Sony

I got Sony (as in 'Sony Walk Man; or 'Sony Play Station') in DeKalb, Illinois on Jan. 14, 1991. She was exactly 8 weeks old to the day, having been born on November 14, 1990, a Scorpio girl through and through --- solid black except for a tiny white lightning ziz-zag on her chest. From a litter of 6 from a Golden Retriever ('Goldie') and the black Great Dane the next farm over ('Otis'), the pups were so big that Goldie had to have a C-section. By the time I saw the ad for 'Black Great Dane/Golden Retriever pups, $40.00', there were only 2 sisters left. They were both so cute I couldn't decide, so Sony chose me: she ran up to me and started tugging on the sleeve of my sweater with such determination, as if to say, 'Pick me! Pick me!" It was the best Forty bucks I ever spent.

Her proper name was 'Sonia', a name I had purposely picked out before I even saw the ad. "If I ever get me a dog, I'd get me a female and I'd call her Sonia, as in that movie 'Red Sonia', the Warrior Princess". Sonia also means 'wise'. She was both a warrior princess and wise. As a pup, she looked like a thoroughbreddy black lab but as she grew up, she blossomed into a 'miniature black Great Dane' --- a little taller than a Black Lab, with all the elegance, grace and sleek thoroughbred beauty of a Dane, without the drooling jowls or the gawkishness. She was, in esscence, the most beautiful, most elegant dog I have ever had the pleasure to have adored my eyes on.

After she chose me, I loaded her up, plopping her on the passenger seat of my beater black '86 Camaro to 'navigate'. We were just pulling onto the highway for the wintry drive home and she looks up at me with those big liquid brown eyes all wondrous and innocent and vomits all over the black velvet passenger seat of my car. I sighed. She marked her territory, I suppose, and rode in that car seat as my navigator til I junked it 2 years later...then she rode shotgun in my '89 Dodge Caravan all the way cross country. Twice. Fell in love with the neighbor's yellow Labrador, 'Malibu' --- a jovial and handsome fellow, and gave birth to a litter of 13 pups --- all healthy, all lived - eight black, five yellow; eight females, five males, divided up equally into 5 black girls, 3 yellow; and 3 yellow boys, 2 black -- on April 24, 1994. They were my 'Lucky 13'. All but the littlest puppy went to excellent homes and are well-loved. I kept the runt --- 'The Piglet', and the 3 of us road-tripped the country for a good two years, adventure after adventure, before coming back home to her birthplace in DeKalb. That dog saved my life twice, chased off burglars, protected me from some psycho trying to break into my car...with me in it; got attacked by a giant Yukon Malmute while protecting me and her daughter, and always knew when I was feeling sad --- boy, the 'play station' could make me laugh...always. Such a comfort that dog was to me. My Protector. My Warrior Princess. My Sone-Bone or 'Bone-head', the nickname I often affectionately called her. Eventually, I just shortened it to 'Bone'. I often hailed her, "Joi de Vie, Sony! Joi de Vie!"....for she was my Joy of Life. Leaping, jumping, playing; diving voraciously into water and retrieving, playing tag, fetch, gallopping along beside me on my bike or on horse back and even as a carriage dog when I was driving horse-drawn carriages in Lincoln Park in Chicago. She and her daughter Piglet rode in the carriage through the streets of Chicago until we got to Lincoln Park, then I'd tell 'em: "Go Play, Girls!" and they'd leap from the carriage and run beside it throught Lincoln Park like Victiorian coach dogs! That dog was so fast! I once clocked her at 35 mph on my bike spedometer while she was dashing along joyously and effortlessly beside me.

Back in early April of 2002 --- at age 11 --- she was galloping with her daughter Piglet in the woods by my house when she leaped over a four-foot high fallen log while chasing a rabbit...and pulled the stifle tendon in her right hind leg. All year long in our travels, she had been coughing and sometimes vomiting...I attributed it to old age and going from the MidWest to the Mountains to the Desert and back again. We ran X-rays on the leg and also her lungs and she was diagnosed with Lymphoma --- black cancerous tumours spread all throughout her lungs, her body, and given a guesstimate of anywhere from a week to 6 months, tops, to live.

Her and Piglet and Me all hung out for a week, going to all our favourite places, eating all her favourite foods, loving life and all that's in it. On April 11th, a Thursday morn, I called the Vet to come to the house and do the deed. She still had appetite, still had such joy of life and good spirits, I felt so guilty about ending her life 'before her time'.

I held her in my arms as he thrust the needle in her left forleg and in true Sony style she bit the vet in a rage, trying to protect me, no doubt, and then instantly collapsed against my chest, gone.

Her daughter Piglet screamed in terror and grief and then hid quivering in the far corner of the room, going grey in her face overnight at the shock of losing her beloved mother. We took my Sony up to Waupaca, Wisconsin, the Chain O'Lakes, where my mom keeps a summer cottage. Oh how that dog loved to look out from the top of that hill, overlooking serene Ottman lake, scoping out squirrells to chase! And that's where we buried her. Right there on her hill.

The stone is marked: "Beloved Sony 11/14/90 - 4/11/02", and the irony, that my birthday is 11/4.

I'll never get the pleasure of watching that black beauty gallop like the thoroughbred that she was, or playing like a goof-ball with her lovely diminutive daughter, or feeling her solid bony muscular body as she curls up against my back in bed (she slept beside me her whole life --- 11 years!) but she lives on in my heart and my memory forever. The best damn forty bucks I ever spent.

It's just me and The Piglet now. But as time goes by, she acts more and more like her mother. Docile sweet Piglet, the little runt submissive...actually chased off a stranger who was 'cutting through the yard' last night! I smirk at her as she flaunts herself all big and tough, just like her mother used to do. Like Mother, like Daughter. She is the Legacy to my Dog-Star Sony. 'Get 'em Bone!' I grin at her. She just looks at me and smiles, just like her mother used to do.

Jules St.John,
DeKalb, IL. U.S.A.
all dog bereavers, feel free to write: DeKalbPoet@hotmail.com"