My Best Friend is Grey- Book Three
WTC Tragedy-GAIL & FOG ARE ALRIGHT
Gail & Fog’s fashion Encounter
Fog welcomes a Westminster dog in his own special way
Crispy Crème- Fog makes a new friend
Subject: WTC Tragedy-GAIL & FOG ARE ALRIGHT
9/11/2001
Dear Friends,
We are safe here in New York, and grateful for all our Weim friends who are
looking out for us. We work at home and are several miles away from the
WTC- it takes about 1/2 hour to get there by subway. We don't have any of
the white dust up my way, but you can smell a trace of an acrid smell in the
air.
We are shocked and devastated as I'm sure all of you are. The response
from the emergency services people, firefighters and police has been remarkable.
They are so brave and hardworking. There seem to be very few police
around-Midtown North station is on the next block, and it seems deserted.
Streets around the police precinct and around all the hospitals are blocked off
either with garbage trucks or with human chains of volunteers- the hospitals
have been overwhelmed with people responding to requests to donate blood- we
were turned away by 2 hospitals before we went home. We were asked to come
back later tonight. THE NEED FOR BLOOD DONATIONS IS
URGENT- SO IF ANYONE CAN DONATE, PLEASE DO!!! TYPE O, THE UNIVERSAL DONOR,
IS ESPECIALLY REQUESTED.
The atmosphere here is very serious- many are waiting to hear about friends and
family. The death toll will surely be in the thousands. I've gotten
phone calls today from as far away as Australia from friends checking to see if
we are okay. Not all of the subway lines are in operation, so I'm
expecting that many friends will not be able to get home tonight. I have
one friend that has a whole sewing factory of ladies that may be spending the
night with us, so I have been preparing for them- doing a little cleaning and
laying out linens for them. Kim is right, I work at home, so I have been
informing my clients by phone as to what is going on. People have been
released from their jobs early- but they can't get home so they are walking the
streets going from hospital to hospital to donate blood
9/13/2001
9/14/2001
Dear Friends,
Last night Fog stated behaving strangely. He is usually a very lively,
happy-go- lucky carefree kind of Weim. The goofy type, as you all know.
Last night he wouldn't come to bed. Sometimes he is stubborn about this,
so I just went without him and left him in the living room. He woke me up
at about 2 am, he had brought his new Kong to bed and was furiously chewing on
it. I talked to him awhile, and petted him, trying to reassure him, but he
continued to chew and chew. I finally fell asleep. When I woke up
this morning, i found that he had tipped over the garbage in my tiny office
area- there is no food in it. He pulled all the papers out of it. He
has never done this before. If was cold and raining this morning, so we
didn't go to the Park, we put on our rain gear and went for a morning walk.
He peed but didn't poop. Fog is normally famous for being a real poop
factory. He ate his breakfast as usual, and has continued to chew on his
ball.
I have been keeping him on his normal schedule of walks, playing and feeding,
and I have been trying to act "normally" myself. This morning I
ran into a friend from the Park and she said that all the dogs in the Park were
fighting with each other this morning- these are dogs that see each other and
play together every day. She said they were all very disturbed.
We did have an abrupt change of weather overnight, weather had been beautiful,
and suddenly it turned cold and raining (terrible for rescue effort and worse
for anyone struggling to survive). But I can't help but think that this
behavior is a response to the WTC tragedy. Anyone have any thoughts on how
I should comfort Fog? I have given him Rescue Remedy in the past when he
was going to fly, but it had no effect on him.
Thank you as always for all your help and support.
XO Gail & Fog
Subject: Gail & Fog’s fashion Encounter
11/1/2001
Dear Friends,
The morning of Daylight Savings Time was a cold one here. Fog and I got up
at 6 to go to the Park, and put on our matching sweatshirts. They are navy
blue, with thin white horizontal stripes. Ralph Lauren made mine. I made
Fog's. They both have long sleeves. Mine has a crew neck, and Fog's
has a turtleneck with an exposed nylon zipper up the back-very sporty
We were walking down the street together in our stripes, Fog's stripes are a
little narrower than mine, but we are defiantly a matched set, thinking that we
looked rather chic, in linear sort of way. Two men approached us, and we
strutted past them, thinking about how smart we looked, and enjoying the
thought..
We heard one man say to the other,
"That was pretty strange."
Our fashion feelings were a bit wounded, but we know that sometimes the chic are
mocked.
XO Gail & Fog
you DON'T mean they were talking about US?
11/2/2001
Dear Friends,
Last week the computer store two blocks away from us had a special promotional
party (For the new Windows system, I think?) This is the store that ahs
the cow print as a logo. As part of the promotion, they had search lights,
built a corral of split rail fencing outside the store on the sidewalk, had
huge bales of hay and loose hay strewn around inside the corral. I took
Fog out for a walk that night, and we went over to see what was happening.
Well, they had the BIGGEST live spotted cow you've ever seen! Fog thought
that it was just great!!! He was very good to the cow, he didn't bark at
her, but he was sooo curious, he would have been so happy to get close enough to
put his nose on her. He had to settle for standing on his hind legs with
his front feet on the fencing, craning his neck as hard a he could to sniff up
all those new exciting smells. Of course everyone there wanted to pet him
and ask about him, too, so he got a lot of attention from the crowd.
Fog's foster mom had horses and would go horseback riding with her dh and their
dogs, and of course while Fog was with their family he got to go along too, But
I don't know if they had cows too. I will have to email her and find out.
If so, seeing the cow probably brought back some happy memories of his foster
family.
XO Gail & Fog Moooooooooo!!!!!
Subject: Fog welcomes a Westminster dog in his own special way
2/10/02
Dear Friends,
This morning we were in Central Park playing with Fog's friends. It was a
very mild weather and there were about 15 dogs running around playing together
on the lawn behind Wollman Ice skating rink, It’s a nice group of people
and all the dogs are well socialized. Anyone who misbehaves or gets too
rowdy gets collared immediately and put into a time out. (I have never
been in time out.)
In the distance I saw a woman approaching. She had a large dog, I don't
know the breed, but he looked like a Collie, except black and white. This
dog had the shiniest coat you have ever seen. The black fur was inky black
and his white chest was brilliant white. He had very long hair, and not a
one was out of place. This dog was better groomed on a Sunday morning at 8
AM than I have EVER been in my life. From a mile away you could tell that
this dog was visiting for Westminster. The owner was a woman wearing an
impeccable black wool coat that had never seen a speck of lint. She was
practically carrying the dog's leash with her pinky finger raised. Well
the woman must have been daydreaming, or not very experienced with a group of
dogs playing, or who knows what, but instead of continuing along the paved
walkway, she paraded herself and her immaculate dog onto the muddy grass field
where
all the canine delinquents were at play.
Anyone who knows Fog already knows what happened next.
ALL the dogs came running over to meet the elegant newcomer, but Fog is the
fastest and he was the closest, so he got there first. Fog was smartly
attired in his handknit oatmeal cotton sweater, which was covered in mud and
many crunchy dead brown leaves. Many many crunchy dead leaves.
Fog decided that the most enthusiastic way to greet Show Dog was to HUMP
HIM!!!!!!!!!!!
Well you can imagine the bedlam that ensued. Show Dog's owner started
screaming instantly. She was HORRIFIED!! I grabbed Fog after the
second ........ummm, what would you call it?
No harm was done of course, but Show Dog's owner continued hollering that our
dogs were supposed to be on their leashes, etc and before you knew it there were
barking dogs, jumping puppies, and shouting owners waving their arms
everywhere. What a ruckus!!! Fog
and I thought the whole business was a tempest in a teapot.
But a funny teapot.
XO Gail & Fog
Disclaimer: The description of Show Dog and his snobby
owner are in no way intended to generalize about or demean those who are or show
dogs at Westminster or any other venue. Some of our best friends are show
dogs.
Subject: Oh no not the White Skirt
May 26, 2002
Dear Friends,
I took Fog to the Lake for a little fun in the water this weekend. There
were at least a dozen doggies running and playing in and out of the water along
the muddy shoreline. There was a lot of slipping and sliding, and being
that Fog moves pretty fast, but is a big guy, he sometimes slides out of control
and ends up covered in mud. Everyone was having a wonderful time getting
wet and dirty. People out for a walk would stop to watch the fun and
then more on after a bit. Well, just as things were getting really wild, a
lovely Japanese tourist couple came along, and stopped to watch the antics.
They dress more formally than we do, and this couple was dressed typically of
the Japanese visitors we have met. The man was wearing a very nice shirt
with a collar, and dress trousers and hard shoes. The young woman
was wearing a white feminine blouse with a little lace trim, a white skirt with
a
layer of white chiffon over it, white stockings and ivory high heeled shoes.
Robin took one look at them and shouted, "OH NO, The White Skirt! The White
Skirt!" She was trying to warn them! Well, they didn't speak
English, so they just smiled and bowed a little, and it was too late anyway,
because in seconds they were surrounding by wiggling wet muddy pooches chasing
each other in a frenzy, with Fog in the lead of course, ears, legs and tail
flying.
The couple stood in the middle of the Mud Tornado, smiling, enjoying the
fun, oblivious to the danger that the White Skirt was in. By some miracle,
they both remained impeccable despite the splashing and jumping and shaking, and
then they moved on, waving goodbye.
Just how do they do that?
XO Gail & Fog
Subject:
Crispy Crème- Fog makes a new friend
6/19/02
Dear
Friends,
The other day I took Fog to the grocery with me- The front of the grocery
is all glass windows and I can tie him outside the door and see him from inside
and he can see me- the employees know him and watch him, too.
As I was exiting the store, I came
upon Fog, who was sitting happily in front of a very very overweight young man.
Fog was licking his lips and smiling ear to ear. The young man was as wide
as he was tall. I said to him, "Did you feed my dog?" and
he answered, very sheepishly, "Well I only gave him ONE doughnut!"
XO Gail & Fog
Subject: Fog the Runaway Freight Train
7/9/2002
Dear
Friends,
Day before yesterday Fog was playing with some of his friends on the grassy
field behind Wollman Skating Rink. He was doing his best to get someone to
chase him. Leopold the 10 mo old Blue Weim was there, and Elliot the
Boxer/PitBull mix. Elliot decided he was in the mood for a good run, and
he started to chase Fog. Elliot is a beautiful dog, he is black and white
and has that boxer body shape, and he looks like he is wearing a tuxedo because
he has
a black body and white chest and tummy.
Well pretty soon they were dashing all around the lawn, in big circles, and
Elliot was very very fast. . O f course Fog has to look over his
shoulder to make sure that Elliot is still chasing him. He never wants the
other dog to lose interest, and if the other dog is falling too far behind Fog
will slow down so that he can catch up. Elliot had no trouble keeping up
with Fog; in fact, they were running neck and neck, full speed ahead.
They came barreling down hill, charging ahead directly towards Leopold's Daddy,
Christophe!!
Well there was no time for Christophe to save himself, it was going to be a head
on collision, and the rest of us were sure that Christophe was going to get
knocked straight into next week. Then the most amazing thing
happened........
As Fog and Elliot came thundering down on Christophe like a runaway freight
train, Christophe jumped STRAIGHT UP INTO THE AIR. and the 2 dogs ran UNDERNEATH
HIS FEET while he was airborne. The dogs clipped Christophe’s ankles as
he was descending, which threw him forward. He landed on his hands and
toes in the "push-up” position, poised like a professional
acrobat!!!! It was astounding!!!! He got right up and brushed the
soil off his hands, laughing. NO one could believe it, I told him that
looked like a soccer move. Christophe is a young man, lean and athletic
build, but it was his quick thinking that saved him! If there were an
Olympic event for Weim Jumping, he would have gotten the Gold Medal!
XO Gail & Fog