Reno 97805-1280

My apologies in advance to all who did the grin-and-bear-it thing with Hoover -- and all he brought with him -- any time between 1993-2008. I came across this ad a week ago. (Shown; those "crazy eyes", although a different color, bear a strikingly eerie resemblance dontcha think?) Makes me wonder how the course of history would have been altered had Da Hoov taken on a regimen of herbal remedies. Would I still be living in that 1 BD apartment off Eastlake Ave.? Would there be fewer postal carriers on the defensive or a glut of ladies undergarments? Hard to say. But given his extraordinary will, I think history wouldn't have changed one lick. And Da Hoov would have taken the meds, as we would an after dinner mint, and muttered in a language as clear as day to any dog whisperer: "Is that all you got?!"

The day I got him, I was buying cat food for Pip, the (then) family cat, in the Burien (WA) days. In one of the pet store bins was a splitting image of the puppy version of the Thorndike-Barnhart Junior Dictionary entry illustration -- that I recalled from second grade -- for "Spaniel". I then remembered that I always wanted a Spaniel. He had no papers, but his markings were good enough to argue that he was far from the Heinz 57 variety (a point groomers over the years had galvanized). So I was curious as to the behind-the-scenes story. The shop owner said that little guy had been the pick of the litter to carry on the legacy for the previous owner, who initially chose to keep him along with the mother. But when the previous owner's new landlord allowed only one dog, s/he had to make a concession. The puppy drew the short straw. So with the benefit of a dog with no papers and good markings, and knowing what a pedigreed dog can fetch, I figured I wouldn't pay a cen...