THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, April 26, 2012 Formerly & Everywhere! RFD# to the gulf stream waters 3 to the New York Island by Lorrie Baird jim-lorrie@earthlink.net by Lorrie Baird “It’s eleven a.m….do


you know where your dog is?” my neighbor asked with a smile in her voice. Our Dachshund was perched in my lap. Mo- zart was missing in ac- tion…again. “I ’ve been watching


Mozie play fetch with himself,” she continued. “He trots the ball to the end of the dock, tosses it in the lake, takes a run- ning leap off the dock and fetches it. Then he swims back to the beach and does it all over again. Oh wait! He just grabbed the ball and he’s trotting back to your house.” Five minutes later I


opened the door to find Mozart grinning ear to ear with a muddy ball in his mouth which told me that he also played a few rounds of catch by him- self on the way home. This Mozart memory


emerged when we were sitting around the pool with our neighbors remi- niscing about memorable pets. Mozart: our little rescue mutt who still rents space in the happy memories department of our hearts. Our friend had just


finished lamenting about the fact that they inher- ited a hairless cat from their daughter. “It looks


like a rat with Chihua- hua ears and slant eyes. Touching it makes my skin crawl.” “ I t?” I asked…”You


don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy?” “I don’t intend to get


close enough to find out,” she said. “How long have you


had the cat?” “Two years.” “So…you don’ t l ike cats?” “I don’t like THIS cat.” “Isn’t there a Hairless


Cat Rescue that might take it off your hands and place it with an al- lergy prone person who loves cats?” “They’d have to be


blind too. This is a seri- ously ugly cat. And even if they did like the cat, the cat won’t like them. If a normal cat considers humans their ‘staff’, this cat thinks we’re ‘prey’.” “ I t ’s true! ” another neighbor chimed in. “Ev- ery time I visit that cat jumps up on the tallest shelf and stalks me. I won’t step a foot into that house unless the cat is locked up.” So much for follicly- challenged cats with un- resolved anger issues. Mozart was no looker


either. Mozart looked like he was constructed from spare parts. Chick- en legs protruded under a lion’s mane neck ruff. His liver-colored nose would look better on a


 LRGH from 13


ing what they can to this important cause, allowing LRGHealthcare to con- tinue to make upgrades to provide state-of-the- art healthcare services for many years to come.” To date, $2.9 million has been committed to the


Capital Campaign. The organization needs to raise a minimum of $4 million to begin the renovation project. For more informa- tion about the campaign, please visit www.lrgh.org. LRGHealthcare is a not- for-profit healthcare chari- table trust representing


Lakes Region General Hos- pital, Franklin Regional Hospital, and affiliated medical providers. LR- GHealthcare’s mission is to provide quality, com- passionate care and to strengthen the well-being of our community.


BALD CATS AND AN UNFORGETTABLE DOG Ten years later and


piglet. Two ears flew in opposing directions… the left one was screwed on backwards. He had squinty eyes with no re- deemable quality unless you counted the love that oozed from them. But Mozart was smart. Scary smart…and digni- fied too. When we first adopted


Mozart I attempted to change his name to “Mut- tley” which I thought was way cuter than one con- nected to a long-dead deaf musician. I did it cleverly too…


introducing his new moniker slowly. This dog that learned 18 different tricks and behaviors the first week we adopted him suddenly developed selective hearing. “Muttley, come!” (Mo-


zart plopped down, his fly-away ears pinned to his head as if the very word offended him.) “Come here Muttley puppy,” I cooed. (He re- fused eye contact). “I have a treat for my


Muttley-Boy” I coaxed, with a hunk of beef ex- tended under his chin. (Mozar t huf f ed and turned his nose up.) After a week of this


exercise in futility I said to him, “You really don’t like the name Muttley do you.” He shot me the canine equivalent to “Duh?” “I give up…Mozart it is then.” Mozart erupted


in a tail banging happy dance followed by a long, intense canine stare that said in no uncertain terms: “NOW you can pass me the beef.” No other dog could ca-


nine stare like Mozart. We felt it even before we saw it. You know… the feeling you’re being watched? It was the kind of stare that could pull you out from under a favorite TV show. It had been known to wake us up from a sound sleep. When Mozart wanted something: to go out; to have fresh water in his dish; to go for a walk; it was beneath his dig- nity to bark or whine like other dogs. Mozart used mental telepathy. It worked too…we’d do just about anything to avoid the canine stare from Mozart.


we’re waking up to an- other canine stare from five pounds of adorable wrapped up in a fluffy Chihuahua body. Little Dually knows better than to pounce on us in the morning. Like Mozart, he stares us awake. Like Mozart, Dually is a bless- ing. Unlike Mozart, Du- ally’s brain is directly proportionate to his tiny body. Also unlike Mo- zart is our aging Chica who prefers to spend her golden years dozing in the sunshine. Did I mention that Mo-


zart was 13 years old when he’d let himself out the door to go trot- ting down to our dock on the Big Lake for a game of fetch solitaire? Mozart has been gone for ten years. His inspiration lives on.


19


MEREDITH, NH 279-7463 • WOLFEBORO 569-3560 NORTH CONWAY, NH 356-7818 • LACONIA, NH 524-1276


H e r From California... , T here...


e


From the redwood forest...


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40