Archie

I loved Archie dearly, but he was always Kathleen’s dog first. Our relationship with him started as an internet romance. Kathleen had spotted an online picture of his face as a 6-month old pup, and it was love at first sight. Archie’s naturally sweet and people-oriented disposition was enhanced by his early education. He was in training to be a therapy dog, which he would have excelled at, when his human partner had to drop out, so he had to drop out too.

Archie grew up alongside our grandsons, and identified with them and with humans in general. When he first came to us, Archie was completely silent no matter how excited he was. It was only after playing with our young grandsons and witnessing them get into a shouting match that he gleefully joined in with a full-throated bark that he continued to apply, when the situation warranted it, the rest of his life.

Archie’s friendliness and sensitivity made him a natural ambassador for his kind. By the second year after he came to live with us here, it seemed like every other house on the street had gotten at least one family labradoodle. None were as good at the original though!

As Archie matured, he developed a more sophisticated bond with us. He could be impatient, sardonic, or skeptical, but he was always joyful. He had an appetite for good company, good food (when he could sneak a bit) and a good cup of coffee, of late sleep-ins and walks in the snow that matched, and helped shape, our own.

From almost the very beginning, Archie was plagued with medical problems, and multiple doctors assured us that he would not live past four years old. But through­out his life, Archie never knew or cared about the sono­grams of his heart, or the regular liver function tests, or the barrage of pills we snuck into his food. And as he grew old with us, he didn’t even know that he was the dog-equivalent of 100 years old! He was still walking and sniffing in the park, and running after tossed tennis balls, on the day he died.

I wrote a silly blog post a couple of months ago, in which I attempted to play “The Glad Game”, and point out all the good things that the global coronavirus epidemic has brought. I couldn’t find any, of course—that was the whole point of the post.

But now I have one good thing the covid brought, and it’s a true gem. The epidemic and the resulting quarantine that we have undergone put Kathleen, Archie and I together every day, nearly 24 hours a day, in a way that even our recent retirements didn’t manage. Being denied the ability to travel far or to be physically close to anyone, even our kids and grandkids, without elaborate preparations, the three of us became almost inseparable.

Our chores, our playtimes, our sleep piles, all of the rituals that kept our lives moving, bound us together into a self-sufficient pack of three that kept us all stronger, happier, and more loving. I read somewhere how dogs everywhere have loved the quarantine, and I’m not ashamed to say that I loved it too, for the seven months (or four whole dog-years!) that it gave us to be close, really close, to Archie.

In addition to all his other sterling qualities, Archie was also a good looker, and sat as a model for several of Lona’s paintings over the years.

Thank you for coming into our lives, old friend.

Thanks for listening, it felt good to tell you that,
Dorn
9/27/2020

I’ve mentioned Archie from time to time in my posts. If you knew Archie or are feeling especially sentimental, maybe you’d enjoy revisiting those posts.