Talk Story
Coming soon
to a theater near you,
a doggone good taleIF WALT DISNEY were alive today, he'd be on cornering the screen rights to the Forgea saga like butter on popcorn.
The story of the 2-year-old mixed-breed terrier, stranded alone for 19 days aboard an abandoned oil tanker adrift in the Pacific, swept the national media last weekend like a tsunami.
The San Francisco Chronicle appreciates a good story and told most of this one in the headline "After 19 days, terrier lost at sea rescued on tanker in middle of Pacific."
In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Blake's arrest for murder kept Forgea off the front page. She was relegated to the inside pages, albeit with the great headline "Ship Dog Is Rescued After 19 Ruff Days."
The Boston Globe's page A2 headline read: "Hawaii Coast Guard finds dog on abandoned tanker." Gee, I didn't know Hawaii had a Coast Guard.
Forgea made page A5 of the Washington Post -- just above a story about a father, high on PCP, who bit off his 2-year-old son's thumb. Now, there's some good reading for you.
A WEEK AGO we were fielding letters to the editor ranting about how the Hawaiian Humane Society's $50,000 rescue effort was a huge waste of time and money. Now that Forgea's safe, complainers can get back to June Jones' salary and saving the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund.
But seriously, wouldn't "Forgea, the Sea Dog" make a great motion picture? It would be sort of a cross between "Old Yeller" and "Home Alone."
You remember "Old Yeller." As reviewer Steve Rhodes describes Disney's 1957 action film: "Most of the show is little more that a charming series of animal incidents. We have bucking horses, raiding raccoons, hiding snakes, brawling bears, attacking hogs and charging mother cows. Old Yeller manages to be a hero in most of these episodes causing the mother to exclaim, 'If that don't beat all. I never saw such a dog.'"
"Sea Dog" could include action scenes of Forgea's heroism during the fatal fire that disabled the ship. Then, our feisty heroine's high jinks entertain the crew while they drift for 20 days waiting for rescue.
IN THE NEXT scene, little Forgea is left behind on the fire-disabled Insiko 1907 while the crew is ferried to the cruise ship Norwegian Star. The brave mutt tries to revive the dead crewman also left behind, finds clever ways to collect rainwater, breaks into the galley storage bins for food and gamely fights off the rats threatening to take over the ship.
You never saw such a dog.
The camera cuts away to the Humane Society offices where the debate rages: To rescue or not to rescue. "Damn it, man. If we don't do it, who will?," says a resolute "humane-itarian."
Then, it's back to the ship for more adventures. Forgea kills a rat. Hmmm, it tastes just like chicken.
A tugboat leaves Honolulu to find the Insiko and rescue the pup. We cut back and forth between our doughty canine fighting for survival and the frustrated searchers who eventually give up hope. Some "Perfect Storm" outtakes would keep folks on the edge of their seats.
Then, of course, there's the Coast Guard fly-over and pizza drop, followed by the arrival of a fishing boat and Forgea's greeting her rescuers, tail wagging.
Like "Old Yeller," "Sea Dog" has a tragic ending. This time, the heroine doesn't die. Instead, she ends up in a cage at the State Animal Quarantine Station.
As Fess Parker says in "Old Yeller," "Now and then, for no good reason, life will haul off and knock a man flat."
Same goes for a dog.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.