i've blogged a bit about the cat-nation that is our home, and mentioned the dog in passing, but she's a tale to be told in and of herself. she's an old girl now, (which is appropriate because i'm way too old to have a puppy). she's been with me since almost her beginning. i got her at 8 months (her life, not mine) and it was no ordinary adoption. (it's a funny concept to adopt a child when at heart, you're still a child yourself).
digress.................
i'd been a single gay man a long time. happy enough, self-sufficient enough, and good at being single. i wasn't one of those single queens that would say, cook for 1? are you crazy? easier to bring in take out. (oxymoron? bring in take-out?) no, having been single awhile, i learned to cook, made beautiful dinners for one, watched my collection of vcr movies, (always good for a streisand festival, or an opera on tape, or one of the classics......). i entertained, got laid enough....(more than most) and was generally a happy fairy. add to that i was self-employed, worked out of my home, and had sister (yes, the one from previous blogs), working with me in my business, and business was good, and i found myself buying a house that was way too big for one person, but fuck it. it was a great house, i could afford it, and i bought it. life was good.
then, one day, (at the tender age of 49), someone said to me, you know, if you get a puppy, and take it for walks, guys will stop to pet the dog and they just might pet you, as well. maybe meet a husband. and i, like a fucking moron, believed him. like that ever happens.
so, sister and i, took a morning off and headed to the shelter to look for a puppy. (she's a natural animal lover and has always had animals....dogs, cats, birds, boyfriends, (well, just some of them were animals), so she was perfect for helping me choose. and that first day, in the entirety of the broward county marti huizenga animal shelter, there was not one dog that we loved. not one.
but hey, i'm a child of the '60s and the supremes taught us......you can't hurry love, so we went back day after day for a week, and the pound was just bereft of choices. nothing. nada. it started to feel like a bad idea. and then one morning.........she was there........a raucous, feisty, amazingly cute puppy, which the workers told us had come from the shelter in puerto rico, because, when our shelters are empty, we help with their strays. after all, they're a colony and all.
so this little puerto rican puppy, jumping and spinning caught our eye. and sister, who was already smitten, said to the dog, hola. venga ya. (actually talking spanish to this little dog from puerto rico). and the dog actually came, all smiles and wagging, and suddenly we were done. toast. stick a fork in us, done to perfection, and the little puerto rican came home with us. she was 8 months old. humour me.....take a look...............
stop traffic, no?
finding her seemed like the easy part.........
but naming her, that was the hard part...........
digress...........
her "history card" said that she had heartworm, and would need treatment to survive. the shelter offered to treat her, free of charge, and the only thing we had to do, was keep the puppy......the amazingly hyper, happy, running, jumping, tail-wagging puppy.......quiet for 30 days. something about the drug clogging her heart and killing her. (WTF?). and then at the end of 30 days, another treatment, and another 30 days of quiet, lest she excite herself to death. so for 60 days, one of us was a wreck every time she barked, and i can tell you now, it wasn't her. that i got through those days in one piece, was a bloody miracle. funny......she didn't look so hyper..........
but trust me..............
back....................
so i began to think about a name. i didn't want a name that ended in an "ee" sound........daisy, fluffy, shirley, buffy, etc. just didn't. and i didn't want a name that was too jewish. (sophie, sammy, mildred, after all, i'm the jew, not her. (although they tell me there are puerto rican jews. not , however, according to my grandmother, but........anyway..............) and then it hit me.
i thought about the book, the prince of tides, and the sister who tries to off herself early in the story that gives rise to the rest of the book, and it turns out she fails suicide, becomes healed and survives and subsequently becomes this pillar of strength for the rest of the family, and i likened that to my poor child with the heartworm and wanted her to survive as well. she was a fighter, (and a blonde), so i named her after that wonderful character in the book, savannah wingo. well, just savannah, anyway, and survive she did, and became quite the handful of joy over the years. take a look at adult savannah......... not a bad looking bitch, i must say.........
backtrack......
remember, i was a single fairy, living alone, and this was supposed to bring me a husband. (i'll wait til the laughter subsides). but, sceptical though i was, and with the fates conspiring, not 6 months after adopting my girl, i met a man. with a dog. yes, husband. and i already had the 2 old cats. so suddenly, there was a pair of men, 2 dogs, and 2 cats all sleeping in a double bed. any bets on what our first purchase together as a couple was? ok, say it together..........
a KING SIZED BED!!!
that was 11 years ago. the two cats are long gone, husband's dog is long gone, and 2 new babies were adopted (see earlier blog, replete with pictures). savannah's an old girl now, i'm an old man, and husband, well, he's the oldest of the lot. we're all (savannah, husband and i) content in our senior years, and it makes for a pretty good family, and we're extremely grateful for all that we have, and of course for the fact that the cats let us live here at all.
there's an expression..........cats rule and dogs drool........and that is so true, i can't tell you.
but there's another expression as well................happiness is truly, a warm puppy................
if you've never done it, get a dog................................good night all..............
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