7.09.2006

Hey Honey, Look What I Found in the Ocean!


On my morning walk with Murphy today, I met a fellow-dog owner with a very colorful story about how he and his wife happened upon their little dog, "Scup".

At first sight, Dave was clearly a sea-faring man, and I was not at all surprised when he informed me that, up until a year ago, he and his wife lived on a boat. He has a full head of white hair, worn hands, and tan, weathered skin. While Dave and I chatted, Scup growled at Murphy. He is a tiny, very proud little Chihuahua/Pomeranian mix who completely bullied Murphy around - it was quite amusing.

My encounter with Dave sent me on memory lane. He reminded me so much of Archie Ross, the late skipper of a boat that would take me to my favorite island off the coast of Freeport, Maine. It got me thinking about him (pictured above) and was a sad reminder of his death a couple of years ago - I absolutely adored him. He would always let my brother and I sit on the top of his diesel-powered boat while we putted our way to the island. Archie was always barefoot, and his feet were so leathered that, if possible, barnacles would have grown on them. He was the quintessential sea-man and he captured my imagination. I was very sad to learn of his death, but I know that he left an indelible mark on this world. Ooof...it looks like my sentimentality is getting the best of me. But, before I continue with my story, if you are up there in heaven reading this, cheers to you Archie.

So, back to Dave - as dog owners always do, we began chatting about our "children" - name, age etc. We started talking about how we each got our respective dogs, and of course, I told him that I picked up Murphy from North Carolina. Dave proceeded to tell me that Scup actually came to him - swam clear up to his boat from the ocean! Of course, Dave and his wife were puzzled, since at the time, there were no other boats within eye-sight. Little Scup was clearly an adult dog, but was untrained and would not respond to English, Spanish or French. It was a puzzle how this little dog simple appeared in the middle of the ocean!

After speaking to the Coast Guard about this mysterious fish-dog, he learned that way, way off yonder there were indeed a couple of boats out in the ocean of Indonesian origin. Apparently, little Scup was a food source that got away!

Pretty amazing story no?

1 Comments:

Blogger Kala said...

sadly - my childhood friend's family used raise chihuahuas for food - nasty stuff and kinda weird - I'm not sure what ever happened to him but I hope the family hasstopped the practice. That was a first and last - but yes, a great story - and hope you are well =)

4:50 AM

 

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