November 8, 2012

  • And on, And on...

    We are going to work soon. Right now we are savoring the joys of returning health and the continued excuse to rest. Nancy is on the couch in the living room, where the TV is (I swear) issuing Sister Sledge singing, "We Are Family". Perhaps she's found a time warp.

    *spoiler alert. If you've never seen 'Hachi' and you want to, don't read the next 2 paragraphs*

    Last night on TV I watched a movie called 'Hachi', a 'heart-warming tale about a family that finds a dog that changes their lives...' I knew, when Richard Gere asked, "What kind of dog is this?" and the answer was 'Akita', I knew. I've heard the story before. It actually happened in Japan, not New England, and it happened in 1927, not 2008. A professor had a dog, an Akita, and the dog met him every evening at the train station and walked him home. And then the professor died. And the dog came to the station every night at the time his train should arrive and waited for him. For ten years. There is a statue of the dog at the station to this day.

    I cannot tell you how many nerves that story stomps on for me. I don't even know why: perhaps sadness for a dog waiting for something that is never going to happen, perhaps the confused belief that someone should have 'done something', perhaps sorrow over a lost and wasted life. Do I want my dogs to pine away for me for the rest of their lives, should I die before they do? No, I do not. I sobbed through the end of it, but it was not a good sob, it was a whatever-happened-to-that-cute-puppy/tied-out-in-the-back-yard sob. I don't like nature programs where animals eat each other, either. I know they do: I just don't want to watch. Cape buffalo mauling a dying lion...no thank you.

    Today Nancy is going to work for a few hours and Riley, Annie and I are meeting Lisa at Flowerfield and going to the dog park.  

    Yesterday I went to PetSmart to find a citrus collar to curb barking. They didn't have one. I also wanted to find a backpack for Annie to help carry the stuff I can't have in my hands because I have her on a leash. They had $39 backpacks marked down to $7.88. Three smalls and an extra-large. I bought a small, assuming it wasn't all THAT small. It is. Interesting design, in my opinion: you could pack a chihuahua in the backpack and then he could carry himself.

    So, we continue on. I do not appear to have anything terribly exciting to report.

    Some days are just like that.