Saturday, July 31, 2010

First Of The Gang To Die

(left to right- the late scratchy, zippy, and itchy)
he was hit by a car one too many times. where most dogs would call it quits after one fender bender, scratchy lived and ultimately died because of his love of the four wheeled vehicle. born in kosrae in late 2009 on the border of two villages lelu/malem, "scratchy" lived his life to the full- chasing cars, eating food, chasing girls, barking at stuff that didn't even exist, taking long naps on the construction site on warm sunny days, and tormenting the stew out of his little sister zippy. this is what scratchy liked to do. this is who he was. he had a pleasant limp to his walk (mostly because of the afore mentioned car incident), a limp that i looked forward to seeing when i would arrive to the site each day. he would gratefully gobble up any food ever given to him and he'd sit quietly, wait patiently- for more food. sadly though on july 13th when we arrived at the site we found scratchy with no more life to live. it wasn't pleasant finding him at the site but it was heartwarming to know that when he had been mortally wounded for the last time, he sought comfort and refuge from the pain here, with his family,at the construction site. this was his safe place, his home. scratchy- a life lived to the full but not fully lived.

5 comments:

  1. George Eliot said that "animals are such agreeable friends; they ask no question, pass no criticisms." How true that is. Sorry about Scratchy but at least, thanks to you guys, he didn't die from starvation.

    By the way: the security debacle was riveting literary non-fiction. It read like a chapter to a novel and was very moving. I'm glad everthing turned out okay. The office reminds me a little of the guard house when I used to do security at the Conyers Assembly Hall. Stay safe!

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  2. Scratchy Stole all hearts away...so sad:(

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  3. thank you for the kind comments chloe. i'm thinking back to conyers and trying to remember all the faces hiding in that wood hut. it was probably as
    "cozy" as our office in kosrae. please sen my greetings to the reets and loves if/when you see them

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  4. now zip has more food and less tattered ears, sorry scratchy. Keep up with the good prose. enjoyed the convention?

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  5. hey brent! we miss you guys. convention was great, we were all beaming when we got a shout out on sunday. how are you and donna? hope the family is well

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