Marley and Me
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Kathy the Dog Sitter
I was in Florida last month participating in a panel discussion with other authors that was being taped to run on Book TV. I was jabbering on about the memoir in front of a group of about 500 people when I looked out into the crowd and spotted a familiar face. A face I knew; one I hadn't seen for many years.
Of course! It was Kathy the Dog Sitter. Actually, Kathy was my friend and coworker from the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale. If you've read the book, you know that Kathy played a somewhat uproarious role in Marley's life. When he was just a year or so old, Jenny and I, coming off a miscarriage, decided to travel to Ireland to regroup. Kathy generously volunteered to house sit and care for Marley. My lengthy instruction sheet to her (actually, more of a booklet) has become the stuff of legend. Needless to say, Marley gave poor Kathy a run for her money.
After the book event, Kathy and I chatted, and as we did so people standing nearby started interrupting. "Excuse me, but are you Kathy? The Kathy? Kathy the Dog Sitter?" Pretty soon, people were asking Kathy to autograph their Marley books. She was a good sport about it and signed away.
The other day, at my beckoning, Kathy dropped in to the Barnes & Noble website, where Marley & Me is being featured this month as a book club choice (if you want to check it out, click the "BN University" tab on the www.bn.com home page - it's in the upper right corner). Lots of people wanted Kathy to give her account of her time with Marley. And this is what she wrote:
My husband just said I'm catching onto Marley's dog-tail
to fame!! My stories? Well, John's book describes the
Intracoastal and how Marley was a water dog. I walked
Marley there too .... until the day he almost hung himself.
He just wanted to swim and leaped off the wall toward the
water, about 12 or 14 feet below. Because I didn't want to
break his neck, I grabbed the ledge with one hand, and
Marley was dangling off his leash lashed around my other
wrist, his paws just skimming the surface of the water.
We hung there like that until I managed to slide the leash
off and Marley plunged into the river. THEN the challenge
was how to coax him the half-mile to a sand bar where I
could climb down and try to lift that 80-pound puppy up to the
walkway again. Needless to say, that took another 2 hours!! It would have taken more if another dog owner hadn't lured Marley to the sand bar with his own
visiting dog. How's that story for starters? (More later, if
you're interested. Oh, and don't tell Jenny. I don't think I
told them this story!!)
A book-club participant next asked Kathy if Marley was terrified by the experience of dangling over open-water by a leash. Kathy replied:
Marley wasn't scared at all....he just stared up at me with
an expression like "Well gee, I thought I was going for a
swim!!" And when he finally got to the water, well, as I
said, he was having so much fun it took me nearly 2 hours
to coax him (from a dozen feet above him) to swim
through the water and up to the sandbar.
I had a day job when I took care of him, and even with a
neighbor giving him the run of the back yard in the
afternoon, my first job when I got back each day was to
look at the details of the garage and yard to see what was
still standing. One day, I found two ornamental backyard
trees cut down, looking like they'd been attacked by
beavers. The one that had me puzzled the longest,
though, was in the back of the garage, on the top of the
washing machine, a cone-shaped pile of dust. It took me
two days to realize that Marley had climbed on top of the
machine, and reached up to a shelf along the wall where
he found a ceramic tea set and pulverized one of the
pieces, chewing it through to just dust. I wondered why he
didn't eat much that day, and what motivated him to eat
ceramics!! (More later, about the late night adventure, and
my last day with him and discovering what a sensitive dog
he really was.)
I'll be sure to post Kathy's next entry from her excellent adventure with Marley. She may have a sequel on her hands!
posted by John Grogan at 5:16 PM
 
6 Comments:
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John, what a pleasent read. I look forward to finishing the book tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for putting into words the trials and tribulations all dog owners share!
Wow, Kathy, I have to hand it to you! My mother in law watched our 2 dogs once and had some interesting feedback when we got back from our trip. Needless to say, we have my dad come over now when we leave... Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing more of your exploits and survival stories!
Wow, tried babysitting my friends dog and I gave up and called them to please come back after two days.
I'm relieved to read that Kathy is still CHEERFUL after her dog-sitting adventure with Marley. John, you did a wonderful job of showing Marley for who he truly was; still it's good to see Kathy survived to tell her tale.
John, I loved the way you didn't shy away from describing Marley's ailments in old age, or as you so eloquently put it, the indignity of getting old. I loved the whole book. You are a great writer.
If you ever want to read another dog and kid blog, go to www.vtatum.com.
Thanks, John
Victoria Tatum
I'm relieved to read that Kathy is still CHEERFUL after her dog-sitting adventure with Marley. John, you did a wonderful job of showing Marley for who he truly was; still it's good to see Kathy survived to tell her tale.
John, I loved the way you didn't shy away from describing Marley's ailments in old age, or as you so eloquently put it, the indignity of getting old. I loved the whole book. You are a great writer.
If you ever want to read another dog and kid blog, go to www.vtatum.com.
Thanks, John
Victoria Tatum
I stayed up all last night to read Marley and Me. It was worth missing sleep over. I am an avid animal lover, with two big dogs of my own. Thank you for sharing the story of Marley and your family.