...another night goes by
...another early morn goes by
...another day goes by
The struggle is that I miss Coogee.
I do not miss a dog.
I do not miss an animal.
I do not miss a companion.
I deeply--perhaps desperately--miss Coogee.
We had so much fun together.
Especially our motorcycle trike trips, and all the car rides,
and the cooking I did for SirCoog thrice a day!
Sure, Coogee was a cheeky bugger, no question: He once saw a squirrel
and went out the open car
window to chase it! Thankfully I was driving slowly along a
quiet country road at the time.
Another time he rejected all three plates of food I prepared for him
-- lamb chops, rotisserie
chicken, and some tasty liver bits. Wouldn'ttouch any of them
-- my god did I do a slow burn.
(He ate them later, when I wasn't around of course. Other times
Coogee absolutely refused to growl when I'd
wrap him up in a huge blanket and drag him along the hallway.
Instead, when he escaped, he'd run
back down to the bedroom and we'd do it all again.But
it was no fun for me if he didn't growl -- so
oftentimes he'd not growl simply to irritate me. And the showers: Oh
how he loved getting a warm water
massage in the bathtub. He'd hop in, lick my hand when
the water was the right temp, lift up his head
so I could soap up his chiny chin chin ... and then refuse
to get outta the tub when he'd been soaped,
massaged, and rinsed from stem to stern. He'd just stand
there waiting for around round of massaging.
What a scream. And once out, we had a big game of running
all over the bloody place once dried off.
I won't even mention his harassment in the car. No matter where we
went, Coogee knew where the spots
were where I'd let him out to run run run. And what a
racket he'd make whining and looking out the car
window from atop his specially made passenger seat.Nah,
I'll mention ll the badgering I took later on.
Just try sitting down for more than 30 seconds! He'd beon me like a
wet blanket telling me to get off my
tired derriere and hit some more balls for him tochase
down, pick up, and return to me so I could
(eagerly?) do it all again ... and again ... and...
Yes, up here in Saratoga it's the same as I'll hear in NYC: Coogee was
"unique" because he was a "near-human".
It was his so-unique personality that has had such a lasting impact
on so many and generated the wonderful
emails and the cards and the notes... As a companion,
he was second only to mother.
Absolutely everything was in sync -- how many dogs can walkoff-leash
amid NYC traffic and be 100% behaved, not even
wee-ing on buildings, waiting with me at stoplights, not hassles other
dogs we'd encounter ....? He knew what I wanted
he knew what I needed from him -- on the street, in a store, in the
car, or at home any time of day or night.
Coogee was a human-like companion rather than a companion-dog.
Like Northwestern, or Australia, my old home on 17 Prospect St,or now
NYC, Coogee was/is a compartmentalized stage of my life I should move on
from -- but I can't, won't and in my opinion
shouldn't. There will never be closure, no moving on, no letting go,
no effective coping .... just learning to endure the
pyschologicll pain that forever will parallel the physical pain of
my SCI.
...Just another day as the clock ticks down.
Also see Coogee's Tribute, by Sir Coogee 2008 below
You can type DogeeBye at youtube.com in the search box or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_obR330U4