Posts by Hank

In my next life, I want to be a dog living near the beach in Santa Monica.  Quite the sweet deal they have going there. Their ubiquity, their visibility (and the assumption that they belong!) at restaurants and bars, their generally cushy lifestyle, and the sheer number of them, first made an impr…

Kemba’s making me throw this stuffed Hello Kitty.  He won’t chase a ball — ONLY hello Kitty . . . Thus begins a text from Elise, my dog sitter — and it doesn’t surprise me.  My boy can be pretty particular about what he chooses to fetch. It’s hard to throw a stuffed animal!  Elise continued.  (You…

I’m not gonna lie.  I think my dog is gorgeous.  The thing is, I’m not the only one — not by a long shot.  Every day I get stopped about Kemba’s appearance.  Just yesterday, while we were walking around Equinox Pond in Vermont, two different dog-owners expressed variations on this same theme:  “Tha…

Jumped out of the shower just in time to see The Man in Orange make yet one more preposterous, self- congratulatory speech — Straight Outta Fantasyland — before jetting out of Dodge.  A good start to the day!  (Later, listening on radio, I’d hear the Rev. Al Sharpton say, “Pettiness is now on a fl…

From time to time, circumstances force my hand and I have to leave Kemba with dog sitters.  This pains me, because I’m sure he can’t be totally happy when he’s not in my company.  My logic behind this belief?  Well, I know that I can’t be totally happy when I’m not in his company, and I assume th…

Last night, on the first night of Chanukah, Kemba got an orange-and-blue Chuckit Ultra Ball.  This is by far his favorite kind of toy.  He used to be content with regular tennis balls — he’d fetch them 24/7 — until he decided tennis balls grow on trees and were no longer a big deal.  These days on…

Heading out to dinner last Friday night.  I began scooping up my things — car keys, phone, reading glasses, mask — but I didn’t see my wallet in the drawer by the front door where I usually leave it. “Have you seen my wallet lying around?” I asked Carol.  She, of course, gave me the look.  The one…

“We interrupt this blog about dogs to bring you some breaking news:  The House Formerly Known as Camp Herman has been torn down . .” That’s how I started my mid-June post (“Glory Days”) about the demolition of the house my family lived in for over 30 years — from 1987 through 2018.  The bulk of t…

It was all quiet on the eastern front.  I’d been flinging the Green Ball into the ocean for Kemba to retrieve for a good 45 minutes now, and he was  happy to follow my command to “read and relax.”  I was comfortably leaning back in  my sand chair, book spread open on my lap, and my good boy had du…

On October 25, 2014, I spotted baby Kemba striding happily along with Steve the Breeder in the parking lot of a Homewood Suites motel in Scarborough, Maine, near Portland.  This was the rendezvous spot where I was to take possession of my 10-week-old Duck Toller puppy.  The last time I’d laid eyes…