Beneath the Wraps

            Corey used to have a cat, which he named Starbuck.   Corey and Starbuck lived in the basement.   Starbuck would use the stairs on occasion.   I have fond memories of his racing up the stairs one December.               Each time the door was open, Starbuck would race up the stairs.   Each time he got faster.   His goal: to climb the Christmas tree.   One family member or another always caught him before he made it to the tree.   But on New Years Day there was no stopping him.   He actually stopped himself.             We had always taken the tree down on New Years Day.   I don’t know how long it had been down.   We were still cleaning up as I recall.   Starbuck was unstoppable.   He tore up those stairs and rounded the c...

Biff’s girlfriend (at the time) gave him a puppy for Christmas – ironically the last year they were together.   They didn’t even make it to the next Christmas. The puppy was cute with his little brown patches and Jenna liked holding him and playing with him while his patches were still intact. As Buddy got bigger (just in the matter of months really) the patches disappeared and Biff had a large white dog who wanted to play 24/7.   Biff couldn’t give him 24/7.   We all needed to sleep sometime – except Buddy. Barked if we tied him up.   Lot of complaints from the neighbors. Buddy was no longer cute.   He was a nuisance.   Jenna loved him when he was a puppy, but when he got bigger than her, he was just too much for her to handle. He went through the chewing stage and managed to get some of her toys while indoors.   She hid all of her outdoor toys in his dog house – which he refused to take shelter in.   And that was okay by Jen...

  Noel took Jenna for half the day two Saturdays before Christmas.   In the process Jenna fell in love with Noel’s dog, Hallie.   Later, when Noel was traveling out of town, she was looking for a sitter to take Hallie for four days.   I volunteered – more for Jenna than Noel.   Unlike our dog, Highness, who’s only preferred activities are sleeping and taking walks, Hallie is an active four year old lab who LOVES to play – possibly more than Jenna.   I don’t know why Noel has her on such a strict diet, but I can’t leave food out for Highness to eat at his convenience as Hallie is supposed to eat certain foods at certain times – and Highness is such a fussy eater that he usually chooses NOT to eat what’s been left in his dish. Last week I watched Lacy – who belongs to Frank and Marie.   Normally I’d have said “No” except for they’ve watched Jenna on several occasions – not overnight, but several hours each time. Unlike Hallie, Lacy i...

As a child, I was pretty much on the gullible side – or perhaps just wanted so much to believe in the unreal that I tried to make it real. I recall an Easter when my Aunt Alice purchased two white bunnies.   She gave the bunnies to the children of her two brothers.   Patrick and I called ours “Pinky” (though Patrick himself most likely didn’t have anything to do with the naming; it sounds like I came up with the name and forced him to go along) and Kevin and Michelle named their rabbit “Greenfeet” or so I believed. I was fascinated by both Dr. Seuss “Horton” stories – in the latter, the egg hatched at the end of the story and out came a bird that had Horton’s head.   How fascinating.   I wondered if it would work on rabbits as well.   It doesn’t. Never mind that Pinky was only three or four weeks, totally uncooperative and wouldn’t sit on the egg unless I was holding her on top of it (or him.   I don’t think I really knew if Pink...