The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 15)

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What a wonderful commentary on our love for dogs. I also had a lab that we had to put down after a long, adventurous life. I cried harder for that damm dog than when my dear parents passed away.

p>Thanks. br> -- Les /p>

Mr. Mehan's article about the life and death of his beloved black lab, Seamus, brought tears to my eyes. It's been nearly a year since I had my black lab/hound mix of 15 years, 3 months, Scoobie, "put down." She was the fifth in a line of dogs in our family. I brought her home from the shelter when she was five months old. Like Mr. Mehan, I took my dog's passing hard. I cried every day for a month after she was "put down." When my father, presently in a nursing home, learned of Scoobie's death, he sobbed for a good five minutes. I don't think I saw him cry like that since the death of his older brother.

p>Like Seamus, Scoobie was gentle with the neighborhood kids. They may not have known my name but they knew Scoobie's. Even when she was old and gray with a swollen left hip and a large lipoma on her right side, kids still called her a "pretty dog." I now have two dogs, a black lab/terrier mix named Kayla, and a black lab/pointer mix named Pepper. They were in foster care together for over ten months. Kayla is aggressively affectionate while Pepper is my clown. My mom joked that I had to get two dogs to replace Scoobie. While these new dogs have become dear to me, I'll always have a special place in my heart for Scoobie. Again, my condolences to Mr. Mehan and his wife; I understand their pain. br> -- Bill Erdmann br> University Park, Illinois /p>

In the 1970s, I played Bullwinkle to a fully tenured Professor Rocket J. Squirrel. To pay his salary and my graduate school tuition, we taught a large collection of undergraduates a course titled something like "the anthropology of the family." The students took the course to fulfill their social studies requirement. Like most professors, Squirrel thought it was undignified for him to actually teach undergraduates -- so little of the subject matter was up for debate in class.

One day, we were in discussion about who could be counted as part of the family when several students insisted that their dog was a member of the family.

In a rare display of vehemence as I had ever seen from him, Professor Rocky sternly shouted "no" and acidly commented that dogs were only pets -- not family members.

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