Butterflies & Boxers

If you have followed me on social media, then you may have heard me talking about butterflies and boxers or at least, seen some of my small boxer figures adorned with them. As I prepare my contribution for this year's upcoming Carolina Boxer Rescue bash, I thought it may be a good time to share again how this magical combination came about.

After my first boxer Buckner passed from DM (degenerative myelopathy), a good friend gifted me with a conversation with a pet psychic.

Now I am not the pet psychic type. And frankly I was grieving the loss of my heart dog so bad, talking to anyone about him, much less a stranger was not at all appealing. But I knew my friend had paid for this woman to speak to me so rather than be rude or waste her money, I decided to just get it over with.

And while I will never share all the details of our conversation, the pet psychic told me she saw my boy with butterflies floating around him as he was passing on these various messages. At the time I thought it was funny because Buckner was the boxer dog that would chase butterflies if he saw them and try to eat them right. But here he was according to this psychic butterflies floating around him, talking about my baby and what a good mom he knew I would be (I had at that time just found out I was pregnant, to my surprise, and that was detail I did not share with the woman beforehand). Later that evening when I was back in my office, I happened to notice an old picture I had of Buckner on a bookshelf. The frame had butterflies all around it. Hadn’t ever noticed that at all. Years later, after my son was born and diagnosed with autism, I read about how butterflies were the preferred symbol for autism of late over the puzzle pieces. Buckner passing and finding out I was pregnant so close together has definitely intertwined my dog and my son for life. But this added element of butterflies makes it even more so.

Now whenever I see butterflies, I think of Buckner. My first boxer. My first love. What I thought would be my only ‘son” because I didn’t think getting pregnant was in the cards for me. And I think of the Intern, my son, and how his perception of the world has brought me so much joy and changed me in so many ways.

So occasionally I combine the two worlds of boxers and butterflies in my work to capture all that love, joy and magic in art that will live forever. And in this case, raise lots of money for the rescue boxers at Carolina Boxer Rescue.

To buy a raffle ticket for a chance to win this and support rescue boxers please go to the Carolina Boxer Rescue website OR easily find it on their Facebook page. There are a ton of other items as well in this fundraiser so definitely worth checking out.