A Cinderella Story
A beautiful 2-year old, painfully malnourished, Golden Retriever, a cold horse barn in Massachusetts, a rope, and an Idiot… She was keeping him tied up there just to put him out to stud. I heard about this because a friend of a friend, whose daughter started riding lessons there, etc, etc… it was torturous for me to wait until someone could convince said Idiot to give up her puppy mill fanta$y and her sad puppy. Oakley and I were in Florida when I got the go-ahead. I called Oakley’s friend, Chuck, in Connecticut. I said, “I’m coming home, and we’re going to get this dog! Tell the wife, alert the neighbors, buy a comfy dog bed and put it by the fire. We’re going to get this dog. You need him as much as he needs you!”
On a starkly white, bitter cold day, we drove two hours to find Duke, sure enough, tethered collar to rafter, so that he couldn’t chew his way to freedom. I’ll skip the steps it took us to get from that heart-wrenching moment to firing up the getaway car. Suffice it to say that I could go to hell just for what I was thinking about that Idiot, who said, “Bye now. If it doesn’t work out, just bring him back.” *When pigs fly!!!!
It’s an understatement to say that it wasn’t the easiest drive back, nor the easiest transition. Duke was frantically and understandably nuts, having never been in a car, or a house!! I went home after a very long day, knowing that Chuck was questioning my “you need him…” argument! Then he called me, and everyone around, about ten that first night, “He’s gone!!” … “Oh, God, what had I wrought?” It had to be some very magic New England village voodoo that the local sheriff picked him up sometime after midnight and got him back home.
But home it became! With the patience of Job, Chuck got Duke a nice fence around a huge yard, a dog door, and good food to fill out his big self. Duke, in turn, settled into a mellower mien on that bed by the fire, and, in pretty short order, they became the most enduring partnership dog and man could imagine! I took to calling them both by the same name: Chuck’nDuke!
And then he got his portrait painted… Big Shot!!!
Duke, you…
"Done Good!"
Oil; 11 x 14"
Collection Charles Hedge
©2011 Karen Killian
"We're Good!"
Oakley, with her good buddy, Chuck, on the porch at Riverside, his wonderful antiques store next to the studio at The Brush Factory, Centerbrook, CT
Oil on linen; 9 x 11″
Collection Charles Hedge
©2008 Karen Killian
Godspeed, Zorba!