For those of you who knew and either loved or hated Cap Haggerty I share a few of the pictures I took yesterday at his memorial service. A service complete with pipes, horn, flag service took place yesterday to remember and honor "Cap", The Captain, Mr. Clean, Art, Arthur Haggerty.

The memories were as varied as the man himself. Most all of the memories being shared seemed somehow bigger than life. As each cluster of people stood up to remember Cap a few things began to stand out. We all remembered him as argumentative, fun loving, strong, honest, with a depth and breath of knowledge of a sort very few have. He was a warrior, an author, an actor, a dog trainer, a husband, a father, a grandfather. Any one of the careers are considered to be enough for most people. The fact that he did them all and did them so very well tells us just what sort of man he really was. He was one of the gifted and blessed ones and I am so grateful that I got to stand in his shadow for a short time.

Cap'n and self taken about 3 years ago. We were just finishing up an excellent argument. Who know on what, didn't matter, he was such an excellent opponent all arguments were most satisfying.(If you enjoy a good, solid argument.)
Al Marx waiting outside the church for the service to begin.
Pam Loeb on the phone and George Cockrell just coming down the steps. Don't they clean up well?
Looking up at Bob Maida. Sorry, but I couldn't back up any further for this shot because they already had me backed into a corner.

Julia McDonough coming into the church and by george, I do believe that is the cleaned up George Cockrell right behind her.

These next three were taken in the church social hall. Look closely, for you just may see either yourself, if you were there, or someone you know if you weren't there.

Martin Deeley shares a memory of Cap while Dawn Wolfe can be seen taping and Bob Maida is in the background. The entire affair was taped so it could be shared with good friends of Cap's who were unable to travel due to illness. In this next picture, you can see Dawn taping and for some reason the only shots I managed to get of Mordecai Siegal were of his back or the back of his head. Not real sure just what that means, then again, maybe it just means he was always ahead of me. The fellow standing more or less beside me told a wonderful story about how he wanted to have a guide dog and none of the Guide Dog Schools would give him one because he was a street singer. Cap came along and said "no reason why a blind, street singer shouldn't have a dog same as anyone else" Trained a dog for him and then helped him learn how to train his own dogs so that he would never have to be without a guide dog just because he didn't fit the criteria the schools set. And with the end of the story I was once again reminded why I admired that loud, brash, abrasive, giant of a man known as Captain Haggerty. Oh and sadly that's me standing off to the side. I can't make up my mind as to just what I was doing. That open mouth may have just been in the process of catching a fly. I am still wishing I could learn to keep it shut, cause open has caused me more grief. Who knows? Someday that is likely how I will be remembered. "Oh, her? Wasn't she the one who was always talking when she should have been listening?" In this picture you can just barely see his guide dog. You can see Sanity peering around my leg and on my left is Sydney Miller. Oh dear, I do hope I got her last name right. For some reason I just seem to remember her as Cap's student from long ago. How I hate it when my memory plays those types of nasty tricks on me. Anyway, I do know that is Martin Deeley you can see standing in the background.


Remember, this is Sanity's blog and so it is important to see just what she was doing behind/under that table. As you can see, she was busy sucking up to Bonnie Brown of the Dog Trainers' Connection. Any and all naked human toes should be washed, is her motto.

How did she do? This young Doberman from a small town in Maryland on her first trip to the Big Apple? She would have been happier if we had walked slower and given her a chance to smell, taste and really study EVERYTHING. But since that was not be, she managed to take in as much as possible. All in all she handled the city as just another interesting day.