O Lord, Dad Needs a Dog
I've been through the valley of the shadow of death and all I can say is that it was no fun-- but I'm starting to get over the loss of our family dog Sirius (and if anyone else is grieving over the loss of a pet, this movie will be more helpful than this awful poem . . . I can see why the author would want to remain anonymous) and I'm starting to recognize that I need a new loyal canine companion, so I don't drive my family batshit; case in point, when we were on vacation in Vermont last week, after we had gotten home from lunch-- which was a twenty minute car ride-- I unilaterally encouraged my family to take a constitutional stroll up the road to the waterfall, and I met some resistance from my two sons, but I told them this wasn't a choice-- everyone in the family was going for a walk and-- more important-- they were going to like it . . . Catherine gave me a look that said, "You are insane," but-- and I really respect her for this-- she didn't undermine my plan and she told the kids to listen to their father and get walking and then I reminded the little ingrates that taking a walk with the family was not a punishment and they'd better not refer to it as such and they should take pride and joy in the fact that they had ambulatory parents that could still hike up a mountain road and they were lucky we weren't crippled and in an old age home and then we took our walk-- Alex came around and enjoyed himself, but Ian shuffled sullenly sixty yards behind us the entire way (and never got to see the waterfall) and the consensus after this forced march was: Dad needs a dog . . . so we are browsing the rescue sites and maybe soon enough I'll have someone in the house that appreciates a communal stroll or a quick bike ride around the park, someone who doesn't mind going for a short car ride to run an errand, someone loyal and happy who might be a pain-in-the-ass to take care of but will earn it back with good attitude (we're thinking maybe a German shorthaired pointer . . . I don't want a dog that looks like Sirius because that would freak me out).
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4 comments:
My father-in-law had a German short-haired pointer named Pokey, and according to the stories he was the best dog ever. It was through Pokey that he met Jackie Onassis, who used to walk her dog Whiskey in Central Park (the same Whiskey who JFK Jr. used to beat by the 85th Street entrance to Central Park, if you believe the stories). Eventually his dog allergies got the best of him, and rather than succumb to respiratory failure he had to give Pokey, essentially his best friend, away to a loving home. Years later they got a Portuguese water dog and that solved the allergy problem.
that's an amazing story . . . but now we might get a rhodesian ridgeback that's right in somerset. do you have any rhodesian ridgeback stories?
Sort of. zson has two cowlicks that swirl in opposite directions and the net effect is a ridge on the back of his head so we joke that he was a Rhodesian ridgeback in a former life.
ok, very good. how about an australian cattle dog? no way you've got one for that . . .
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