Miss Marla's Feeling For Snow

This is a photo of my beautiful dog Marla the Magnificent. Also known as Marla the Monster depending on what side of the cage she got out of that morning. The most important thing you need to know is she is Marla the Malinois.

Meet the Belgian Malinois, the craziest, fittest dog in the world.

The Belgian Malinois is not a family pet. It is the most extreme dog in the world. They are used for armed special forces, police dogs and security. All Belgian Malinois are a high level animal. They have a higher level of intelligence and are extremely alert. The key difficulty with them is they have an extreme level of confidence.

So how did I end up with Marla. Well like most my animals I rescued her.

I was visiting England and had left my father back in France. Due to his health problems and the fact I live semi off grid, he was instructed to be sitting in the local café every night at a certain time so I could phone him and find out how his day had been. When he had not been there for two nights in a row. I packed my bag and headed for the Eurostar to return home.

After a lot of panic and stress I arrived home to be greeted by this.

She is 3 months old here. A friend Eric had come round to see Dad while I was away. She had been owned by two lawyers and they had already given up on her. Eric asked if we would take her. Dad to me straight away asked me "Can we keep her?" I already had a dog, Scally... You can read about his adventures in The Short Lived Adventures Of Scallydog's Emporium.

I had promised dad a second dog, but there were rules. No girls, no difficult breeds and no dangerous dogs. Marla broke all three. Dad had not managed to get to the café because she was already proving to be a handful. I moved into a room with just a mattress on the floor and baby Marla.

She was a nightmare. My other dog was phenomenally intelligent but he was a heart dog. Marla was a head dog, she could assess every angle and opportunity instantly. If Scally was a superhero, Marla was his nemesis, she was the super villain. It took almost a year to teach her how to love unconditionally. She hated originally being stroked, She hated contact. She was obsessed with destroying electrics. I costed the damage she did in her first year at 5000 euros. She approached our relationship at first like a negotiation. She was also beautiful and many years later was admired as she sat serenely devoted to me in the café while I had my morning coffee and she had the biscuit. With patience and time she grew into being a wonderful dog.

All of this is important context for the wonderful image we opened with. To capture the whirlwind that was Marla in that moment of serenity was magic. In case you think it is only highly trained police dogs that can exert a Malinois storm let me present to you some evidence of Marla's maelstrom.

The calmness held inside that first photo is such a rarity. It was taken at 3 am in the centre of the village when there was not a sole around. It was the end of a heavy snowstorm. It was also Marla's first encounter with snow. To be off the lead and free in the village was a real treat. She was only allowed free on the property. If she wanted to leave she could. A Belgian Malinois can scale a two meter wall. She chose not to. So to be out there supervised in this strange new world quite simply blew her mind. To catch virgin snow and her fast mind trying to conceive the unconceivable was magical. I could not zoom in on the shot. Marla had chewed the camera and broken the zoom a long time previously. But it was shot with a very good digital point and click the Canon GX9.

I cropped it in edit and bled out all the colour with a filter and added a hint of sepia.

Every photo needs a title, just like every painting, book or film. The title of this piece may seem familiar. I altered the title of Peter Hoeg's book 'Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow'. A gateway book for many in the west into Nordic Noir. In America they further simplified the title to 'Miss Smilla's Sense of Snow'. Because Marla is such an original I have opted to parody the original title.

This photo is a very important photo to me for another reason now. We need to sometimes capture the wild around us but we also need at times to capture that majesty, to capture that one unique moment. I tragically lost Marla last September. I am not going to go into details here but sharing this is a tonic for that Marla shaped hole I now have in my heart. So here is just a small tribute to all the good moments of that spirit that entered my life simply called Marla.

Thank you for reading my story.

This is my fourth piece on photography for a challenge called 'Capture The Wild'.

You can find my third entry 'Juvenile Delinquents' here.

I publish my stuff independently for no other reason that I would rather these strange ideas that rattle around my head from time to time have a place to go.

My reach is decided by you so if you enjoyed this and think it could reach a little further I would love for you to share it.

If not that is also cool.

I have more strange musings here, Enjoy.

Have an awesome day.