October is Adopt a Dog Month
October is the American Humans Society’s National
Adopt/Rescue a Dog Month. This is my
favorite memory of my first dog, a Norwegian elkhound named Torgy.
Elkhounds are beautiful. They look like small, square sled dogs. Their thick silver-gray fur has a pure white
undercoat. Like all elkhounds Torgy’s
face, ears and paws are trimmed in black, but the best part was his tail. Elkhound’s tales are curved tightly over the
back, the white under fur making a kind of flag that bobs along when they
trot. They trot everywhere. In fact, they are given to roam, and Torgy was
better at roaming than most of his breed.
We had Torgy when we lived in the small town of Luverne , Minnesota
Three days later, Mom took us on a walk down town
(it was only four blocks from our house to the middle of Luverne), and we
walked by the Webb Fur Salon, the newest store in town, and the only one with
air conditioning.
“Let’s see which fur I’m going to pick out today.” Mom said, like always.
Mom looked in the window and stopped dead in her
tracks. Her mouth kept opening and
closing but no sound came out. There was
Torgy, sound asleep at the feet of the fur draped mannequins, his nose
comfortably twitching over the air conditioning vent.
“Torgy!” Mom finally yelled as she ran into the
store. First she started toward the
window to get Torgy, then she turned and ran up to Mr. Webb, the owner.
“I am so sorry…” Mom sputtered.
She turned and called to Torgy, “Here Torgy, come
boy…” Torgy looked up, wagged his tail,
and having properly acknowledged his owner’s presence, lay back down over the
air conditioner.
Then she tried to apologize to Mr. Webb again, but
he held up his hand to interrupt her.
“Your dog has been coming in since the heat wave
started.” Mr. Webb explained.
“He’s been making himself at home in our window for
days. What is more, he has attracted a
fair number of customers.” Mr. Webb
paused to smile at our sleeping dog.
“He looks beautiful with the furs, doesn’t
he?” He hurried on without waiting for
Mom to answer. “In fact, the photographer
for the Luverne paper took a picture of him.
Torgy, and my fur salon, are going to be in the Sunday edition.”
“Torgy is going to be in the paper?” Mom’s voice
was real high.
That is when some of Torgy’s trouble spilled over
into my lap.
“Oh, yes, and your daughter, Louise, is going to be
in the picture, too.” The manager beamed
at me.
“Louise was here with Torgy?” Mom turned to me, and suddenly her voice
wasn’t high at all, it had gotten very low.
“The photographer caught a picture of her waving at
the dog in the window.” Mr. Webb said.
“She’s laughing and waving. It’s
a cute picture. You’ll like it.”
“Louise,” Mom put on a fake smile. “Didn’t you think it was strange to have our
dog in the furrier’s window?” Then she
stopped and started herding us toward the door.
“No,” she said, talking to herself.
“I guess you didn’t think that was strange at all.”
Neither did Luverne. They loved our doggie in the window.
Adopt a dog and keep the faith.
Comments