Old friends

Karen and Kim played with all the kids in the neighborhood. Some of the older ones baby sat for us and some of them might be reading this now with kids of their own. Hello Mark, hello Lisa. Say hi to your Mom. But the two that this blurb is about, Carol and Jerry are the ones that owned Deacon. 

Truly this is about Deacon. A big, young, friendly (redundancy coming) Golden Retriever that 40 years later is still an enjoyable memory. 

Jerry,Sr. and I were sitting on the picnic table in my back yard. Something wasn't being done, but the beer was nice. Deacon was being patted and the world was good. Some one let Brandy out. She was our seven pound,Siamese, over-sexed,perpetual mother-cat, vicious beast and she had another litter. In heat, pregnant or just delivered...we never had a chance to have her neutered. She was a bit territorial and did not appreciate Deacon at all. The chase was on. Seven pounds of PO'd cat vs. 65 pounds of cowardly pup. Three times around the house while we laughed ourselves silly. And then Deacon took a wide turn and ran into our cement Lion. What do you do when you are between the "rock" and the hard place? You lay down and whimper! Deacon was totally disgraced as Jerry took him, still crying, home . They moved to New Hampshire shortly after. Never recovered from the shame.

Jerry had a house up-country. Houghton, Maine. That's up the road a piece! To get onto his property you had to cross the Swift River. I can verify that it was cold. The two families went up for a Memorial Day weekend. Four adults, including me, four kids and Deacon. A romp. A three day picnic. Deacon took the opportunity to show off. Run and chase. Retrieve, do it all over again. A rock ends up in the river. Undeterred, so does Deacon. He knows there is a rock to be found, so no swimming! No lets walk the river bottom until we find the rock...or another just like it. No shortage of rocks,after all. So, for half an hour or so Deacon walks the line. Bringing us rock after rock until WE get tired. Since then I've met many wonderful pets, but Deacon is the only one that I can still remember the name of. Sure hope he had lots of pups!