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November 20, 2004

More stories

When I was in high school, our next door neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Steele.
Mr. Steele was actually a tugboat captain on the Mississippi. They had a son, David, who was in college, and something of a long haired hippy freak back in the late 60's, early 70's. David had a waterbed. The first waterbed in our neighborhood. All of us kids went over to see it. David didn't have a frame for his waterbed - or a heater. I'm not sure they even made those back then - and it was a big rubber thing full of water that apparently seeked the lowest part of the house, for it was in the Steele's basement.

The Steeles had a dog named Falstaff - a beautiful dog - must have been a good part border collie. They named their dog Falstaff in honor of my dad, who was a VP at Falstaff.

Blitzen loved the Steeles, as did our entire family. We all spent a lot time at their house or ours. Those were happy times. If Blitzen was not at home, he was over at the Steeles, watching TV with Falstaff and Mr. Steele (he worked something like 30 days on, 30 days off).

Every Saturday night, Daddy cooked steaks out on the grill - t-bone steaks. Blitzen and Falstaff conspired together to steal one of those steaks every Saturday. Falstaff, being the larger dog, could jump up, and while still in midair, snitch a steak. He would then share it with Blitzen.

Boy, did my dad get mad at those two dogs. My mom, Mrs. Steele, Mr. Steele, my sister and I would laugh and laugh and laugh because Daddy would chase those two dogs around our yard with the barbecue tongs in his hands. He never caught them. Eventually, he just cooked the two dogs their own steak - but *not* a t-bone!

Posted by Beth at 06:40 PM

Dog Stories

Pam has a wonderful story of a short meeting she had with Standard French Poodle. I bet most of us have memorable dog stories. Thought I'd share one of mine.

When I was 5 years old, all I wanted for Christmas was a puppy. I was thrilled when Blitzen, a 6 month old dachshund, was under the tree in his little dog bed. I know, it's supposedly not cool to give children puppies for Christmas, but I think that responsible parents can present their children with a dog on a holiday without any horror stories occurring.

Blitzen came from a lovely breeder - she showed dachshunds all over the country and insisted on personally approving the families interested in one of her dogs. This was not a puppy mill. Mom and Dad had taken my sister and I out to Brentwald Kennels in the fall. Mrs. Patrick, the owner, had a special kennel area just for puppies in training for show, or in the case of Blitzen (not a good show dog - born with a kink in his tail), puppies that were available for adoption. There were 3 or 4 puppies in each run, and she put my sister and I in a run to observe how we treated the puppies. We must have passed, since she allowed us to have Blitzen, but I didn't know about it until Christmas.

Unfortunately, my mom and dad asked a neighbor to take care of Blitzen for a few days before Christmas. This was unfortunate, because they had also recently bought a puppy, who had distemper. A couple of days after Christmas, Blitzen came down with distemper (he was not done with all his puppy shots). My mom, who was *not* an animal lover, brought him through the illness and he survived to live to 16.

Blitzen considered himself a great hunter. Our house backed up to a large wooded area and a creek (the backside of an all boys high school, Chaminade).
There were critters back in those woods. Blitzen found and delivered to us at least 10 different box turtles during his life (all alive and scared to death) and one huge snapping turtle. (I have no idea how Blitzen got him to the back patio, but he did).

Blitzen also collected beer cans. There were a few wild teenage parties back in those woods, and he would search out any beer cans and carry them proudly up to my dad. Daddy didn't mind if they were Falstaff Beer cans (that is where he worked), but if it was any other brand, Blitzen didn't get to keep them.

One year, at Easter, some friends of my parents (I'm sure mom and dad thought them very evil), brought my sister and I a pair of ducklings. Yankee and Doodle. They imprinted on Blitzen, and followed him everywhere. Amazingly, Blitzen let them live. He was a good hearted dog, and never killed any critter that I'm aware of.

In the summertime, my dad would come home from work, he and mom would have a cocktail (they called it toddy time) and then the whole family would go for a walk around the neighborhood. Mom, Dad, my sister, me, Blitzen and Yankee and Doodle. More then a few neighborhood men put their after work cocktails down the first time they saw the Healy ducks following the Healy dog and family.

Blitzen was a great dog. Dachshunds are great dogs, at least the full size ones! I'm not much of a fan of miniaturized sized dogs.

I'd love to read your dog stories, too.

Posted by Beth at 11:43 AM

I've been avoiding politics of late

But I thought I should chime in on Condoleeza Rice's nomination to Secretary of State. I think it's great. She is a strong, brilliant woman. She speaks many languages, she has incredible gravitas. If I had a daughter, I would point to Ms. Rice as a role model.

I am disgusted by the ugly, racist cartoons that leftists have drawn - and the big newspapers have printed.

It's disgusting. It's rascist. It is sexist. There is no excuse for such behaviour.

Posted by Beth at 07:48 AM