Odysseus and Penelope

There was grumbling a plenty in my household this morning.

"What about me?" Penelope growled, as she leaped onto me and began licking my nose.

"And me,too. C'mon, Dad." Odysseus's eyes are two sweet dew drops.

These dogs greeted me as they do each morning, with a frenzy that belies the fact that I put them to bed only the night before, with kisses and pats on the head. Every morning is Christmas morning in our household. And I am the prize gift to the two border collies we call Ody and Penny.

"You didn't tell everyone you were thankful for me," Penny said. "You know, I read your blog last night."

"You can't read, Penelope," I said.

"I'm a border collie. I can do anything," she was defiant in a sweet sort of way. Test me, she seemed to say. She's already informed me that she intends to go to Yale, and then to medical school, following in the footsteps of our youngest human child.

"Yeah, Dad." Ody said. "You hurt both of our feelings."

Well, I cannot explain the oversight. The fact is that Ody and Penny, five-year-old litter mates, have won both my wife's and my hearts completely. They've been with us since just after their birth. They've trained us. The first year, we were stunned: All that energy. And then we started to fall into their rhythm. There are paths worn in some of our fields were the dogs run just so. We have "patting time" each morning. At dinner, Penny sits by my side waiting for me to put down my fork and push my chair back, a signal that its time for her to leap onto my lap, flip on to her back, and place her head beneath my chin for a tummy rub. And Ody know just how to dally in the moments before they go to bed to get an extra dose of loving from me. The dogs are perfect companions, and I cannot imagine life without them. We even go to a special dog camp with them each summer to learn more about dogs, Glen Highland Farms.

So let me add to the list of things for which I am thankful my dogs.

Are you happy now Penny?

I see she is not. She's got a ball in her mouth, and Ody keeps looking toward the door. I think they are trying to tell me something. As always with these two, it is good for the soul for me to make the effort to listen ...

Comments: (2)

Oldest first
  • Norm, you give us your dog stories on New Year's D...
    Norm, you give us your dog stories on New Year's Day. Since I am a lifelong dog-lover and owner, I give you mine. FYI, mine is not only a dog story, it also involves the CT state judiciary and the false accusations against me by the State in what were clearly two dog 'accidents', 2000-'02.
    If somebody has an 'automobile accident', we do not normally--if ever--bring them to the criminal court, throw the book at them and charge them with multiple criminal offenses and multiple years of incarceration and state supervision. We do not ruin their businesses, their lives, and seize their possessions. We do not place them under $10,000 bail. We do not force them into foreclosure, eviction, poverty and homelessness.
    And yet, this is what happened to me in CT, without one warrant, and any without probable cause. No crime was committed by me in CT. Crimes were committed against me by New Haven and CT State officials named in my federal civil rights complaint, 2005. I beat 11 criminal charges at GA 23 in November, 2002 and 67 years prison by dismissal and jury verdict. Nine charges were 'felony'. At Sentencing, on Nov. 25, the Dishonorable Bernadette 'My-Way-or-the-Highway' Conway sentenced me, at age 58, to two years incarceration over two dog accidents where two misdemeanor convictions were 'engineered' through sleight-of-hand by the Court itself, in co-conspiracy with the State and an incompetent State-supported defense table. The latter also known as 'public' defenders.
    Here's the kicker: Even though we indicated to the Court very clearly on Nov. 25, 2002 that we intended to 'appeal' the two misdemeanor convictions, the Court ordered my dog Zeus (who never attacked or hurt anyone in the six years of his life) to be turned over to the City of New Haven. My dog Zeus was executed by the City the very next day, without notifying me.
    My question is this: What if I had won the appeals? How would the City and State return my dog to me? Will someone please explain this to me! This is truly Orwellian. The City and State both knew there was not 'a dog's chance in hell' that I would win the walk-thru, rubber-stamp appellate procedure. The criminal 'justice' system in CT is a fraud. It is obviously rigged against the defendant who is unable to hire a private attorney such as yourself, and is forced to utilize the services of 'overworked and underpaid' public defenders who go to trial umprepared and who draw their paychecks from the very same state which is prosecuting him.
    Joan Leonard, the Public Defender Supervisor at GA 23, had the nerve to refer to the prosecutor's office in a conversation with me as 'our worthy opponent'. You've got to be kidding me! This is not justice; this is a police state of the highest order. This is the U.S.S.R. at its worst. I have posted repeatedly that Saddam Hussein got more justice in Baghdad than I got in New Haven.
    The Dishonorable Bernadette Conway had the nerve to address the jury thusly: "It is because of people like you that we have the best criminal justice system in the world!" This from a lady judge who had just given me a 'kangaroo court-trial', who shut down my testimonies on my own behalf two days in a row. She refused to allow me to testify in my own words, on my own behalf, before a 'jury of my peers.' A clear violation of the 'Fifth Amendment'. It's in the transcripts, trust it.
    This lady is no judge. She is a thug and an impostor, and needs to be impeached. Does anyone really believe for one minute that I am the only one dealt a bad hand by the corrupt State of CT Judiciary? There are literally thousands of us out there. But this is a new year, same as the old year (most likely).
    Posted on January 1, 2010 at 7:29 am by William Doriss
  • Not up on all the facts here, but I'll say this ma...
    Not up on all the facts here, but I'll say this man was shafted by these human vermin... especially the "misdeamor charges"....I believe they were engineered and enhanced...this case needs reopening and should be thoroughly reviewed
    Posted on January 1, 2010 at 11:06 am by john iorio

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