There Is An Emptiness In Our Household

Petey the dog was found roaming the streets in Jefferson County, the county south of where we live.  This means he had been dumped --- or that he had run away from a bad situation.

A woman with the St. Louis Australian Shepherd Club took an interest in Petey, and declared that he was part Australian Shepherd.  I think this was a leap of imagination --- she told a little white lie because the Australian Shepherd Club had an excellent rescue dog program, and she wanted Petey to be in that program.

We met Petey at an adoption event at the American Kennel Club’s Museum Of The Dog.  We adopted him.  

That was 12 years ago.

Petey gained a lot of karma. I had him trained as a therapy dog, and he helped psychiatric patients connect with the world.  He was good at killing squirrels that set foot in our back yard.  He surprised us by swimming across the Meramec River chasing a deer.  He did not catch the deer, but he once presented us with a woodchuck.

As Petey grew older, his hunting days were over.  His rear legs grew weaker.  He always wanted to be near his humans, and he began struggling to manage stairways as he followed us around the house.  Petey's favorite part of the day was when we went to bed, and he could lie in front of our bedroom door, guarding us as we slept.

Old age was unkind to Petey.  He had trouble standing still over his food bowl.  He started nagging us to go to bed.  Continence became an issue.  And the rear legs could get him up stairs, but could no longer get him down stairs.

Petey’s quality of life, Petey’s happiness, and Petey’s pleasure in living were all diminished.  The fact that he could not go down stairs meant we had to carry him.  He weighed 39 pounds, and carrying him put us in danger.

Time for a decision.  

A decision made easier by knowing that we had given him 12 years of good life: we had taken Petey to San Antonio for Christmas; we had taken Petey to Vermont for a wedding; we had taken Petey to South Dakota for Harley Week in Sturgis.

I took him for a final visit to the vet.  The procedure was peaceful.  And now there is an emptiness in our household.

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A wonderful song from John Hiatt, in a 3-minute video:

     So, it’s over that ridge for one last mile,

     ‘Til we’re fast asleep by the fireside

     Dreamin’ these dreams for free

     Just my dog and me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E6THLLBLE8

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  Send an email to ParadiseDouglas at gmail.com to find out how to purchase a copy by mail.

The Joy Of Horizontal Ice Cream Cones

When I was a kid, there were vertical ice cream cones and there were horizontal ice cream cones.

The vertical cones were sold by ice cream shops.  The horizontal cones were made by Borden’s which called them Mello Rolls.  They were sold at the seaside by the state government of New York, and I liked the horizontal cones better than vertical cones.

The first reason to like a horizontal Mello Roll is that it signified an occasion.

It meant that my parents had decided that it would be a special day, and our family would go to Jones Beach State Park.  

This meant that I got to swim in the ocean and fine tune my body surfing skills.  Once I got tired of swimming in the ocean, I would ask my father for some money and head to the big swimming pool pavilion, where they sold Mello Rolls.

The second reason to like a Mello Roll is that I got to participate in making my cone. 

The ice cream guy would sit an empty Mello Roll cone on the counter.  No need to worry --- the cone had such a large conical base that it could stand on its own.  Then he plopped a cylinder of ice cream sideways in the rectangular opening at the top of the cone.  The cylinder fit snugly and was wrapped in paper around its circumference.  I had to carefully unroll the ice cream in my cone.

I also liked Mello Rolls because the cones were engineered so that melting ice cream did not drip on me.

Mello Rolls were not hand scooped; they were all exactly the same size --- so, I never had to check to see if my brother got more ice cream than I did.

Thinking back on those times, I realized that the state government of New York must have also liked Mello Rolls because the ice cream was not scooped – the uniform portion size meant better inventory control.  Because Mello Rolls were wrapped in paper, the state government didn’t have to worry about employees touching ice cream.

But the best part of a Mello Roll was the slight tinge of sea salt mingling with ice cream.  The salt came from my lips because I had just been swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.  That tinge reminded me that my parents had decided that the day would be a special day.

I live far from the ocean now, and Borden’s has stopped making Mello Rolls.  It looks like all ice cream cones are vertical these days.

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Maria Campanella, with her wonderful Long Island accent, interviews a Korean War Veteran on Jones Beach.  Maria asks him to describe a Mello Roll.  1 minute YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWbx48dMbSU

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  Send an email to ParadiseDouglas at gmail.com to find out how to purchase a copy by mail.