IT started with a plaintive cry in the classifieds and ended almost Disney-like, with Spinner, the lazy-eyed, hearing-impaired poodle being adopted by a gentle Kahala couple. This puppy's tale
finds a happy endingThe ad, looking for a home for a handicapped dog, was placed by Joyce Hunter. It caught my eye, because when I see an ad for a disabled dog, I immediately envision a dog with no legs named Throwrug or some such animal. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed to find out the dog's only disability was a hearing problem and a lazy eye. Nevertheless, I told Joyce I would do what I could to help her find a home for the little defective mutt.
So I did a column on Spinner and Joyce was besieged by calls from people looking to pick up a poodle for free -- people, who, for the most part, have absolutely no business owning a pet.
Joyce wrote me a note, explaining how the selection process went:
"There was a guy who woke me up at the crack of dawn to ask, 'You got a dog?' He drew a gong not only for that but because he said he didn't own a phone and was calling from a phone booth," she said. Nice call on that one, Joyce.
"Then there was the lady whose Shih Tzu died from heart worms. Nope. If her dog got heart worms, she probably wasn't keeping it on heartworm prevention." I would have gonged her for just for owning a Shih Tzu. I've always hated Shih Tzus. I don't know why. It's like, how do you call a Shih Tzu? Come here you, little Shih Tzu! What if someone calls your dog "a big Shih Tzu." Are those fighting words?
Joyce continued: "There was a soldier who hoped to take Spinner on a round-the-world military tour. Uh, no." As a military brat, I'm a little bothered by this one. I mean we had pets and we traveled around the world. Oh, yeah, they all died. Never mind. Good call, Joyce.
"A woman called saying that she had a great home because she had three large pit bulls for Spinner to play with. Exactly how many mouthfuls of play would Spinner make? Double gong," she wrote. Answer: about three mouthfuls. If they share.
AND finally, Joyce writes: "A homeless woman called from a shelter hoping for a little canine love. Couldn't do it." Hey, the dog's got enough problems without being homeless, too.
Joyce called to tell me she was excited because she heard from Ed Berlin of Kahala who has a big yard and a little schnauzer. I thought it rude of her to make fun of the guy's physical appearance until she told me that a schnauzer is a type of dog.
So she gussied up Spinner with a red bow (it's a poodle, bows are mandatory) and went out to meet the Berlins and Sigmund, the aforementioned schnauzer. The dogs hit it off at once. Actually, according to Ed, Spinner also hit various objects in the yard first. The bad eye, you know. But pretty soon the dogs were buddies and Spinner had a new home.
"We had one poodle who was blind and couldn't hear so we were quite used to that. She brought the little tyke over and she's doing fine," Ed said.
Ed said his wife Lucille is busy going through French dictionaries trying to come up with another name for Spinner. (Why poodles have to have a foo-foo French name, I don't know.
In the meantime, Joyce's faith in the goodness of human beings has been reaffirmed from the outpouring of concern for Spinner. For the record, the Berlins called Joyce after seeing the classified ad in the paper, so my column had absolutely nothing to do with Spinner finding a home other than chasing a bunch of people who should not own dogs out of the bushes. Nevertheless, if Disney calls, I better get a cut of the action.
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to charley@nomayo.com or
71224.113@compuserve.com.
The Honolulu Lite online archive is at:
http://starbulletin.com/lite