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I
wanted to take a moment to tell you about a very special soul
I was fortunate enough to have grace my life for almost eleven years.
People talk about those 'one in a million' dogs, well I stumbled across one
of them at the Animal Rescue League
shelter over a decade ago. Little did I know then that I was about to bring
home an individual who would change my life in numerous ways. Let me
introduce Jackie...
There was absolutely no chance I was going to bring home a dog that day back
in '97. That much I knew - yet walking down the rows of cages and pens; past
manic, leaping pitbulls and barking creatures of all sizes and shapes - all
scared, all breaking my heart - my gazed drifted down to a large black snout
poking through the bars, huge baleful eyes looking up at nothing in
particular. Enter Sabrina - a nine month old pup who'd already been
surrendered twice in her short life. One look at her and
I knew she was going to be in my life.
So Sabrina became Jackie - a name picked for two reasons. Poor thing, she
was condemned to a lifetime of being mistaken for a boy - a problem I
recognized right from the beginning, so to add a hint of class and
femininity, she was named after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. This attempt
failed miserably - Jackie O's influence lost on the goofy hound. The other
reason for 'Jackie' was because of Jack Aubrey, the protagonist of my
favorite author, Patrick O'Brian. Unfortunately, as was to be proven beyond
a shadow of doubt in the future, Jackie was about as far removed from the
seafaring nature of Jack Aubrey as she possibly could be . Oh well, Jackie
it was and Jackie it remained - Jackie who stole my heart.
Of course, the one person she took after was, er, well - me, in that she had
no grace whatsoever. No, she was constantly running into mail boxes and
street lights, getting her huge block head stuck in fences, and managing to
injure herself in inexplicable ways. Sorry for that, Jackie.
She soon acquired the nickname 'Goose' because of her penchant of trotting
up behind strangers and goosing them in the butt with her prominent and
finely-tuned Carl Malden schnozzle. Nothing like cold nose leather up the
skirt to break the ice...
But truth be told - everyone who met Jackie loved her. She was the dog
people who were afraid of dogs were introduced to. She was the kind of dog
people couldn't resist hugging and thumping (often to her dismay). The kind
of dog you loved to put things on, from antlers to pig outfits, and
everything in between. She was eternally optimistic and unbelievably
trusting.
 Jackie
was also how I met Amy - who now is my wife. Through the dog park I met a
couple who wanted to introduce me to a friend who lived in Manhattan. After
all, I was a great catch - I was an unemployed (aspiring) author who was
separated from my then wife, seven years older (and with me then at thirty
four and her at twenty eight, that was a big difference) and as an added
bonus I lived two hundred miles away. Needless to say, it was Jackie who
swept her off her feet.
It was Jackie who also provided the name for our first boat, the Grey
Goose, as well as the second (the DoubleG) - so we have her to
blame for the numerous bottles of Gray Goose vodka that invariably became
the boat-warming gift of choice. And it was Jackie who was the reluctant
crew on these boats. A more unstable creature I've never met. She even
managed to walk straight off our dock - much to the the surprise of both her
and Amy - who was connected to the other end of her leash.
I won't get into the details of when we became stuck in Nantucket's inner
harbor during a massive storm, nor of our 'escape' that nearly did us in and
caused my folks to call the Coast Guard. Suffice it to say that Captain Ahab
had nothing on us, and Jackie definitely formed an opinion about boating in
general - and her role in it in specific. Though she did enjoy riding about
in the dinghy - well, at least until I accidentally punched her in the head
trying to pull-start the outboard...
But time marches on, and as the years flowed by - evidenced by the growing
grey of both dog and man - Jackie collected a portfolio of injuries and
ailments. But she never complained - her good nature never diminished by
even a tick. From the branch she managed to shove up through the webbing of
one of her massive paws, to the side she punctured on a park bench, to the
mast cell tumor that was removed from a back leg - and the accompanying
three agonizing weeks of radiation treatments where
 every
day she wobbled into the cancer wing waiting room at Angel, high as a kite
on what I dubbed a 'dog-tini' - she always greeted each day with a huge
stretch, a wag of her tail and a massive grin. Even, a day after her last
radiation treatment, when she sliced the paw of the very same leg on a shard
of glass hidden in the snow - and that night it became abscessed,
monstrously swollen and she needed surgery - even then she was always ready
to give us 'ear therapy' and to allow Sal, one of our two deranged cats, to
groom her (something she was vaguely uncomfortable with but always tolerated
- possibly because years ago she ponked him out a window of our loft - three
stories up - and broke his leg...)
A parenthesis here - mainly because I'm not ready to get to the end of the
story.
Sal and Jackie - the back story...
I found Sal about six months after I got Jackie. (I won't go into the
derivation of his name - 'cept to say it's gross...) Actually, Sal's a
pretty good cat, though possibly a bit species confused. When Sal entered
the household there was some interesting foot stomping and
dumbo-ears-facing-forward-ness on Jackie's behalf, but after that (er, and
after the window incident) they were fast friends. They played and wrestled
and slept together - and, as mentioned earlier, Sal mothered over Goosie.
He misses her...
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Of course, that was before I found Jersey deep inside the Big Dig tunnel
on the way to the aquarium a few falls ago. I don't think Jackie ever
forgave me. She couldn't even look at him.
Okay - so time has caught its own tail and I can't escape the truth any
longer.
We lost Jackie on September 22nd, 2007 - just a few short weeks ago.
Congestive heart failure. I won't get into the details of our battle,
just suffice it to say that it became her time to go. She took a part of
me with her - but I give that willingly. She was truly one in a million
and I feel blessed to have shared in her life.
So why did I write this? Well, I'm a writer - that what I do. I
think the better question would be how could I not? She gave so much, so
willingly, and asked for nothing but love in return. And that was easy
to give.
So here's to you Goose - a cheers to a best friend, you'll be
missed like I never thought possible... |
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