Marley and Me
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Meet Fred, a Lab Like No Other
I've been hearing about a lot of incredible dogs lately. Incredibly good dogs and incredibly mischievous dogs. Mostly, incredibly memorable dogs. People are telling their stories on the "Share Your Stories" page of my website (button above), and in private emails to me.
One of my favorites came from a New Yorker, whose oversized chocolate Lab Fred
safely falls well within the elite club of MOST MEMORABLE DOGS. I loved her email and am printing it here in its entirety. The ham-sandwich story is So Totally Marley. Separated at birth?
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Fred:
Thank you for a great read.
Of course, I had a Lab (chocolate)who I named
Fred (he so looked like a Fred). I had him for
almost 14 years. I had to give him to friends of mine
when he turned 8 so I had joint custody of this
gigantic goofball (about 115 pounds at his largest)
for the last 5 years. My friends turned out to be the
perfect family for him (I was living in a studio
in the city)--they had an acre of land in Rockland
County. His adoptive father, Danny, is a NYC fireman
who had an amazing bond with Fred and said that
he could not have gotten through 9/11 without Fred.
I read somewhere that labs are missing a part of
the brain that signals when they're full
--I know this was defnitely the case with Fred--
our very own food disposal and vacuum cleaner.
He loved food so much that I was
convinced that if he were human, he would
prostitute himself for any type of food
(especially watermelon and bagels).
Of course, Fred was a food thief extraordinaire
--one time, he stole a leftover sandwich out of the
car(it was half a sandwich inside a plastic
sandwich bag that was inside a brown paper lunch bag).
He smelled the sandwich and took off with the
whole paper bag and was about to dig out the
sandwich out in the front yard (I think he
was thinking picnic). Then he noticed me chasing
him down and had a look of panic. He was not
about to lose this prize of a ham sandwich so he
looked at me wildly for a second--looked down at
the bag--looked at me again--and came up with a
quick solution. He grabbed the whole paper bag
with his huge gator-like mouth and GULP--he had
swallowed the entire brown bag in one gigantic gulp!
Yes--he got the sandwich in time--WITH the plastic
sandwich bag AND the brown paper bag! When the plastic
bag finally came out the next day or so--it looked
like he had smuggled cocaine out of Colombia or
something.
Fred also loved the water and would go to the
neighbors across the street (an Emmy-award
actress and a NYC policeman couple) and bark
in their backyard until they opend the gate and let
him swim in their pool--he'd take a dip and then
stand outside their back door until they came out and
gave him a piece of cold cut--then he'd walk back
nonchalantly back to the house--that was his
idea of a dog day's afternoon. He had trained a TV
actress and NYC cop for a free swim and snack.
Well, that's just a couple of my memories of Fred
--he died almost 2 years ago and had a great life.
The doctors told me that he had about 6 weeks
to live (cancerous stomach tumors that had spread)
--but he lived about 15 months--that's the power of
love, alternative medicine and homemade chicken
and rice everyday (thanks Lisa and Danny!)
And thank you for a great book--I'm going to buy
2 copies--one for Danny and one for my brother who
misses Fred as much as I do.
Best regards,
Theresa K.
Brooklyn, NY
posted by John Grogan at 3:13 PM
 
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