east west

a dog named costello

A few weeks ago, my dad left a message on our answering machine. "We found Kramer....and confirmed that....he....is dead --" and his voice broke.
My brother got a golden retriever puppy for his 10th birthday, and promptly named him Kramer. When we went to register him, we found that there were apparently seven other Kramer's in Bedford County, for his legal name was Cosmo Kramer VIII.
We don't really know what happened - only that he didn't come home one night. Or the next. By the third night, my parents were concerned, and dad walked the property line and drove the roads looking for him. He never found him, so there was that idea of hope - that maybe he just ran off and would eventually come slunking back, his tail between his legs.
But then we received that message from dad - he had been found at the base of an oak tree by the creek. I wish I had recorded that message - something so defining of a time, to hear that your childhood pet is DEAD. it's the passing of an era; it shoots everything into the past tense. we USED to have a dog, his name WAS kramer, my brother named him after in a character in a tv show that USED to run. it severely dates us, like someone who grew up with a dog named Costello.
three weeks later -
Peter and I are getting a puppy for christmas. A black lab, and his name is going to be Montana.

posted by jessica @ 10:54 AM