I never had a single itch. I felt very fortunate at the time that I was not affected like my dad was. I could have rolled in it and been fine. That is until I became an adult. When I started a job doing landscaping, it was rare that I didn’t have poison ivy! It was so irritating and the itch will drive you mad. Though beware, the more you scratch, the more it spreads! I tried so hard not to scratch it but there were times when I would wake up because I was scratching myself in my sleep. There was no escape! Now I know how my dad felt.

For #30, I did not follow the Inktober prompt sheet. All my other sketches correlate with the official list but this final one was meant to be something else. My dad’s most recent dog was a Vizsla named Sophie. My dad always had his hunting dogs. He took his dogs hunting all the time. Not Sophie though. She was the biggest scaredy cat and she would never hurt a fly. The outside cats would bully her all the time because they knew she was a chicken sh!t. It was pathetically hilarious. Sophie was a big sweetheart though. She just wanted to be loved and protected.

My dad loved to show off her skills though. He would grab a quarter out of his pocket and let Sophie sniff it. Then he would throw it in a direction that she wasn’t looking and tell her to retrieve it. And so she would. She would sniff around for a little while and follow the trail until she found the quarter. Then she would gingerly pick it up with her mouth and run it back to my dad to do it again. She was a good tracker, that’s for sure.

I dedicated this last sketch to Sophie because she passed away almost exactly a year after my dad did. My dad died October 27, 2020. Sophie died October 26, 2021. After my dad was gone, Sophie was always waiting for him to come back. She found comfort with my mother but it wasn’t enough. Sophie was always a nervous dog but her anxiety was so bad afterwards, it was almost unmanageable. She just seemed so scared and worried all the time. My mom hated leaving the house because Sophie was too scared to be alone. It was frustrating not to be able to tell her what happened. She was so confused why my dad never came back home and I wish I could have just explained it to her. Sophie’s health rapidly declined that year despite my mom’s efforts in giving her the healthiest and most comfortable lifestyle a dog could have.

My mom said that when Sophie passed, she had an overwhelming vision of Sophie seeing my dad and running to him as fast as she could, young, happy and healthy.

My dad and Sophie are so dearly missed that words cannot even begin to explain. It’s hard to write about, not only for obvious reasons, but because my vocabulary cannot do my emotions justice. The feelings are so strong, overpowering at times. This is why I started this project. It helped me work through things and also brought some light and relief to such a heavy situation. I hope you enjoyed this final entry for my Inktober project. I apologize for it being so late. Although, it is my dad’s birthday today so I figured it was the right time to share the last piece.

Happy Birthday Dad. Wish you were here. You too Sophie.

I hope you enjoyed today’s stories. Check out my next post to see my entire Inktober 2021 collection. Thanks for reading.

Take care, free spirits.