Dog(gie) Days...Crumpet

Time has a way of surprising you.  Suddenly we were the parents of an attorney, a college graduate and a college student. We were sort of free and I was ready to move back to New York!  I no longer needed a big backyard, a good school system and lots of children close by.  I was ready to move to BIG TOWN!  We sold our house quickly and found a gorgeous apartment overlooking Gracie Mansion and the East River,

                              with lovely Carl Shurz Park just steps away. 

 I had wonderful clients, made many friends, did charity work and in all, was simply loving my new life...but one thing was sorely missing.  A dog.  I so missed my sweet Beau.  A little research found me Cavalier Rescue.  After a long and delightful chat with the woman who ran it I was left with "...it could take a week or a year, Dear...we will contact you..."  So, I pursuaded my husband to take a ride to Connecticut to see a breeder there. 

 Oooooh, the puppies...so much preciousness in one place.  I was besotted with them!  I sat on the floor and let them climb on me...nip at my fingers...lick my face...I wanted them ALL!  There was one that particularly got to me, but my husband was just not ready, so we left without any commitment but a promise to return. Several days later I returned from work and received the message that the "Cavalier Lady" had called and wanted me to call her.  I assumed it was the breeder and called the number on the message at once, wondering why she was calling.  It was Rescue!  The woman said she rememberd me and was touched by my love for Beau.  She told me that a puppy mill in Arkansas had actually been shut down by the state because of the horrendous conditions there.  SPCA had been summoned and had taken over.  A Virginia couple, who owned cavaliers and had retired to Arkansas, saw it in the newspaper and drove 2 1/2 hours to be there.  When they arrived there the wife could not bear to enter the building, so vile was the situation...but the husband persevered...and returned to her with two exquisite three year old bitches and  three 7 week old puppies that had been born to one of them.  The puppies had been kept in cages so tiny that they were unable to stand or use their hind legs because the cages had so constricted them.  These dear people returned home and called rescue.  After seeing their vet and having all their rescues examined and treated, they decided to keep the three puppies and place the two bitches in good homes.  I had to make up my mind immediately as they were going to leave Arkansas in two days.  Of course we said yes... and chose to adopt the mother of the puppies.

We contacted the people who were taking our girl's sister and a plan was in place.  We chose the name Crumpet...(we wanted her to have a name as soon as she arrived, and this seemed British and very sweet...)The other adopting couple was going to pick the girls up at the airport in Washington, DC and drive them back to New York.  Crumpet arrived to us at 3:00 a.m., filthy from so many hours in her crate, shaking and exhausted.  We bathed her, toweled her dry and fed her and then I put her in bed between us and she snuggled next to me.

                                                                 

 My HEART...Crumpet had taken my heart.  If Beau had been my son's, then Crumpet was most assuredly mine!  She sat next to me, slept on a pillow above my head, walked through the park at my side. A popular visitor to the D&D Building, she accompanied me as I searched for fabrics, accessories and furniture, and charmed everyone she met.  She rarely barked, was ladylike and her disposition was incredibly sweet.  She was terrified of loud noise and a thunderstorm usually found her scurrying into a closet or behind the toilet where I would find her shaking and cowering...until I took her in my arms, put a blanket or towel over our heads and held her tightly until it passed.  My HEART.  Everyone loved her.  Even our grumpy, malaproping doorman, who called her Trumpet, always had a treat in his pocket for her.
In  later years, when we went to our vacation home in the Berkshires, Crumpet was content to sit on the screened porch and listen to the chirping of the birds.  She would sit in a ray of sunlight and gently snore as a light breeze lifted her silken coat.  She was getting older.

                                                                  

The area around her gorgeous, soulful eyes was turning white.  She was diagnosed with  heart disease.  Soon I noticed that thunder no longer scared her...she could not hear.  Each sign of decline broke my heart a little more.  She was still so loving and ran to us joyfully, albeit more slowly...and then she could no longer see.  She was old for a cavalier...seventeen and a half. Blind and deaf,but  she could still find the kitchen as soon as she smelled food!  This regal, beautiful girl, this elegant, soulful creature was tired.  She had loved and been loved...and then I lost her. I cried.., deep, racking sobs that tore from my very soul...my beautiful HEART girl was gone.  We buried her ashes in our garden in the Berkshires...in a plot that sat just in a ray of sunshine.  I left this poem I wrote in the pretty little box that held her ashes.

Fairwell Beloved Crumpet

So many years, beloved friend

Alas, those days are at an end

And never more your face I'll see

Or feel your warmth so close to me.

We shared so much, I loved you so

It broke my heart to let you go

But now at last you are at rest

Adored, sweet Crumpet...loved the best

And free at last of age and pain

With sight and sound restored again

Where every day has sunshine bright

And moonlight bathes each silver night

A better place...eternity

And in my heart you'll ever be.

My girl had a mighty appetite.  We fed her vegetables and special food, but her best treats were tastes of table food..her favorite being spicy spare ribs which she licked and licked with such delight...

Vinnie M's Spareribs
1 large rack of spare ribs cut and separated
1 cup Chinese duck sauce (like Saucy Susan)
2/3 bottle prepared BBQ sauce (like Open Pit)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup ketsup
3 cloves Garlic very finely minced or 1 tsp. garlic powder
Set oven to 325 degrees
1- combine and mix well all ingredients
2-set ribs on a rack over a pan and brush sauce on both sides
3- bake at 325 degrees for 2-3 hours...turning and basting with sauce every 1/2 hour
They will be a deep golden color when done

                                                                 
Serve with corn pudding, salad and an ice cold beer!