Mr. Fritz and Baskets I & II, Too

August 31st, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

For those of you who have been following the adventures of the birth and arrival of my English Springer Spaniel Fritz since last November, I  thought a short post would be appropriate as he passes the nine month old mark.

After his bath this past weekend, he surprised me with a most regal pose on one of our new sofas with its rose cushion, so how could I not feature him this week?!

By chance I also received an e mail and photo from a friend who had spent her vacation in a home on Lake Tahoe.  On the wall of one of the rooms was a framed California license plate with “Mr Fritz” on it.  She thought of me and thought of Fritz.

And then there was another dog who often posed regally both for photographs and portraits and thoroughly enjoyed the attention:

“Basket was a white poodle.  When I first came to Paris everybody every concierge had a poodle as they later had a fox terrier, then Alsatian police dogs came and then wire haired terriers and then we had a white poodle and we named him Basket.  The French children and the French men and women would all stop and look at him, they said each one as if it was a new idea one would think he was a lamb.

One day, Basket had just had just been washed, a little boy came along and said, one would call it a marriage he is so white…”

from EVERYBODY’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Gertrude Stein

Mr. Fritz and Baskets I & II holding court in special places in everybody’s autobiography.

Two Baskets, Byron, Pépé, and Ollie

November 4th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

When I began writing this blog, I had no idea how personal some of what I’d write might be. This is an issue that  bloggers face.  I assumed that I would write relatively spontaneously about various things that came to mind about GertrudeandAlice and my relationship with them over a period of almost 25 years- personal insights, but not really personal.

About a week ago, however, we had to put our nine year old English Springer Spaniel Ollie to sleep after a very sudden and unexpected illness. So this post will be quite personal.

Dogs are family and the sadness and loss felt when they are gone and the tears shed for them are family tears.

The French poodles, Basket I and II and the two chihuahuas, Byron and Pépé were an integral part of GertrudeandAlice’s family.  The Springer Spaniel, Oliver, Ollie for short, was an integral part of ours.

Ollie, summer 2009

Ollie, summer 2009

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